Danielle Rennalls: Art as Performative Enactment

According to the article art as a performative enactment is an idea developed by Hans Georg Gadamer that consists of three elements; play (“…perfomative enactment through movement…”), symbol “(…[existence of] self-presentation that enables self-recognition) and festival/fest (“…enacting an experience of community in solidarity).

The purpose of all three elements in relation to art as a performative enactment and essentially what ties them together is the fact that they possess the qualities of a double-sided sword. In essence these elements do not work solely in one direction, but rather forwards and backwards simultaneously. Standing alone these elements lose there meaning, but together they build off each other creating the concept known as art as a performative enactment.

Take for instance the element of play. As stated by the author of this article, “Movement is the key to play – but only secondarily the movement of the player.” This essentially means that the main purpose of play is not player’s movement but rather it is the player’s interaction with the game with the intention of allowing the game to take over his/her movement. “The purpose of the game is simply to be played so that the game becomes master over the players…It is proper to say in sequence: ‘I am playing the game’; ‘we are playing the game’; ‘the game is being played through our movements’; and finally ‘the game plays itself through our movements.’” This illustrates the notion of the double-sided sword because the concept of play is not solely one directional from player to game, but rather works both ways generating a relationship from game to player as well. Essentially if the player does not allow the game to take over, they will have no success in their attempt to embody the movements needed to defeat the game.

Though the notions underlying symbol and festival may be different from that of play, the concept of needing interaction between the element, the artist and audience remains the same. Take for instance Steven Cohen’s performance in 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsx9gtQM8f8, this is one that I believe represents the element of symbol for it “…calls our being into question [and] transports us into another order of things…” His performance is in fact the existence of self-presentation.

Though I would never allow myself to do something so extreme, it is fascinating the lengths people go create a piece and to embody the elements of performance art.