Since performance art began, scandal has been part of the script. In 1916, Cabaret Voltaire — the birthplace of the dada movement — hosted a series of outlandish performances organised by German poets Hugo Ball and Emmy Hennings. A reaction to the horrors of the first world war, these deliberately absurdist acts — which included recitals of “nonsense” poetry or music made with typewriters — whipped audiences into a frenzy. On more than one occasion, they reportedly stormed the stage.
The golden age of performance art’s shock value, though, was surely the 1970s — when artists seemed intent on outdoing one another in ever more transgressive works, from Hermann Nitsch’s blood- and-animal-carcass-filled rituals to Marina Abramović inviting audiences to use chains and knives on her naked body. In recent decades, however, you’d be forgiven for thinking artists have lost their nerve. As the art world has turned towards care, healing and community, performers today are as likely to offer audiences a warm beverage as to spit in their faces.
Scene from Austrian artist Hermann Nitsch’s blood-splattered ‘Orgien Mysterien Theater’, performed at Harpur College in 1970 © Harvey L. Silver/Corbis via Getty Images. © 2026 DACS
