The practice of performance art is a metaphor in itself. More precisely: a metaphor referring to a historical and social state when artistic work was a natural part of collective life and the daily efforts to humanise life in conflict with nature.

Herbert Molderings 1984

… Many of the performances are linked to the use of video technology. Their overriding characteristic is that performer and audience are not in the same room. In them, Gerz demonstrates how the performance can become a model for cultural processes. It is true that, time and time again, Gerz has been associated with the "individual mythologies" trend that became popular in the 1970s. Nonetheless, it is precisely these performances, which are characterised by the use of video, which reveal that Gerz, however much he may have the linking of art and life at heart, clearly understands that a performance always takes place in an esthetic setting wherein the existential dimension can find expression, but cannot be translated into cultural practice.

Friedemann Malsch 2002

This installation... consists of the two-fold reproduction – with a sickle and petrified mirror as sculpture and as video – of the mythological figure of Medusa, who died "because her own image turned her into stone". The only movement on the tape is that of the camera as it zooms in and out to observe the actor. The double refraction of the self-image into ideal on the one hand and disillusionment on the other is further duplicated by the physical presence of a sculptural figure as well as a video simulation. The only sound is the hissing of the monitor.

Rudolf Frieling 2014