Istvan Kantor
Encyclopedia
Istvan Kantor ' onMouseout='HidePop("41325")' href="/topics/Budapest">Budapest
) is a Hungarian
born Canadian
performance
and video art
ist, industrial music
and electropop singer, and founder of Neoism
.
In the 1970s, he studied medicine, but also participated in the underground arts scene of communist Budapest
around Laszlo Beke as a folk singer. In 1976, he met the American prankster and Mail Art
ist David Zack at Art Club Budapest who then toured through Europe with his mail art collection. Zack encouraged Kantor to join him in America; Kantor emigrated via Paris
to Montreal
and, in 1978, lived one year with Zack and Blaster Al Ackerman
in Portland, Oregon
, encountering and working with artists from Mail Art and the industrial music
scene. He was one of a couple of persons to whom Zack suggested to adopt the multiple identity Monty Cantsin
, but only Kantor took this proposal seriously and adopted the Cantsin identity to the extent that it became chiefly associated with him. Returning to Montreal, he organized a Mail Art show "The Brain in the Mail" and gathered a group of people, many of them teenagers or in their early 20s, under the moniker of Neoism
. Soon afterwards, Neoism
expanded into an international subcultural network that collectively used the Monty Cantsin
identity.
Kantor's own work in the late 1970s and early 1980s consisted most notably of the "Blood Campaign", an ongoing series of performances in which he takes his own blood and splashes it onto walls, canvases or into the audience, often in combination with singing electropop songs that mix elements of New Wave
and industrial music
, Hungarian folksongs and Neoist
manifesto lyrics, combined with para-military clothing and punk
hairstyles. Kantor expanded the theatrical, opera-like quality of his performances through the medium of video which gained him international recognition and awards as a video performance artist from the 1980s until today {fact}. At the same time, he continued to work within the Neoist
network, co-organizing and participating in a series of Neoist festivals, which began as Apartment Festivals ("APTs") between 1980 and 1988 and were continued in 1997 and 2004. Just like his enemy Stewart Home
, he has been controversial within Neoism for allegedly using the movement as a publicity vehicle for himself.
Recent work involves noise installations and performances with electrically modified file cabinets. He also founded the "Machine Sex Action Group" which realizes theatrical cyber-futuristic body performances in an S/M style. The human body in its relation to machines, explored both in its apocalyptic and subversive potentials remains a major theme of his work. His more controversial works involve vandalism
and gore, painting large X's in his own blood on the walls of modern art museums, and in doing so he has been banned from many of the world's art galleries, a status he holds with pride. In 2004, he threw a vial of his own blood on a wall beside a sculpture of Michael Jackson
by Paul McCarthy
in the Hamburger Bahnhof
contemporary art museum of Berlin
.
In March 2004 he was awarded the Canadian Governor General's Award in Visual and Media arts.
He is reported to have been supported until 2007 largely by public money. His work has largely failed to find commercial success and he is described as recently supporting himself via a series of yard sales.
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
) is a Hungarian
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
born Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
performance
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
and video art
Video art
Video art is a type of art which relies on moving pictures and comprises video and/or audio data. . Video art came into existence during the 1960s and 1970s, is still widely practiced and has given rise to the widespread use of video installations...
ist, industrial music
Industrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
and electropop singer, and founder of Neoism
Neoism
Neoism is a parodistic -ism. It refers both to a specific subcultural network of artistic performance and media experimentalists, and more generally to a practical underground philosophy...
.
In the 1970s, he studied medicine, but also participated in the underground arts scene of communist Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
around Laszlo Beke as a folk singer. In 1976, he met the American prankster and Mail Art
Mail art
Mail art is a worldwide cultural movement that began in the early 1960s and involves sending visual art through the international postal system. Mail Art is also known as Postal Art or Correspondence Art...
ist David Zack at Art Club Budapest who then toured through Europe with his mail art collection. Zack encouraged Kantor to join him in America; Kantor emigrated via Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
and, in 1978, lived one year with Zack and Blaster Al Ackerman
Blaster Al Ackerman
Blaster Al Ackerman is the most commonly used name by an American mail artist and writer who has been active since the early 1970s.Heavily influenced by post-war pulp writers like Theodore Sturgeon, Raymond Chandler and Fredric Brown as well as by modernists like Ray Johnson, Francis Ponge and the...
in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, encountering and working with artists from Mail Art and the industrial music
Industrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
scene. He was one of a couple of persons to whom Zack suggested to adopt the multiple identity Monty Cantsin
Monty Cantsin
Monty Cantsin is a multiple-use name that anyone can adopt, but has close ties to Neoism. Monty Cantsin was originally conceived as an "open pop star." In a philosophy anticipating that of free software and open source, anyone should perform in his name and thus contribute to and participate in his...
