The Theatre is on the Street

Between 1954 and 1988, Wolf Vostell staged more than 50 happenings in which spectators became participants. His abandonment of the studio in favour of the street marked a pioneering development in European performance art. It also enabled him to involve ordinary people in the artistic process and to move them to play a more creative role in society. This first major publication on Vostell’s happenings reconstructs the events he planned as multimedia collages of pictorial and theatrical modes of expression. The sketches and scores are extensively documented, as are numerous concepts and photographs from Vostell’s own happening archive at the Museo Vostell Malpartida. Besides affording us an insight into his plans and processes, the book also affirms Wolf Vostell’s status as one of the drivers of holistic projects combining both art and life.