Art Term

Performativity

The term performativity describes the interdependent relationship between certain words and actions – as when a word or sentence implies an action

Tania Bruguera
Tatlin’s Whisper #5 (2008)
Tate

© Tania Bruguera

The term was first introduced by the theorist J. L. Austin in his 1955 book How to Do Things with Words. Austin used the word performative to describe a sentence that was also an action; like uttering the words ‘I name this ship the Queen Elizabeth’ while smashing a bottle against the boat. Other examples would be a judge declaring a verdict, or two people saying ‘I do’ upon being asked whether they take their partner in marriage.

This symbiotic or interdependent relationship between words and actions that the performative encompasses is a key aspect of performance art, with theorists and philosophers examining the role of actions, gestures and artistic decision-making through the idea of performativity. Since Austin’s first use of the word, there have been many philosophers who have elaborated on performativity including John Searle, Jacques Derrida and Judith Butler.

A work like Tania Bruguera’s Tatlin’s Whisper in which two mounted policemen perform crowd control with the audience submitting to their commands is an example of performativity.

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Related terms and concepts

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  • Performance art

    Artworks that are created through actions performed by the artist or other participants, which may be live or recorded, spontaneous or scripted

  • Live art

    The term live art refers to performances or events undertaken or staged by an artist or a group of artists as a work of art, usually innovative and exploratory in nature

  • Feminist art

    Feminist art is art by artists made consciously in the light of developments in feminist art theory in the early 1970s

  • Interactive art

    Interactive art describes art that relies on the participation of a spectator

  • Happening

    Happenings were theatrical events created by artists in the late 1950s and early 1960s

  • Conceptual art

    Conceptual art is art for which the idea (or concept) behind the work is more important than the finished art object. It emerged as an art movement in the 1960s and the term usually refers to art made from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s.

  • Art intervention

    The term art intervention applies to art designed specifically to interact with an existing structure or situation, be it another artwork, the audience, an institution or in the public domain

  • Actionism

    Actionism is the English version of the general German term for performance art, specifically used for Vienna-based group Wiener Aktionismus founded in 1962 whose actions were deliberately shocking, often including self-torture

Explore this term

  • Performance of Yvonne Rainer's The Mind is a Muscle: Trio A, Judson Memorial Church, Greenwich Village, New York, 1966

    Actions speak louder

    Sally O'Reilly

    The Underground chambers of the old power station at Bankside, where oil once lurked with electric potential, will soon open to the public with a programme dedicated to art that has traditionally sat uneasily within a museum collection. Large installations and interdisciplinary works will feature strongly, while the South Tank will be dedicated to the presentation of live performance.

  • Roni Horn Images from This is Me This is You 1998 to 2000

    Faces that speak volumes

    Elisabeth Lebovici

    Can a book with no text paint a portrait of a writer? Elisabeth Lebovici examines the challenging representation of identity in Roni Horn’s work

Selected artists in the collection

Selected artworks in the collection

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Performativity at Tate

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