Video and Performance: Vito Acconci is a touring exhibition featuring seminal works by the late American artist Vito Acconci (b. 1940, Bronx – d. 2017, New York), whose influential career spanned performance, video, installation, sculpture, architectural and landscape design.
Acconci emerged as a leading figure in the 1960s and 1970s, during a time of significant political and cultural upheaval. Like many artists of his generation, he sought alternatives to the commercial art world by using his own body, actions, and ideas as a form of artistic currency. By the late 1960s, he had transitioned from poetry to performance and video, using these mediums to explore themes of identity, surveillance, intimacy, and power. Acconci’s practice was characterized by an often confrontational approach, marked by subversive social commentary and intense psychological introspection.
A pioneer in the use of video, Acconci’s works from the 1970s presented raw, conceptual investigations into the dynamics between performer and viewer. His performances often took the form of monologues addressed directly to the camera, blurring the lines between public and private, self and other. His works explored the psychological dimensions of space and language, using his own body as both subject and material. Photography was also a significant medium for Acconci during this period, serving as a tool to document performative “actions”—several of which are included in this exhibition.
In the mid-1970s, Acconci began to shift away from gallery-based work, eventually reinventing himself as a designer and architect. From the late 1970s until his death in 2017, he focused on sculptural and architectural interventions in public space, maintaining a deep interest in how bodies interact with built environments. Despite this shift, the conceptual and performative underpinnings of his earlier work continued to inform his later practice.
His distinctive use of language—drawn from his background in poetry—permeates his entire oeuvre. Whether through graphic transcriptions, spoken-word monologues, or syntactical experimentation, Acconci’s work often embodied the physicality of language and the breakdown of communication. His installations and videos were psychodramatic, personal, and intellectually rigorous, engaging with the viewer in a dynamic, often disquieting way.
Acconci’s impact on contemporary art and architecture has been widely recognized. He held solo exhibitions at major institutions including the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1978), and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1980), with further retrospectives of his prints and works on paper. He received numerous accolades during his career, including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the American Academy in Rome. In 1997, he was awarded the International Sculpture Center’s Lifetime Achievement Award and was a finalist for the Hugo Boss Prize in 2000. The programme continues Acconci’s legacy by bringing his foundational work in video and performance to new audiences, affirming his lasting influence on contemporary art and media culture.
Video and Performance: Vito Acconci was curated and produced by Film and Video Umbrella, one of the UK’s leading agencies for artists’ moving image, with funding support from Arts Council England.
