Abstract

Performances have been a prevalent contemporary and experimental theatrical practice of the visual and performing arts since the 1960s. They emerged out of a critique of the established art scene and have made a critical reflection of the basic elements of the established artistic forms, practices, institutions and formats. With focus on transgressing the limits between art and popular culture and art and everyday life, artistic performances have often led from established artistic institutions, such as the theater and museums, into public spaces. Thus, the order, norms and conventions of the public space have been questioned by interventionist activities. Since then, dance, as an ephemeral art, and choreography, as the organization of movement in a situational performance (emphasizing the moment and the presence), have played particular roles. In contemporary societies, artistic performances as critical practices are exposed to new questions, as the current constellations are characterized by a theatralization and eventisation of the public space and by the public staging of cultural performances.

On this background the main thesis is that in the “liquid modernity” (Bauman) artistic performances cannot anymore so easily be seen as an art form that eludes the strategies of the (globalized) culture industry and the modes of representation. The essay discusses cultural and artistic performances in public space from two perspectives: on one side it shows how contemporary performance art and choreography stage the choreographic order of the social in the public space. On the other side, it illustrates how the social, as a choreographic order, is already inscribed in the public space. Finally, we are asked what social and political potential artistic performances have in a theatralized and eventisazed society.