SOCIETY FOR PHENOMENOLOGY AND MEDIA
The Artist as a Split-Self:
Toward a Definition of the Individual
Bodily Sphere in Contemporary Art
Jos David Romero Martn
University of the Basque Country
In what follows I propose a
phenomenological review of the role
of the artists body as a medium in
contemporary art. By means of a
transdisciplinary perspective and the
analysis of three different artistic
proposals, I address, firstly, a
pathological-phenomenological
notion of the artist as a Split-self;
and secondly, a consideration of the
artistic practice as auto-ethnographical
on the other, suggesting a concept of
Individual Bodily Sphere. Artists
body-world-spectator relationship will
be considered.
1. Introduction
From the 1960s the body acquires a
remarkable prominence in the
international contemporary scene,
with proposals such as those by the
Vienna Actionists, or those linked to
Body Art. In a great part of these
proposals, different social and cultural
issues are radically pointed out
through violent and disruptive bodily
experiences embodied by the artist.
Focusing on the artists body as a
medium in some of these proposals I
suggest a reconsideration of the
individual role of the artist, from early
works (R. Schwarzkogler, M. Rosler),
to more recent proposals (R. J.
Galindo). To do this, I start from the
consideration of art as an auto-
ethnographic practice, from which the
artist manifests a personal
experimentation of a series of
symptoms linked to a sensation of
disengagement from the world in
which her/him is included, what leads
her/him to be considered as a
pathological being.
In this regard, I suggest a notion of
the artist as a Split-self, a condition
that is corporeally manifested.
Through her/his practice the artist
creates the conditions for
experiencing a corporeal discomfort,
as a strategy to engage the spectator in
an individual and visceral way with
respect to a given reality. In these
conditions I affirm that the artist as
split and disengaged self from the
world, claims the need for an
individual bodily sphere of
experience, from which she/he points
out different problematic situations
from her/his immediate socio-cultural
context.
2. The Involvement of the Body in
Art Practice
In the evolution of art along the XX
century, the body achieved a
remarkable dimension in the aesthetic
experience, with a significant shift
from its presence as depicted object,
to be considered not only as a
referent, but also as the medium and
substance of the artwork (Warr 2000).
Artists such as M. Duchamp began to
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show this stage, through his
sculptures made from body casts, or
Y. Klein and his proposal
Anthropometries (1960), with
which the pictorial medium is
transgressed, giving way to a
performance proposal with a strong
presence of the body.
In the 1960s, proposals determined
in the Neo-concrete Manifesto by
several figures of Brazilian art (L.
Clark, H. Oiticica, among others) are
of particular relevance and have to be
mentioned. These artists manifested
the need for the entry of the body in
the aesthetic experience, considering
its special critical power, as well as an
expansion of the viewers
participation possibilities. They also
argued that there was an excessive
rationalism in the relationship with
artworks, which generates a distance
with respect to the spectator. In
relation to basic ideas taken from
Merleau-Ponty, they called for a
sensorial dimension, which could
dissolve the boundaries as well as
bring about transformations of the
relations between artwork and
spectator.
Moreover, it is necessary to
highlight the proposals by Vienna
Actionists along the 1960s, who came
across with a particular exhibition of
the body by different artists (O. Mhl,
R. Swarzkogler, G. Brus, among
others) in a radically transgressive,
devastating and violent way through
actions that include the wounded and
mutilated body as a main resource.
But it was not until the 1970s that
the artists body, individually present,
acquires a frequent presence as a core
of the claim to different socio-cultural
realities. Artists such as C. Burden, G.
Pane, M. Rosler, M. Abramovic,
Orlan, A. Mendieta or Stelarc, put on
the table some problematics such as
gender, power relations, technological
impact, etc, reflected in an uneasy,
vulnerable and pushed-to-the-limit body
(Solns 2000). In this line, there were
also some manifestations of an
individual threatened and fragmented
body, as that evidenced in R. Gobers
proposals between the 1980s and
1990s1.
We can currently find a clear
inheritance and continuation of these
practices in the committed proposals
by the Guatemalan artist R. J.
Galindo, whose work will be analyzed
in which follows.
3. Questions and Hypothesis
Among the diversity of issues
addressed through the different
artistic proposals above mentioned
that are going to be bracketed in this
paper, we can find a common ground
which is related to the body and the
figure of the individual artist as a core
from which different realities can be
pointed out. Another constant feature
seems to be a mainly violent or uneasy
bodily presence, which can lead us to
consider a direct relationship between
the emergence of the body and
discomfort. Which are thus the
implications of this body-discomfort
linkage in artistic practices?
