ABSTRACT
In this two-part chapter we delve into the meaning of the term performance art and review its associations with everyday life and society and search for the origins of what we currently call performance art. In Part I we explore the various terms that have been used to name performance art, in connection with their historicity, also clarifying performance art’s difference to the performing arts. We investigate the way that performance connects with everyday life in ritual, social drama and performativity, through the works of sociologists, anthropologists, philosophers of language and performance theorists. In Part II we search for the origins of performance in the avant-garde movements of the beginning of the twentieth century and the post-World War II movements and explore the ways that they connect with contemporary performance art.
