ABSTRACT


SEXUAL CONSTRUCTION AND PERFORMATIVITY
ANALYSIS OF THE PROJECT THREE SKINS ON A BODY


Gender studies not only give consideration to the inequality of women; they also have opened new fields of research as studies on female or male identity and on sexual diversity. This has led to an increasing raising of consciousness, visualization and valuation on women, gays, lesbians, transsexuals, transvestites and bisexuals, which is confirmed when we look at the many scientific and artistic studies developed over the years, especially in the '90s. The theoretical component of the present thesis is based on both gender studies and queer theory, which are the main pillars that were consolidated through the concepts developed by Michel Foucault, Judith Butler and Beatriz Preciado, among many others.

The definition of performance includes all currents of action, gesture and movement. For the performer, his/ her body is the experimental instrument and that element in which the experiment takes place, both at the same time. We will no longer talk about work, but rather about artist work. In our research we analyze the relationship between performance and performativity, the latter one understood as the notion linked to a conception of the social as an open field of power relations, where all contingent and precarious identity leads to a politicization of identity, which means a second step beyond its mere denaturalization. Identity is the place from which we must articulate a policy of resistance, and its openness and incompleteness is what allows its resignification.

Our skins are agents through which we extract the knowledge of our bodies; and they also show the identities. Being in those skins, we will be able to feel, observe, learn, teach, expose and decode through the living and complex mirror we are. We could say that the skin is constantly changing over time, life, body and mind. We start to die the very first moment we arrive in the world.

For the practical application of our research in the artistic field, we use performances and multicultural reflections as creative means through which we intend to know and analyze internationally notorious artists like Esther Ferrer, Juan Hidalgo, Pierre Molinier or Flavio de Carvalho. Our creative work analyzes and takes its own position in this issue through the three heteronyms, in order to visualize three female stereotypes: Three gender roles that are deeply rooted in our culture and determine roles ranging from religiosity, gender violence, independence and prostitution, which in our society are considered common situations, situations we must resolve.