The book is the outcome of a collaboration between Judit Bodor as curator and editor and Roddy Hunter as artist, whose work is the subject of the monograph prompted by Bodor's interests in the possibilities of disseminating performance art through archival research in contexts and to audiences beyond those of the original performance. It built on Hunter's earlier project, 'Civil Twilight' (2000-2004), which investigated environments for societal production of civic understanding through a series of durational performances encouraging discursive public encounters in civic squares and related urban environments.
Bodor and Hunter collaborated to document, archive and re-contextualise these works in and for gallery contexts. The exhibition, 'Begin Civil Twilight' (premiered Dartington, September 2005) presented the performances retrospectively by representing their 'concept'. It included original documents and objects, documentation and installations, and audio and video recordings made during the performances and in the archival research period. Six context-specific gallery works based on the artist's memories and experiences, involving documentation as source material, completed the exhibition, which was accompanied by a public symposium concerning issues raised by and during the original performances.
Using archival documents gathered/created for the exhibition, and transcribed interviews from the research, the book was curated as another, final way of disseminating and contextualising Hunter's performance practice. While focusing on archival material gathered through Hunter's and Bodor's collaboration, research for the publication extended to cover a longer, 15-year strand of Hunter's practice that he conceives as 'social works'. Artists John Newling (UK) and Vassya Vassileva (Bulgaria), contributors to the symposium, were commissioned to contribute essays.
NB Bodor's editorship is credited under the name Judit Hunter.
A copy of this book is available for GSA students and staff to borrow from the GSA Library: https://discovery.gsa.ac.uk/permalink/44GSA_INST/1jkke6u/alma991000387789706296
