LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND.- Tate Liverpool presents “Art, Lies and Videotape – Exposing Performance,” on view through 25 January 2004. Art, Lies and Videotape - the first Tate exhibition to explore key moments in performance history - presents rarely seen work by major artists ranging from Futurist Luigi Russolo and Francis Picabia to more contemporary artists such as Vito Acconci, Ron Athey, Sophie Calle and Catherine Opie. 

Organised around six linked themes, Art, Lies and Videotape explores some of the key issues in performance and live art today. Lost Histories looks at those artists whose performance works have been overlooked while Image as Icon investigates how many performance images have become more famous than the event they document. Recording performance has provided many artists with the opportunity of blurring the lines between truth and illusion. Fact or Fiction takes a close look at what is real and what is not.



With reality television and the ever increasing presence of CCTV on our streets, without knowing, any one of us could be involved in a performance at any time. Many artists have used unwitting members of the public as impromptu performers and The Unconscious Performance highlights the work of Vito Acconci who in the 1970s followed people on the streets of New York. Me and My Camera(person) looks at those artists who work in collaboration with photographers or filmmakers. Often this is a very intimate relationship but also one fraught with danger - who is the artist and whose work is it? The Artist as Director deals with the challenge of being a performer and a director that has led some artists to remove themselves from the centre stage in order to direct others. 

An illustrated catalogue will accompany the exhibition and Bluecoat Arts Centre will present an associated programme of live art events. A one-day conference at Tate Liverpool on Saturday 29 November 2003 complements the exhibition and will provide opportunities to discuss many of the questions raised by Art, Lies and Videotape: Exposing Performance and the live arts programme.