On the other hand, we can observe
a reiteration of the artists individual
body manifestation. Does this
individuality respond to mere
autobiographical and solipsistic
intentions? Which elements should be
hence considered?
My hypothesis will take into
account, on the one hand, the violent
and uneasy nature of these bodies,
which seem to respond to
 SOCIETY FOR PHENOMENOLOGY AND MEDIA
pathological states; and the
consideration of the individual value
of the body on the other. In this way,
I start from the notion of the artist as
a split or pathological being, whose body
seems to be threatened by the social
environment and vindicates the
necessity of an individual bodily
sphere.
4. Objectives and Methodology
The main objectives of this
proposal will focus in deepening the
above addressed questions through a
transdisciplinary dialogue with the
fields of philosophy, anthropology
and art, focusing in the role of artists
body as a medium:
Define some of the elements
involved in the consideration of
the artist as a pathological and Split
being, as well as those aspects
referring a disengagement from
the world. To do this I will
primarily develop this notion
(referring both to the self and the
world), from a phenomenological
approach.
Identify some of the elements
involved in the so-called
individual bodily sphere so as
to deepen its implications in the
artistic field, mainly focusing on
the artistic practice as auto-
ethnographical, as well as the
notion of bodily emergence.
5. The Artist as a Split-self
I start from the consideration of the
artist as a Split-self, what is linked to
the manifestation of an apparent
pathological attitude concerning the
relationship between the embodied
subject and the world. What does this
notion imply? This idea is based on a
phenomenological approach to bring
about a perspective through which
placing the body in the core of the
issue.
This particular attention paid to the
body starts from the basic
consideration of the body as a surface
through which the subject engages the
world. D. Leder (1990) developes an
in-depth analysis of different
particularities of the lived body (Leib),
as it is experienced by the subject,
under de central paradigm of dys-
appearance (1). According to this
notion, the body goes normally
unnoticed (recessive nature), except in
concrete situations of dysfunction,
when it emerges, or becomes
thematized. In this sense, the
philosopher raises the idea of the
body as a threat. In his own words
(Leder 1990, p. 132):
The body draws his philosophical
attention particularly at times of
perceptual error, injury, madness,
disease, fatigue , excessive passion,
and pain. For it is at such times that
the body opacifies, clearly exhibiting
its role in experience.
This idea can be also related to the
wider sense of Husserls notion of the
body as a psychophysical system of
concordances, as I. de los Reyes
Melero develops (Jensen, Moran
2013, p. 103) or system of orthological
perceptions, in which the different
activities and syntheses go unnoticed,
and the respective opposite concept
of pathological system or system of
discordances (system of heteorological
perceptions) and the corresponding
psychophysical abnormalities that
emerge.
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All these notions seem to lead us to
observe a certain bodily claim or
attention attached to pathological,
split states, that can be considered as
the resource through which the artist
uses her/his own body as a point of
attention to refer to different concrete
realities.
To return to the issue of the figure
of the artist as a Split-self that has
been put forward, we can say it
responds to this phenomenological
sense of the body as brought to the fore
(Leder 1990, p. 130) by means of
some pathological symptoms, leading
us to take in consideration an abnormal
engagement with the world from the
point of view of the artists body. In
this sense, I suggest that there is a
relationship with unrest and
discomfort which is echoed in artistic
proposals that manifest an uneasy,
altered individual body that can recall
the spectators own bodily attention.
All things considered so far, I
propose a brief analysis of three
different artistic proposals that show
different manifestations of the artists
body from the 1960s to our days,
through which different ways of
disengagement and pathological
attitudes are shown: Wounded Body,
Resistant Body and Threatened Body.
A) Wounded Body
Under this notion I highlight the
proposal3rd Action (1965), a series
of photographs that record some
actions by Rudolf Schwarzkogler2,
member of the Viennese Actionism,
whose work manifests a pathological
attitude, through ficticious self-
mutilations and wounds, in contrast
with an aseptic and cold clinical
context that shows an extremely
vulnerable body. His discordant
relationship with the world is showed
by means of a wounded and mutilated
body, appealing the spectator through
a certain manifestation of individual
painful experiences. In this case, it is
through pain that a strong bodily
awareness seems to be recalled.
