ABSTRACT
In his 2004 manifesto, ‘In Defense of Performance Art,’ Guillermo GómezPeña outlines the tenets of performance art and, in particular, its historical usage by artists to better respond to socio-political injustices and oppression in the specific time, place and context in which they live. He also asserts that despite the variety of methods and approaches used by artists, a constant element of performance art is the use of the body as ‘materia prima,’ or the irreducible flesh and blood vehicle of the artist. ‘Whatever the reasons,’ he writes, ‘the fact is that no actor, robot, or virtual avatar can replace the singular spectacle of the performance artist’s body in action’ (Gómez-Peña 2004, 79). Additionally, he proposes that because the performance artist is also a citizen, and therefore both part and product of a larger culture, their work is informed by their position within a social network. By presenting their own body in performance, as a microcosm of the ‘larger socio-political body,’ they offer a catalyst for exploring and challenging social and economic valuations of the body through intersubjective exchanges with audiences.
