Performative histories
Performative histories

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses the aesthetic approach to history treated as an example of performative actions. The changes in understanding the past, observable in culture, can be examined in two ways: on a macro-scale, as manifestations of the processes known as the theatricalization and aestheticization of reality, and on a micro-scale, the objects of interest being concrete examples of artistic and social events referring to history. The article presents the main stages in the development of art which contributed to giving it the attributes of performance and provides examples of artistic and social narratives alternative to official history. The author analyzes the circumstances that have been conducive to the development of certain similarities between modern representations of history in art and the attitudes towards the past in daily life. The scope of this study covers the period from the division of arts into spatial and temporal through the happening and performance of the neoavant- garde period, to the artistic representations of the past in the recent decades. The activity of the performers have contributed to the increased interest in the problems of individual and collective identity. An immense role in changing the attitude towards history has been also played by the use of the new media, revealing the mechanisms for constructing historical narratives. The examples of performative histories include, among many others, the activities of Ośrodek Brama Grodzka – Teatr NN [the Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre Centre] in Lublin, representations of the Holocaust by critical art, and individual and collective forms of constructing images of the past in popular culture.

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