The term action art is a summary term for various forms of intermedia art^[1] that places great importance in experiencing events and having an active contact with the audience, even letting the audience interfere. The primary aim is not to create an art piece per se, but to focus on the realization, the physical act. It is a type of art that is not about production of a physical artifact, rather about the process, the play, the event taking place in real time, it is ephemeral in its nature and is usually further communicated by secondary recording (text, film, photography…). Action art looks for new territories besides the conservative ateliers and galleries. It sees an imperative in live performance at a specific time, with active participation of the audience. Borders between art, art piece and real life are blurred. Action art very often critically reflects on the social and political situation.

Until 1989, action art was taking an alternative position on art, that sometimes took place in public space, but was ultimately forbidden (in the countries of the eastern bloc). A certain sense of mimicry is characteristic for action art as well: the forbidden art often looks like a normal sports game or another seemingly harmless social or cultural situation, that is transparent only for the knowledgeable chosen – and sometimes the meaning becomes clear only ex post. Action art reaches new and deeper artistic dimensions, it experiments and tests the physical limits of the artist (and not infrequently, the viewer as well)^[2].

The impulse for creation of the homeless international movement Fluxus was the production of Marcel Duchampa and the genre of the Dadaism movement. George Maciuans is considered to be the founder of the Fluxus movement. The American artist published a manifesto in 1962, explaining the experimental aspects of the movement, this could be labeled as a type of neo-dadaism, in which the principal opinion of the artist is more important than the gallery space, against which the founders of fluxus protested by doubting or ignoring it whatsoever (see Picture 21). Paradoxically, many of the works from this conception were not meant to be sold. They were created from unstable, decomposing materials or from materials existing only as documentation (audio-visual or photographic). They, however, became objects of trading for high prices and are often exhibited in galleries and museums^[3]. Iinstallations-environments, actions-happenings, inscenations, objects, smells, sounds/music, visual performances and more were chosen as popular forms. The event became the significant expression of the Fluxus movement. At La Biennale di Venezia, a huge retrospective of the movement took place, carrying the title Ubi fluxus ibi motus (Where is fluxus, there is movement).

Happening is an organized event on the border of creative art, music,
and theater. It can be realized wherever, especially in public spaces such as shopping centers, squares, during a drive on a highway, but also in private spaces where friends or the public is invited, and is realized either singularly or perpetually (maybe even over a year) (Gero, 2012)^[4]. Happenings realized this way have no time limit. They take place without previous practice, but also without future reprises^[5], even though they follow a prepared plan that remains flexible and open to reactions of the participants and the viewers. The first happening was realized by an American artist Allan Kaprow, who in 1959 realized 18 happenings in six parts of New York.

In Czechoslovakia, the important figures of the local happening were
Eugen Brikcius, Milan Knížák, Zorka Ságlová, Olaf Hanel, Alex Mlynárčik, Jana Želibská, Ján Budaj, v Poľsku Bogusław Schaeffer and Tadeusz Kantor. In Hungary, it was Szentjóby Tamás, Felugossy László, Zámbó István, and others.

Event is a simple short occasion that gained popularity in the late fifties. It is often used as an accompanying event to the main event and it often is a part of a happening. Most often, we see it as a part of the context set by the Fluxus movement. The event was considered the main subject of the fluxus aesthetic. It can be realized in front of a live audience, but also as a private play of the actor themselves. The event’s roots reach to the dadaism movement. It can even be a short energetic gesture. For example the artist Nam June Paik broke a violin in front of an audience in 1962, calling the act the One for Violin Solo.

Performance emergeed during the waves of protest movements, formulating the contra-culture and sexual revolution, and that is why the topics of performances were connected to the sphere of exploiting sexuality. Places that did not have any position in the world of art were chosen for realizations. They took place in front of an audience. Very often, they contained elements of poetry, theater, dance, video and other genres. In most situations, an artist was the main actor for the whole event along with their assistants. Performance is closely connected to movements such as dadaism, surrealism or the Bauhaus school. It can, however, be realized even without an audience in a closed gallery, in exteriors, in theaters et cetera (Štofko, 2007)^[6]. Nowadays, performance is usually realized in theaters and clubs and is often a part of vernissages or is presented as a recording or as a film. The most important difference between a performance and a theater inscenation is that the performance always presents only a fragment of a story. As all pieces of creative arts, it is only a stimulus for the final realization of art in the minds of the viewers. In theater, stories are played by professional actors according to a script written by a playwright. In case of performance, however, the artist does not reproduce, they create. The performer is the organizer of the collective imagination.

