To disappear: absences of the body in contemporary art.

Author(s)

Renan Marcondes Cevales

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola de Comunicações e Artes (ECA/SBD)
• Defense date: 2021-06-25

Examining board members

Antônio Carlos de Araújo Silva; Cauê Alves; Ricardo Nascimento Fabbrini; Cláudia Góes Müller; Silvia Fernandes da Silva Telesi

• Advisor: Antônio Carlos de Araújo Silva

Abstract

This study analyzes contemporary artworks produced by brazilian artists in the 2010s, in which they make use of various practices of disappearance, creating situations in which bodies are not seen or become less significant. Our research analyses the artworks A sagração da primavera (2016), by [pH2]: Estado de Teatro; Ensaio sobre a Dádiva (2015), by Nuno Ramos; MIRANTES: Coreografia para uma paisagem (2013), by Pol Pi; Bondages (2017), by Marta Soares and NoirBLUE: deslocamentos de uma dança (2018) by Ana Pi. It departs from the argument that aspects of performance (such as visibility, presence and demonstration) are requested by current neoliberal rationality to create a situation of a vicious and continuous appeal to the visibility and exposure of bodies. Through the reading of the works, it is argued that this presence, always combined with a certain absence by way of disappearances and reappearances of bodies, can also be seen as a mode of political criticism which is urgent in a scenario where all domains of private life are submitted to bodily production and exhibition. Thus, it is possible to notice certain notions and modes of presence that depend on the repetitions, interruptions and disqualifications of the visibility of bodies on stage. Each chapter is guided by a new term: \"refusal\", \"destruction\", \"detailing\", \"dispersion\" and \"spacing\". Thus, our objective is to point to the main vector mobilized by each work to combine absences on stage. We conclude by showing convergent lines in all five works, such as the use of blackouts and excessive lighting; the disclosure of what is framed and unframed; procedures for erasing the human face and dramaturgical resources based on circularity and repetition. Our research aims not only to devote due attention to these works, which are difficult to define and have had little repercussion until now, but also to create tools in order to read, analyze and create ways of performing that combine situations of presence with situations of absence. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 17/07311-2 - Other bodies: presence and performativity beyond the human
• Grantee: Renan Marcondes Cevales
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate