Presence, co-presence, authenticity principles of questioning the intimate in one-to-one performance
Presence, co-presence, authenticity principles of questioning the intimate in one-to-one performance

Summary/Abstract: The relational experiments of one-to-one performance make the promise of offering a psycho-emotional intimate encounter, understood as unique and ephemeral. The theoretical discourse about intimacy in per-formance art usually is determined by the dramaturgical and ethical principles of an (a)“live”, co-presence, and authenticity in the performer-public dialogue.The paper analyses the work The Artist is Pre-sent by Marina Abramović and Mădălina Dan’s performance The Agency of Touch, questioning a perspec-tive of understanding these principles as essentialist aspects of one-to-one performance.These works are analysed starting from the dramaturgical dimension of the principles of co-presence and authenticity – coordinates that would be constitutive for a present-oriented ontology of performance art (Phelan, Gomme, Zerihan). I also discuss the two works, based on the ethical dimension of co-presence and authenticity – using Emmanuel Levinas’ and Martin Buber’s dialogical philosophy. I demonstrate how the performer’s authenticity is constituted in these performances as a self-reflective and not an interrela-tional process, as it is claimed by the artists. Moreover, the co-presence does not function as a symmet-rical one-to-one affective dialogue, but as a hierarchical positioning of the performer. Finally, I argue that, based on these principles, the model of relating in both of these performances might create an experience of collective participation.

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