B) Resistant Body
In this case I refer to Semiotics of
the Kitchen (1975)3, a video work by
Martha Rosler, where the artist
performs a series of rigid and
humorous gestures by manipulating
different kitchen tools in a
nonsensical and absurd way, calling
into question assigned uses to objects
and the way language controls our
acts and identity. In this case, what is
interesting to this analysis is the
observation of how the artist seems to
show an intentional bodily discordance
that affects a normal engagement with
everyday objects, acting reluctantly
and showing a kind of resistance to
these objects and mechanized habits
by means of a deliberate stiff body.
C) Threatened Body
Lastly, I want to refer to
some proposals by the Guatemalan
performer Regina Jos Galindo4, such
as We lose nothing in being born
(2000) ,where Galindo places herself
into a trash bag in the middle of the
street, Shell (2010), a performance
in which the artist lays naked in fetal
position on the floor under a
transparent armoured space, while a
group of people are striking violently
the carapace; and Earth (2013),
where she places herself next to an
excavator, in the middle of a terrain
that is in the process of being
excavated. Galindo creates extreme
contexts that put the body -or bring it
 SOCIETY FOR PHENOMENOLOGY AND MEDIA
to the fore- in really vulnerable
situations, as the source to raise a
special attention through a triggering a special and uneasy interest
defenceless body facing the world,
and which is about to be hurt or
crashed.
In these three different analyzed
cases, the artists are individually
challenging the establishment by
means of behaving in a pathological-
abnormal way, taking in consideration
their bodily individuality as the core
of their claims. The alienating
approach can be interpreted as
symptom of a problematic subject-
world relationship, which can lead us
to consider them as disengaged subjects
from the world, with which they
manifest a discordant pathological
relationship.
6. The Claim for an Individual
Bodily Sphere in Art
Another of the constant features
pointed out concerning the artistic
practices addressed in this proposal, is
the question of individuality, through
the direct presence of the artists
body, which I define as an Individual
Bodily Sphere.
On the one hand, there is a special
sense of emergence in this notion
that concerns again the above
mentioned direct presence or
thematization of the body,
something which implies an specific
way of corporeal or bodily
engagement between the artwork and
the spectator through the above
referred awakening of bodily
awareness, that would go from this
individual bodily sphere of the artist,
from which she/he points out a
certain reality; to the bodily core of
the spectator, whose attention is
called in an almost visceral way,
towards her/his own bodily nature, as
it could happen in a pain experience
(Scarry 1985, Le Breton 1999). As C.
Ross points out (2006, p. 201) this
artworks would engage the viewer in
the experience of disengagement.
This can be also directly linked
again with the Dys-appearing body
notion (Leder 1990), referring to the
experience of being specially aware of
our body when there is some kind of
dys-function of whatever kind.
On the other hand, it is important
to make clear that this claim for an
individual space may not have
anything to do with autobiographical
or rather solipsistic issues. In fact, the
individuality of the artists body seems
to be aimed at highlighting some
aspects from her/his reality outside.
As the anthropologist T. J Csordas
proposes, our corporeal, embodied
condition must be taken into account
when referring to the socio-cultural
world in which we are involved.
Csordas (1994, p. 269) puts forward
the notion of paradigm of
embodiment as a methodological
standpoint in which the bodily
experience is understood to be the
existential ground of culture and self,
and therefore a valuable starting point
for their analysis.
Is in this sense that we should
consider the possibilities of the
individuality of the artists body as the
core or a space from which to
understand our engagement with the
world. Moreover, this can also lead us
to understand the artist as a
ethnographer. As it is defined in C.
Elliss essay (2004, p. 26)
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ethnography is first and foremost a
perspective (). This perspective
reflects a way of viewing the world
() and a way of being in the world
as an involved participant.
Hence, the role of the individual
body of the artist can be considered
under this view, at the service of
acquiring special and personal
perspectives of our environment, and
in particular from a destabilised,
discordant body.
Again according to the notion of
Split-self, it can be also linked to the
adoption of a distanced attitude
towards oneself and ones own
culture, which is in fact a common
step in the field of ethnography. F.
