What Happens Does not Disappear

Résumé 0

Contrary to a thesis on the disappearance of artwork, upheld by most theories on art performance (Peggy Phelan, Thierry De Duve), this essay makes a case for the iteration of the body’s gestures and focuses on what remains of the experience once the performance has ended. One notices that such remains do not rest on the idea of staying the same, but rather embraces the logic of transformation. Following Derrida, it is a matter of unfolding a practice of deconstruction and surpassing the limits of the ontology of presence, as the latter is closely bound to the principles of mimesis theory. The concepts of “restoration” (Richard Schechner) and “re-enactment” (Rebecca Schneider) prove useful in order to comprehend the paradoxical status of the arts of performance: a set of body gestures which are profoundly referential and oscillate between absolute absence and repetition.