In the international field of performance art, Peter Baren has become one of the most important Dutch representatives. He has developed performance art in a broader and more anthropologically inspired visual language. In doing so, he showed that performance art had freed itself from the strict views of the early 1970s. Since then he has created a solid structure of performance series in which the human body, as it were, steps outside of itself and uses ritualistic actions to make statements about the spiritual state of humanity. Baren’s performances always consist of a combination of Eastern and Western spiritual views that he combines with comparable ideas of traditional people on the one hand and contemporary cultures on the other.
PETER BAREN * 1954 The Netherlands, based in Amsterdam and works on performances and other presentations. Photo: Yama Kowa
He studied painting at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam from 1972 to 1977. Since his first public performance in 1980 his work has been shown frequently in the Netherlands and from the mid-eighties at an international level. Baren’s work is often collaborative; other artists he has worked with at an early stage include a.o. Stuart Sherman- performance artist and filmmaker, Koos Dalstra / Dalstar- criminologist and poet, Truus Bronkhorst- dancer and choreographer.
He was one of the recipients of the PRIX DE ROME Art & Theatre 1989.-
Baren’s multimedia practice includes site-specific public performances which he refered to as ’temporary explorations’. He uses video both for documenting these performances and to create works which are more medium-specific examinations revolving around the history of mankind, cultural objects and territories. Many of Baren’s pieces revolve around the notion of ritual and the way it functions in various socio-cultural contexts. This is conveyed in his art through the use of concepts of otherness, from sub cultures and media in works that also employ ‘body art’ techniques although in minimalist settings constructed with historical props.
The monography PETER BAREN BLIND DATES WITH THE HISTORY OF MANKIND PERFORMANCES 1980- 2013, was launched during STAGE IT! [Part 3] SCRIPTED. A series of presentations on performance art at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.
The ongoing performance series BLIND DATES WITH THE HISTORY OF MANKIND, as a multi-sensory work, searches for a common ground between sensual bewilderment and operational suffering, challenging the constructed nature of our ideas on progress, identity and memory, derived from our social, cultural circumstances and territories.
For detailed up-to-date documentation please continue to 2025 – 2010 – for Images, Text and Scores
Please go to PORTFOLIO 2025 – 1980 for more specific information with CV, performances and other presentations. Thank You.
- Selected performances stills through the years are:
MANTRA MANTRA. Eggenberg castle. Graz A. September 2025. photo: Yama Kowa.
TRUE SILENCE IS NOT WITHOUT SOUNDS BUT WITHOUT THOUGHTS [text boards in dutch language]. Durational walk from the North to the South of Amsterdam. 24th of November. THE SPIRIT OF AMSTERDAM. In the framework of Amsterdam 750 years. Photo: Marloes van Doorn.
BEGGARS BANQUET [DISCOVER HEAVEN]. Trans Art Communication. Nove Zamky SK 2002. Photo: Watan Wuma.
BLACK TEARS AND HOPE. Tiradentes, Atlantic Rainforest BR 2023. Photo: Anderson Feliciano
PROGRESS PROGRESS [STRANDED]. On Alterity. FLAM Live Art Amsterdam NL. June 2017. Photo: David Cenzer.
THE WeighT OF LOVE [THIS UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS]. Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava SK 2023. Photo: Simon Luptak.
PROGRESS PROGRESS [The Missing Allegory]. Timpanon – Mucsarnok Palace of Exhibitions, Budapest HU 1997. Photo: Lehel Toth.
RAGE AND TIME AND HOPE. Overlapping Kassel. Kassel DE 2022. Photo: Wolfgang Traeger.
PROGRESS PROGRESS [STRANDED] Performance together with Imke Zeinstra. Project ID. In Between Identities. The Hague NL 2019. Photo: Jacques Martens.
THE WeighT OF LOVE [THIS UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS]. Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava SK 2023. Photo: Simon Luptak. [Tearing textboard in Slovak that reads NOTHING AT ALL.]
WE THE BLIND PEOPLE? PEACE WILL COME TO ME! Circular walks during ART ROTTERDAM. Rotterdam 2017.
From the series BLIND DATES WITH THE HISTORY OF MANKIND. Photo: Mariana Lanari.
Peace Will Come To Me ! [KISSING KOUROS sculpture FAREWELL ETERNAL YOUTH !!Athens, Hall with Statues. National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. April 2024. Photo: Christina Fylaktopoulou.
