
Artist:
Bjørn Nørgaard
Preserving Jar from the Horse Sacrifice (1970)
Slaying of a horse
Performance art develops as specific actions acquire metaphoric meaning. One example is the slaying of a horse by Bjørn Nørgaard and Lene Adler Petersen on a snow-covered field with a mystical-religious and topical reference to the Vietnam War (
Hesteofring [Horse Sacrifice], 1970). The horse was later placed in 199 glass jars to be displayed at an art museum.
The Santa Claus Army (1974), performed by Solvognen [The Sun Chariot], was action theatre in which an army of 70 Santa Clauses committed a series of good deeds, including giving away books from a department store in Copenhagen. They were arrested by the police for their action. Solvognen was awarded a prize by the Danish Arts Foundation but also found guilty of disturbing the peace. Performance art goes back to the culture of the 1960s and 1970s: Fluxus, the Situationists, and the political theatre movement, as well as the Experimental Art School (the Ex-School). Since 1978, it has been K.I.T. (Copenhagen International Festival) that has primarily brought international performance art and techniques from the US, Japan and France (among others) in the form of festivals – with the Festival of Fools acting as the catalyst in the beginning of the 1980s. da
http://www.danishperformingarts.info...?id=1429#horse