The exposition of a singular whatever body:

performativity and discursitivity in the dance performance SOB Medida

Abstract

Parting from a phenomenological description of the performance SOB Medida, which exposes on stage two heavy female bodies, this paper discusses how in this choreography its performative and discursive dimensions intersect each other in the defense of the existence of a heavy female body. It asks to what extent the directing of the spectators’ attention now to its physical dimension, now to its social dimension destabilizes and denaturalizes the relation between both. It affirms that this criss-crossing of focus in SOB Medida forms a critically festive celebration of the human body as an any-body, but also a singular body, a being-such, in a movement that can be read as a defense of a political identity as action, but emptying it as a substantial category. Finally, parting from the reflection of Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben on the existence of a radical hospitality written into this singular being-such, the paper reads the alternation between performative and discursive aspects in the bodies’ interactions on stage as a metaphor able to evoke, materialize and explore the potentials of a coming community that Agamben’s thinking points at.

Keywords: Cacomorphobia – Performative Corporality – Discursive Corporality – Community – Agamben