With already five decades of continuous neo-actionist hyper-experimentation behind him, Istan Kantor remains one of the most active and provocative contributors of today’s live-art/performance scene. While he has never been taken in by the institutional academic art world, he has earned an international reputation for his uncompromising artistic attitude and radical engagements. His work has been compared to Duchamp, Beuys, Marinetti, Lenin, Kafka, Emma Goldman, John Cage, and others.
Better known as Monty Cantsin–founder of Neoism–Kantor/Cantsin immigrated from Hungary to Canada in 1976. In collaboration with correspondence artist David Zack, Kantor launched the Monty Cantsin open-pop-star project in 1978 in Portland, Oregon. He initiated both the international operations of Neoism and his major lifelong performance “Blood Campaign” in 1979 in Montreal. In 1986 Kantor/Cantsin relocated his headquarters to New York City to re-emerge as “self-appointed leader of the people of the Lower East Side.” He has been arrested and imprisoned several times for his spontaneous interventions in museums, including the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), the Musee d’art contemporain de Montreal, and the Ludwig Museum (Cologne).
Kantor’s performance work explores the body as well as technology, from blood to video to physical gestures via digital sampling, breathing, computers or pneumatic machinery. He often incorporates objects in his actions such as the steam iron, coat hanger, clocks, flags, megaphone, toys and scrap metal. He likes to break things and set things on fire, using conflicts and crisis to present his cause, often placing himself in the center of danger and uncertainty.
*Now available to watch online on Equinox*
LEBENSRAUM
Film by ISTVAN KANTOR
2004 | 72 minutes | Canada
LE 100E JOUR
Film by ÉTIENNE DESROSIERS
1995 | 21 minutes | Canada