Riconoscere l’umano: l’esperienza con le performance e l’applicazione del concetto di ‘arte’

In this article, I propose some reasons to explain the relationship between experience with performances and the difficulties in applying the concepts of ‘work of art’ and ‘art’ to them. The hypothesis I formulate is that the performances are works of art that, by causing interferences in the conceptual application, encourage an imaginative activity that projects human limits and possibilities – including those in the use of concepts. This would happen because in the experience with the performances we are influenced by a sort of ‘aesthetic reflexivity’: namely, acknowledging the human – since we are human beings – we are not always able to appeal to the right concepts.