Constative statements in art generate an agreed relationship between the signifier and signified. On the contrary, performative statements can entirely redefine the relationship between the signifier and signified. In the master's thesis we study the relationship between constative and performative artistic statements. We begin from the theory of linguistic performativity put forward by J. L. Austin and apply it to the artistic statement. We set the constative and the performative as two fundamental, contrastingly opposite ways of artistic expression, which we try to define within characteristics of the art subject, art object and art space. The focus is put on the analysis of twenty-seven Slovene and foreign intermedia avant-garde art forms, in which more or less the condition of betwixt and between constative and performative statements are present. We strive to show the inseparability of constative and performative artistic statements and stress the need for a revitalized acceptance of art, which mutually draws from constative and performative characteristics.
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