Yvonne Rainer, "No Manifesto"

[e_flux]

In conjunction with the current show at e-flux’s gallery in New York—So You Want to See, curated by What, How & for Whom and featuring six women artists—we’re posting twentieth-century feminist art manifestos to conversations over the coming weeks. Today is Yvonne Rainer’s “No Manifesto” from 1965, which envisions a form of dance parred down to its essential, visceral elements.

No to spectacle.
No to virtuosity.
No to transformations and magic and make-believe.
No to the glamour and transcendency of the star image.
No to the heroic.
No to the anti-heroic.
No to trash imagery.
No to involvement
of performer or spectator.
No to style.
No to camp.
No to seduction of spectator by the wiles of the performer.
No to eccentricity.
No to moving or being moved.

Via.

Above image: Yvonne Rainer

[PlutoCross]

I wonder if there is a Yes manifesto. Maybe that would weaken the manifesto somewhat. Just keep the no’s. I created something similar about my paintings, no skill, no unnecessary illusions of depth, etc. And a guy said, but you cannot have rules in art, and I was lost for an answer.