Enonce_s performatifs - Tout moment / Tous les criteres / Toutes les choses materielles.

London.: Self-published., 1970. Two one-sided white sheets of paper, text printed offset black.. Each page (29.7 x 21 cm).. Complete set of the three French-language Enonce_s performatifs, each printed in an edition of 20 copies, dated, numbered and signed in pencil by Victor Burgin in the lower margin of the second page. One of Burgin’s earliest conceptual works. The term ""Enoncés performatifs"" (Performing Utterances) was in fact created by Alfred Pacquement in the French contemporary art journal ""Art Press"" in 1972. Austin writes: “The constative utterance, under the name, so dear to philosophers, of statement, has the property of being true or false. The performative utterance, by contrast, can never be either … it is used to perform an action. To issue such an utterance is to perform the action, action which might not be accomplished”. Burgin’s texts are divided into propositions describing an event at a general rather than a particular level (they do not necessarily refer to any particular event known to Burgin). The installation method as recommended by Burgin himself was to photocopy the pages, cut up each sentence, and install them onto all the walls of the room, one following the other in sequence. Victor Burgin first came to prominence through his inclusion in landmark Conceptual art shows such as the touring exhibition ‘Live in Your Head: When Attitudes Become Form: Works, Concepts, Processes, Situations’ (1969–70) and ‘Information’ (Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1970).