Who’s Afraid of Performance? Modernist Essentialism versus Postmodernist Intermediality in Perspectives on Polish Performance Art

Abstract

My article concerns the dispute about the understanding of performance art in the Polish humanities. This dispute stems from the genre transformations of performance art and the growing popularity of performance studies. The article therefore refers to the definition of performance art formulated by Marvin Carlson, a New York critic and theatrologist. Carlson’s arguments are confronted with the postulates of the Polish critic and art historian Łukasz Guzek, whose article “Performatyzacja sztuki” (2013) describes performance art through a highly modernist logic. I seek to situate Guzek’s theses against a broader theoretical background, evoking the arguments of such theoreticians as Helen Spackman, Philip Auslander, Amy Bryzgel, Nicolas Bourriaud, and Claire Bishop. Finally, I confront Guzek’s existentialist definition with the critical postulates of Tomasz Plata, a theatrologist and curator, who advocates a postmodern model of performance, closer to Carlson’s definition. This article aims to explain the arguments of individual researchers and to analyze the strengths and shortcomings of their theories.

Keywords

• karolina plinta
• helen spackman
• philip auslander
• amy bryzgel
• nicolas bourriaud
• tomasz plata
• łukasz guzek
• performance art