Site-specific is an art approach  that includes art pieces created with the idea to be implemented at a precisely selected space. It strongly correlates to the problems of ambient marketing. The place for realization is most often chosen before the realization of the art piece. The conception was based on the huge creations of the land art movement. The site-specific art is labeled as movement (similarly to Fluxus) by critics, such as Cathrine Howett and Lucy Lippard. The term site-specific was popularized and precised by Robertom Irwinom^[7], even though it was first used by young sculptors (Athena Tacha, Dennis Oppenheim and Patricia Johanson). The movement first emerged in the seventies and the term was established by sculptors who realized sizable contracts for public spaces in cities: Lloyd Hamrol, Robert Smithson, Andy Goldsworthy, Christo, Richard Serra, Yumi Kori, Brandon LaBelle, Guillaume Bijl, Christian Bernard Singer, Betty Beaumont; and young artists like
Mark Divo, John K. Melvin, Lennie Lee, Luna Nera, Sarah Sze, Seth Wulsin, Ben Cummins a Simparch. The site-specific art form received attention thanks to artists like Daniel Buren, Michael Asher, Hans Haacke, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Michele Oka Doner, Sir Jacob Epstien, David Smith, Henry Moore, Isaac Witkin, Diego Rivera, Walter De Maria, Jannis Kounellis, Robert Morris, Anthony Caro, and Claes Oldenburg. The last one, Claes Oldenburg (in cooperation with van Bruggenom), was the direct inspiration for the installations used in the film Cloudy with a Chance for Meatballs (2009) (Pictures 22 and 23). Similarly, works of Christo and Jeanne-Cloude were the inspirations for the World AIDS Day installations in in Paris, 1993^[8] (Pictures 24
and 25).

Site-specific creations are often based on the connection between stationary sculpture elements and the elements of the surroundings  (land for the en plein air and architecture for the interior). Formulation of the creation is often preceded by a study of the cultural matrix of the place – historical, architectonic, topographic, and social aspects are considered, along with the primary country or the history of the cultural site. It urges underlining on the present elements or uncovering of the hidden meanings, and their transformation and presentation. The works are presented in closed spaces and in most cases, consulted in cooperation with buildin’s‘ architects (similarly to installing communiqués in ambient marketing).

The term site-specific is also used for labeling works that are technically installed for a single localization. In this case, the architecture is enriched by the added elements, for example by the site-specific creations. Similarly, creations based on the blue box technology cannot be re-used at different places with different architecture. Appropriation of the projected imagery for the selected surface of a building uses the video mapping principle and cannot be repeated elsewhere, resembling the principle of the site-specific art approach.

^[1]      According to M. Štofka (2007), it is a type of artistic medium that connects at least two media of different art types, forms and genres, various materials and techniques, creating a single art piece. …it is based on syncretization or synthesis of various media in a specific art piece.
^[2]      INŠTITORISOVÁ, D., FUJÁK, J., KAPSOVÁ, E. (2011). Divadelnosť výrazu. MISTRÍK, M., MAŤAŠÍK, A. (2017). Divadlo, ľudia a inštitúcie v nových situáciách.
^[3]      Getty Center for the History of the Arts and Humanities (USA), Museum of Modern Art (USA), Walker Art Center (USA), The Tate Gallery (Anglicko), Artpool (Maďarsko), Archivio Conz (Taliansko), Stadtsgalerie Stuttgart (Nemecko)
^[4]      GERO, Š. (2012). Komunikácia – umenie – marketing. s. 243.
^[5]      ibid.
^[6]      ŠTOFKO, M. (2007).Od abstrakcie po živé umenie – Slovník pojmov moderného a postmoderného umenia.
^[7]      GRIFFIN, J. (2015) Light Years Ahead: Interview with Robert Irwin. Available at: <http://www.apollo-magazine.com/apollo-artist-interview-with-robert-irwin/>
^[8]      Christo finished the packing of Reichstag in 1995, but the first drafts of the project emerged in 1971.