Linda M. Montano

Linda Montano was born in New York, USA, in 1942. She studied at the College of New Rochelle from 1960 to 1965, dropping out after one year and entering a convent of missionary sisters, the Maryknoll Sisters, where she developed and overcame anorexia. Influenced by the strict Catholicism in her family, she found Zen Buddhism and studied Indian philosophy. She resumed her studies at Villa Schifanoia in Florence and graduated with a master's degree. She then transferred to the University of Wisconsin, where she earned a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in 1969. She has held teaching positions at numerous institutions, including the University of Texas, Austin from 1991 to 1988. Linda Montano lives in New York.

Montano is one of the U.S. performance artists concerned with exploring and dissolving the boundaries between art and life. In her performances she exposes herself for a few hours or several years to severe, self-imposed conditions and extreme situations. last. She became known, among other things, for the One Year Performance "Rope Piece" (from July 4, 1983 to July 3, 1984), in which she was permanently connected for a year by a rope to the extreme performance artist Tehching Hsieh. Any form of touching was forbidden.