"The 30€ Truth", video art by
Sebastian Bieniek (B1EN1EK), 2012
What is the difference between "Performance", "Action Art", "Installation Art" and
Video Art?
When the artist or the body of the artist is in focus, so the acting is part of the artwork, it's a performance. When the artist isn't visible but it's still about people and when it's that fast changing in time that you can see the "Beginning" and then "End", than it's "Action Art" (Happaning is kind of outsourced - not directed by a single artist but by many). Installation is when you can't see it "changing" in time, so it looks always the same, or can be at least restored, and when it's about objects.
However even still some installations like "My Breath rests here" ("Hier ruht mein Atem") have some performance character (at least in the creation phase), but than again not really, because than "the painting of a painting" could be also a performance, so it's more about the focus.
A recorded and shown as a video performance, without real life viewer and the interaction with the viewer like "The 30 € truth" or "Crying for this Video" for example is a
video. (Definition by Bieniek)
"The 30€ Truth" ("Die 30€ Wahrheit"), video art by Sebastian Bieniek (B1EN1EK), 2012
In 2012 Sebastian Bieniek was invited by the "Go West" Festivals in Frankfurt am Main to make an art performance. Because there was no constantly following public and because the only way to follow constantly became to see this video, it became a video.
Regarding the process: instead of acting in a fixed framework such as on a stage and at a fixed time, Sebastian Bieniek decided to appear in the form of a performance with an unclear starting point and to arrive that way.
So he didn't come as Sebastian Bieniek, but in a role disguised as a postman who had to deliver a package to Sebastian Bieniek. The package was nothing more than a box in which two cameras were mounted that filmed what was happening.
In the following video, Sebastian Bieniek asks about himself and, with the help of random passers-by, including a Burger King employee, looks for himself to hand over a package.
"The 30€ Truth" ("Die 30€ Wahrheit"), 2012, video still. In the following video, Sebastian Bieniek asks about himself and, with the help of random passers-by, including a Burger King employee, looks for himself to hand over a package.
"The 30€ Truth" ("Die 30€ Wahrheit"), 2012, video still. In the following video, Sebastian Bieniek asks about himself and, with the help of random passers-by, including a Burger King employee, looks for himself to hand over a package.
"The 30€ Truth" ("Die 30€ Wahrheit"), 2012, video still. In the following video, Sebastian Bieniek asks about himself and, with the help of random passers-by, including a Burger King employee, looks for himself to hand over a package.
"The 30€ Truth" ("Die 30€ Wahrheit"), 2012, video still. In the following video, Sebastian Bieniek asks about himself and, with the help of random passers-by, including a Burger King employee, looks for himself to hand over a package.
"The 30€ Truth" ("Die 30€ Wahrheit"), 2012, video still. In the following video, Sebastian Bieniek asks about himself and, with the help of random passers-by, including a Burger King employee, looks for himself to hand over a package.
"The 30€ Truth" ("Die 30€ Wahrheit"), 2012, video still. In the following video, Sebastian Bieniek asks about himself and, with the help of random passers-by, including a Burger King employee, looks for himself to hand over a package.
"The 30€ Truth" ("Die 30€ Wahrheit"), 2012, video still. In the following video, Sebastian Bieniek asks about himself and, with the help of random passers-by, including a Burger King employee, looks for himself to hand over a package.