Resource: Performance Magazine

In researching performance art platforms, I came across the Performance Magazine archive via the Live Art Development Agency (LADA) website.​ It's a fantastic resource for anyone interested in the history of performance in the UK from 1979 to 1992 - and it's easily accessible. LADA teamed up with Rob La Frenais (founding editor 1979-1987) to digitise and upload a free, online archive of all 66 issues. I've picked my two favourite covers - Laurie Anderson and John Cage/ Merce Cunningham.

The archive was launched in 2017 with two events - one as part of Hull's Re-ROOTed Festival on 25 March, and a second at the British Library on 27 April. A film by Hugo Glendinning and Alex Eisenberg maps the magazine’s history and legacy, while commissioned essays respond to the archive and the period when the magazine was published.

"With its maverick and punk ethos Performance Magazine embodied an immensely active community of artists, writers and publics that crossed disciplines throughout the late 70s, 80s and the start of the 90s. The magazine provided a vital platform for the awareness of new approaches to the making and experience of art by creating a critical context and space for discourse. Moving beyond Performance Art and conventional categorisations, Performance Magazine was instrumental in promoting cross-disciplinary and underground art and played an important role in triggering the development of Live Art as a terminology and field of creative practice."

www.performancemagazine.co.uk