Art as Performative Enactment

This reading elaborates on three concepts of the origins of art: play, symbol, and festival. I found the author’s definition of “symbol” in terms of art very interesting: not just a form that expresses the idea of a feeling, but the actual presence of what is symbolized through “otherness.” I think this is an important concept to keep in mind when thinking about art. I found two videos by performance artist Marina Abramovic that I feel exemplify all three concepts. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKw7LuEqUVs: This performance took place at MoMA. Abramovic spent 700 hours sitting silently for 7 hours a day, 6 days a week in a chair at the museum's atrium, facing a rotating cast of 1400 visiting sitters. There was a wall slide projection of Abramovic's face staring across to a projection of her visiting sitter on the opposite wall on various days. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKw7LuEqUVs: This next video was an extension of the performance mentioned above. She threw a silent party at the Sundance Film Festival. 

These pieces involve elements of movement (play), an "ontological self-presentation that enables self-recognition" (symbol), and communal experience (festival), as she involves many people in her art performances.