My body, our protest : from performance practices towards political activism
Laitinen, Oona (2025)
2025
All rights reserved. This publication is copyrighted. You may download, display and print it for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025052716615
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025052716615
Tiivistelmä
The thesis explores the intersection between performance art and activism. It focuses on how performance art and the body can be utilized as a tool for political activism and what these concepts have in common.
The theoretical framework of the thesis was built upon theories of the body, 21st century discussion on the similarities of performance art and activism, as well as Hannah Arendt's theory of action in general. Arendt’s key concepts of action, arkhein and prattein, were introduced. Arkhein means to ‘begin’ or ‘to lead’ and prattein is the completion of that action. Later, Arendt’s concept of arkhein was used to analyse two performance pieces: one by Carlos Martiel and another by CASSILS.
These two case studies examined how the two artists utilized their bodies as a political tool in their performances that were highly socio-politically charged. The author’s performance, WORK_LIVE – performing body’s desire to refuse work, served as the artistic project of the thesis. The aim of the performance was to examine labour and refusal of work through art and criticize performative nature of wage labour in our society. A link between ideology and wage labour was introduced as a result of WORK_LIVE.
Many similarities between performance art and activism were found. For example, how the usage of one’s body in performance as well as in a protest are similar to each other—both are bodily interventions that happen in a certain space and have a set duration in time.
The results of the thesis suggest that the body is something that unites performance art and political activism together. By utilising the body as stage for different power structures, many different cultural and societal discourses can be criticized. From the author’s artistic project rose the idea of ideology of wage labour that could be examined closer in further research. Collective action can be used to challenge ideological practices and performance art can be seen as a form of collective action. This could help with, for example, with the ideology critique of labour in the future.
The theoretical framework of the thesis was built upon theories of the body, 21st century discussion on the similarities of performance art and activism, as well as Hannah Arendt's theory of action in general. Arendt’s key concepts of action, arkhein and prattein, were introduced. Arkhein means to ‘begin’ or ‘to lead’ and prattein is the completion of that action. Later, Arendt’s concept of arkhein was used to analyse two performance pieces: one by Carlos Martiel and another by CASSILS.
These two case studies examined how the two artists utilized their bodies as a political tool in their performances that were highly socio-politically charged. The author’s performance, WORK_LIVE – performing body’s desire to refuse work, served as the artistic project of the thesis. The aim of the performance was to examine labour and refusal of work through art and criticize performative nature of wage labour in our society. A link between ideology and wage labour was introduced as a result of WORK_LIVE.
Many similarities between performance art and activism were found. For example, how the usage of one’s body in performance as well as in a protest are similar to each other—both are bodily interventions that happen in a certain space and have a set duration in time.
The results of the thesis suggest that the body is something that unites performance art and political activism together. By utilising the body as stage for different power structures, many different cultural and societal discourses can be criticized. From the author’s artistic project rose the idea of ideology of wage labour that could be examined closer in further research. Collective action can be used to challenge ideological practices and performance art can be seen as a form of collective action. This could help with, for example, with the ideology critique of labour in the future.