Performance, Social Space, and Hospitality: Sociological Investigation of Participatory Art

Περίληψη

The objective of this text is to present narratives of artists and non-artists who participated in the platform Blind Date. Blind Date is a research and artistic platform that cultivates collaborative actions, with the cooperation of two different groups of people (artists/non-artists, visual artists/ poets, artists/refugees etc.), in connection with space and community. We will capture aspects of the discourse of the platform participants, who were investigated through in-depth interviews.

The research questions deal with issues of participation in the project: what is the relationship between the Blind Date experience and social space in each project? In what way is the artistic action connected with performativity? How do the participants perceive concepts such as cooperation, participation, and collectiveness in their practice? What is the connection between participation, hospitality, and performance in the narratives of the participants? What are their expectations from participating in Blind Date? How is the experience of participating in the project reflected? Did their participation in Blind Date influence their subsequent professional career?

The interview material was examined through discourse analysis and discursive psychology methodology (Potter & Wetherell 1987; Phillips & Jorgensen, 2002). The research and analysis were carried out within a sociological framework. It was important to examine sociological theories on art creators that enlighten and strengthen our analysis (Bourdieu 1993, 1995; Becker 1982, 1974; Heinich 2004; Elias 1982). Further, sociological approaches to collaboration (Becker 1974; Sennett 2012, Goffman 1972) enhanced our approach to the importance of participation, action, and performance in community and social space.

The results of the interviews depict interesting perspectives of the participants that interconnect their interaction in the platform with matters and terms of ‘social space’ and ‘time’, with ‘artistic practices’. The practices and actions include performative, bodily, and participatory aspects of the interaction process of the project. The terms mentioned above link the participants with the notions of performativity, social space/community, and hospitality.