Performativity as a mode of perception: Art’s exit from the frame of history

Abstract

The article addresses the problem of methodology in contemporary art history, wherein the traditional notion of the linear development of art history creates a situation in which it becomes impossible to adequately describe contemporary artistic practices. Its point of departure is Hans Belting’s concept of the “frame” (Rahmung), according to which art remained enclosed within the framework of art history until the growing discrepancy between systems of description and classification led to its breaking out of the frame (Aus-Rahmung), rendering the former system inoperative. The author analyzes attempts to overcome this crisis through the work of Arthur Danto and Peter Osborne, both of whom sought to redefine “contemporary art” yet remained within the same logic of the frame. As an alternative, it proposes a shift in the key question guiding our engagement with art toward a performative model, drawing on the work of Erika Fischer-Lichte and Jacques Ranciere. The central principle of this model is an in focusing to the emergence of meaning within the event, rather than within a discrete object. Drawing on three works: Hammer by Alexander Ekman, Earthquake by musicAeterna Dance (choreographed by Jo Stromgren), and Gym Live Performance by Shortparis, the article demonstrates that performativity should be understood not as a genre or format, but as a mode of perception. In this mode, the artwork ceases to be an object of interpretation or deciphering and instead becomes a space of shared experience.