Attitude of art, art attitude: the performatic Dandyism of Gilbert & George

Abstract

The article deals with the relationship between Dandyism and the performance work developed by Gilbert & George. We intend to demonstrate how the idea of living sculpture was aligned with the rigorous discipline of the technology of the self, through which artists transcended the process of representing the scene. We will present how the notions of the attitude of art and the art of attitude, introduced in the performance by Gilbert & George, were associated with the processes of subjectivation of Dandyism that gave life to an aesthetic character. This body practice introduced in art has contributed to a post-dramatic attitude. We intend to point out how Dandyism relates to the performance work of Gilbert & George in the process of "de-dramatization" and is partly responsible for reorganizing the perceptual patterns of the scene and the relation of the artist to his own body. Our hypothesis starts from the question of the body-art, observing how the practices of the culture of the self contribute to the reinvention of the artist as a work of art.