Alfano, in relation to the
manifestation of an extreme body
in art, mentions a notion of the artist
as a foreigner, arguing that feeling
oneself to be foreigner and uneasy is
setting oneself as a project, as a
special effect (2003, p. 93). In this
sense, the individual aspect in the role
of the artists body acquires an
ethnographical function that would
lead us to consider these artistic
proposals in terms of auto-
ethnographical practices, which start
from the concrete individual
experiences of the artist-
ethnographer, as a way to adopt new
perspectives about our socio-cultural
reality.
Lastly, the approach proposed by
Hurston (Valdez 2007) refers to the
ethnographer as a figure who adopts
certain languages and codes and who
distances herself/himself from
her/his own language, achieving even
grotesque attitudes so as to propose
an inversion of values concerning
certain problematics, and revealing
some aspects of reality in doing so.
This idea can be applied to the artistic
proposals that have been analyzed in
the preceding section of this paper.
The adoption of disengaged or
pathological attitudes can be thus
considered as a resource for the artist
to highlight different personal
disagreements with the world. In this
way, the individual aspect can be
considered with respect to an
ethnographical function that leads us
to examine these artistic proposals
that offer concrete individual
experiences of the artist as a way to
adopt new and unique perspectives
about the socio-cultural reality,
allowing her/him to challenge the
establishment.
7. Conclusions
So far I have suggested a
transdisciplinary approach to deepen
the implications of the presence of
the artists body in Contemporary Art.
On the one hand, I addressed the
question concerning the relationship
between the emergence of the body in
art and discomfort, as well as the notion
of the pathological attitude adopted
by the artist, that has resulted as a
claim to point out some problematics
aspects of the world.
On the other hand, I have
developed the notion of Individual
Bodily Sphere to better understand
this claim for a personal space by the
artist, which has lead us to observe
both phenomenological and
ethnographical implications. This has
driven us away from the idea of
solipsism or isolation, and in fact,
special ways of relationship with the
spectator bodily condition are
triggered.
Further research is needed to
deepen the dialogue and
 SOCIETY FOR PHENOMENOLOGY AND MEDIA

methodologies between different oposicin en las literaturas de los

disciplines such as philosophy, Estados Unidos, Revista de Antropologa
anthropology, art or psychiatry, so as social, n.17, p. 73-94
to inquire about the potential of the Warr, T., Jones, A. 2000, The artists body,
Phaidon, London
transversal notion of the individual
bodily sphere.
Notes
1For further information about the evolution
of the body in art from the avant-gardes
Works Cited period to the 2000s, see Guasch 2000 and
Alfano, F. 2003, Extreme Bodies. The use and Warr 2000.
abuse of the body in art, Skyra, Milan 2For further information about
Cmara, M. 2007, Apuntes para una Schwarzkoglers work see Solns 2000.
3See more about this and other Martha
historia de los usos del cuerpo en la
cultura brasilea: Lygia Clark y Hlio Roslers works in Electronic Arts
Oiticica, Crtica Cultural, v. 2, n. 2 Intermix. Web. 4 May 2015.
<http://eai.org/artistBio.htm?id=476>
Csordas, T.J.1994, Embodiment and 4See more about these and other Regina Jos
experience: the existential ground of culture Galindos works in her website. Web. 4 May
and self, Cambridge University Press, 2015.
Cambridge <http://www.reginajosegalindo.com>
Ellis, C. 2004, The Ethnographic I: a
Methodological Novel about Autoethnography,
AltaMira Press, Oxford
Guasch, A.M. 2000, El arte ltimo del siglo
XX. Del postminimalismo a lo multicultural,
Alianza, Madrid
Jensen R., Moran D. 2013, The
Phenomenology of the Embodied Subjectivity,
Springer, Cham, Heidelberg, New
York, Dordrecht, London
Le Breton, D. 1999, Antropologa del dolor,
Seix Barral, Barcelona
Leder, D. 1990, The absent body, University
of Chicago Press, Chicago & London
Waldenfels, B. 2011, Phenomenology of the
Alien. Basic Concepts, Northwestern
University Press, Evanson
Ross, C. 2006, The aesthetics of disengagement.
Contemporary art and Depression,
University of Minnesota Press,
Minneapolis & London
Scarry, E. 1985, The Body in Pain: the
Making and Unmaking of the World,
Oxford University Press, Oxford - New
York
-Solns P. 2000, Accionismo Viens, Nerea,
Hondarribia (Guipzcoa)
Valdez, C. 2008, Expresin
autoetnogrfica: consciencia de

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