Practical Latvian : male vulnerability in performance art

Abstract

In this paper I am looking into gendered marketing that narrows down to gendered objects and human skills and brings me to my main research question – why male vulnerability is an important topic in performance arts? I will identify and interpret the most acknowledged examples of Euro-American performance artists in 20th and 21st century that have addressed the topic of the social norms regarding gender behaviours in their work or specifically have used their body as an object for an artwork. The artists have been selected from the book “The Artists Body” that has archived the most significant 20th century performance artists. I will use my own life experience as a male growing up in an environment that is cultivating specific human skills related to a certain gender and use this autobiographical content for the creation of the piece Practical Latvian.