Performance art at the campusphere: pedagogical experiments on-site

Following a unique practice and research laboratory entitled Performance: Site/Self that took place in 2013–2015, this article discusses the implementation of performance art at an academic site–the Tel Aviv University campus. This pedagogical and artistic initiative, characterised by the transgressive pedagogy of performance art applied to site-specific performance, broadens the site’s primary educational function and reframes it as a relational and polemic space. As an alternative to the habitual organisation of disciplinary knowledge, the campus is recast as a campusphere through imaginative performative actions. Through the personal and critical situations created, the academic site functions as a surrounding for subjective experiences; as a social and economical structure; and as a space charged with local histories, identity politics, and collective memories.