Behind the mirror: rereading theatricality in Luciano Fabro's Allestimento Teatrale

"In the 1967 article ""Art and Objecthood,"" the American art critic Michael Fried faults Minimalist sculpture for its inherent theatricality. Theatricality, as he defines it, results from the form's anthropomorphic scale and sense of hollowness that imply a presence, like that of a human body, inside the work. The dialogical relationship between the viewer and this interior presence becomes a spectacle. I intend to examine Fried's definition of theatricality alongside the work of the Arte Povera artist Luciano Fabro, who utilizes familiar Minimalist-like forms as containers for real human bodies. In a scantly documented performance piece Allestimento teatrale: cubo di specchi [Theatrical Staging: Mirror Cube], (1967/75), Fabro presents a theatrical performance with an audience seated around a large mirror cube listening to a monologue performed by an actor sealed inside the cube. Since its inception in the late 1960s, the Italian Arte Povera movement has been described, among other things, as a critique of Minimalism. The group read Minimalist sculpture as a reflection of an alienating technological system of American capitalist production. As I argue, Fabro's construction of presence renders it an affectation, a manipulation of the public audience, and further that the reflection of the audience on the sides of the mirror cube allows for the formation of a collective subject. But what are the implications of such developments in a movement opposed to American influence and in the midst of the turbulent political environment of late 1960s and 1970s Italy?"

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Art History

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2010

Author dc:creator

• Thomas, David

Contributors dc:contributor

• Small, Irene V.

• Arte Povera
• Luciano Fabro
• Theatricality

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2010 David A. Thomas

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/16505

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/16505