When did 'nothing' performances begin?

Question

these types of performance include, marcel duchamp's 'fountain', piere manzoni's Merda d’artista

Answer 1

This is a very interesting question.

"Marcel Duchamp was a French-American artist who was influenced by Dadaism, Surrealism and Cubism.
Fountain is a 1917 work. It is one of the pieces which he called readymades (also known as found art), because he made use of an already existing object—in this case a urinal, which he titled Fountain and signed R. Mutt." (Wikipedia)

Manzoni (I think you meant Piero, not Pierre Manzoni) was born in 1933, so outside the art movements above. His "work" mierda... is more ... intestinal than artistic work. Here is the comment in Spanish

"El 12 de agosto de 1961, en ocasión de una exposición en la Galleria Pescetto de Albisola Marina, Piero Manzoni presentó por primera vez en público las cajitas de "Merda d’artista" ("contenido neto 30 gramos, conservada al natural, producida y enlatada en el mayo de 1961").
El precio establecido por el artista por las 90 cajitas (rigurosamente numeradas) correspondía al valor corriente del oro". (http://www.pieromanzoni.org/SP/obras_mierda.htm)

Translation: (sorry my Spanish is not TOO good):
In 1961, for an exhibit at the gallery Pescetto de Albisola Marina, did he present his "work" for the first time in public. It contained about 30 grammes of his stuff, preciously frozen. The price established for the artist's 90 cases (of his stuff), rigorously numbered, corresponded to the current value of gold.

I think both Duchamp and Manzoni were pionneers in their trade (dubious trade for the latter, it only shows how snobism has taken a grip over art) as most artists are.
I should not hang a "mierda..." in my living-room, I prefer my own modern impressionist pictures !

Answer 2

They never began...










thnx for da 2er...