El cuerpo del artista: Una intervención política en la emisión televisiva

Abstract

Rosalind Krauss wonders in her text "Video: The Aesthetics of Narcissism" (1976): what would it mean to say "the medium of video is narcissism"? On this question the author analyzes what body and action mean in relation to the video and the new artistic context it provides. McLuhan had previously referred to the myth of Narcissus, who was in love with his own image, in "Understanding Media Communication. The extensions of man" (1964). This sensitivity on self-perception becomes more complex with the advent of electronic and computer systems that promote the spread and recurrence of the image itself. On the one hand, McLuhan´s proposal brings to light the critical field of the media and its growing influence on society and especially on everyday life. On the other hand, although Krauss´s question focuses on the context of video art, it serves as a starting point to analyze how the body and performativity are specifically inserted in the field of television. From this standpoint and always looking for the interconnections, frictions and collisions of artistic practice with the media, some examples (in wich the artist´s examination of his body and actions embody a political intervention in the television flow) are analyzed. An intervention is always an act of resistance, as television is a space in which hegemonic power systems are entrenched and wherein discourses, attitudes and lifestyles are equated. In this sense, the work of pioneers such as Ernie Kovacs and the television appearances of such seemingly disparate artists as Fred Forest, Mathieu Laurette, James Lee Byars and Chris Burden become an important benchmark.