, but only Kantor took this proposal seriously and adopted the Cantsin identity to the extent that it became chiefly associated with him. Returning to Montreal, he organized a Mail Art show "The Brain in the Mail" and gathered a group of people, many of them teenagers or in their early 20s, under the moniker of Neoism
Neoism
Neoism is a parodistic -ism. It refers both to a specific subcultural network of artistic performance and media experimentalists, and more generally to a practical underground philosophy...
. Soon afterwards, Neoism
Neoism
Neoism is a parodistic -ism. It refers both to a specific subcultural network of artistic performance and media experimentalists, and more generally to a practical underground philosophy...
expanded into an international subcultural network that collectively used the Monty Cantsin
Monty Cantsin
Monty Cantsin is a multiple-use name that anyone can adopt, but has close ties to Neoism. Monty Cantsin was originally conceived as an "open pop star." In a philosophy anticipating that of free software and open source, anyone should perform in his name and thus contribute to and participate in his...
identity.
Kantor's own work in the late 1970s and early 1980s consisted most notably of the "Blood Campaign", an ongoing series of performances in which he takes his own blood and splashes it onto walls, canvases or into the audience, often in combination with singing electropop songs that mix elements of New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
and industrial music
Industrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
, Hungarian folksongs and Neoist
Neoism
Neoism is a parodistic -ism. It refers both to a specific subcultural network of artistic performance and media experimentalists, and more generally to a practical underground philosophy...
manifesto lyrics, combined with para-military clothing and punk
Punk fashion
Punk fashion is the clothing, hairstyles, cosmetics, jewelry, and body modifications of the punk subculture. Punk fashion varies widely, ranging from Vivienne Westwood designs to styles modeled on bands like The Exploited. The distinct social dress of other subcultures and art movements, including...
hairstyles. Kantor expanded the theatrical, opera-like quality of his performances through the medium of video which gained him international recognition and awards as a video performance artist from the 1980s until today {fact}. At the same time, he continued to work within the Neoist
Neoism
Neoism is a parodistic -ism. It refers both to a specific subcultural network of artistic performance and media experimentalists, and more generally to a practical underground philosophy...
network, co-organizing and participating in a series of Neoist festivals, which began as Apartment Festivals ("APTs") between 1980 and 1988 and were continued in 1997 and 2004. Just like his enemy Stewart Home
Stewart Home
Stewart Home is an English artist, filmmaker, writer, pamphleteer, art historian, and activist. He is best known for his novels such as the non-narrative 69 Things To Do With A Dead Princess , his re-imagining of the 1960s in Tainted Love , and earlier parodistic pulp fictions Pure Mania, Red...
, he has been controversial within Neoism for allegedly using the movement as a publicity vehicle for himself.
Recent work involves noise installations and performances with electrically modified file cabinets. He also founded the "Machine Sex Action Group" which realizes theatrical cyber-futuristic body performances in an S/M style. The human body in its relation to machines, explored both in its apocalyptic and subversive potentials remains a major theme of his work. His more controversial works involve vandalism
Vandalism
Vandalism is the behaviour attributed originally to the Vandals, by the Romans, in respect of culture: ruthless destruction or spoiling of anything beautiful or venerable...
and gore, painting large X's in his own blood on the walls of modern art museums, and in doing so he has been banned from many of the world's art galleries, a status he holds with pride. In 2004, he threw a vial of his own blood on a wall beside a sculpture of Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
by Paul McCarthy
Paul McCarthy
Paul McCarthy , is a contemporary artist who lives and works in Los Angeles, California.-Life:McCarthy was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, and studied art at the University of Utah in 1969. He went on to study at the San Francisco Art Institute receiving a BFA in painting...
in the Hamburger Bahnhof
Hamburger Bahnhof
Hamburger Bahnhof is a former railway station in Berlin, Germany, on Invalidenstraße in the Moabit district opposite the Charité hospital. Today it serves as the Museum für Gegenwart , a contemporary art museum....
contemporary art museum of Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
.
In March 2004 he was awarded the Canadian Governor General's Award in Visual and Media arts.
He is reported to have been supported until 2007 largely by public money. His work has largely failed to find commercial success and he is described as recently supporting himself via a series of yard sales.