A Co-genesis of Aesthetics and Sociability that Matters

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  • Title: A Co-genesis of Aesthetics and Sociability that Matters: From André Leroi-Gourhan’s Anthropology to Tino Sehgal’s Artworks
  • Author(s): Alexandra Bidet
  • Publisher: Common Ground Research Networks
  • Collection: Common Ground Research Networks
  • Series: The Arts in Society
  • Journal Title: The International Journal of Arts Theory and History
  • Keywords: Gestures, Rhythms, Anthropology, Aesthetic Surplus, Artwork, Sociability, Insertion into Existence
  • Volume: 14
  • Issue: 1
  • Date: February 06, 2019
  • ISSN: 2326-9952 (Print)
  • ISSN: 2327-1779 (Online)
  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.18848/2326-9952/CGP/v14i01/47-53
  • Citation: Bidet, Alexandra. 2019. "A Co-genesis of Aesthetics and Sociability that Matters: From André Leroi-Gourhan’s Anthropology to Tino Sehgal’s Artworks." The International Journal of Arts Theory and History 14 (1): 47-53. doi:10.18848/2326-9952/CGP/v14i01/47-53.
  • Extent: 7 pages

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Abstract

This paper advocates for a co-genesis of aesthetics and sociability. To understand this process, we need to rethink society as the product of the search for contact and insertion into existence, rather than as imposing itself onto the individual from the outside. This perspective draws on an analysis of the writings of the famous French paleontologist André Leroi-Gourhan and on the author’s participation into some artworks of Tino Sehgal. Both take as a starting point the human’s vital urge to create their own environment. Humans’ everyday aesthetic and social production is that of styles, rhythms, and forms. The first section explains how this human production of art and society is rooted in the specificity of the human body. The second part develops the meaning this co-genesis of aesthetics and sociability gives to sociability. The third section illustrates this process in the making by taking the example of an artwork of Tino Sehgal the author took part in. This artwork enables its visitors to experience and reflect on the co-genesis of aesthetics and sociability—and how it matters to them, by setting them in motion.