Farsa, forma y performance : discurso slapstick en el arte contemporáneo

Abstract

This thesis questions the slapstick excessiveness as a fundamental key in today’s art expression. Taking the figure of the silent clown as a strategist of the hysteria in postmodern and contemporary context, the brutality of the comedian in Mack Sennett’s films and his philosophy of disaster are the primary focus of our hypotheses. This research supports certain theories that determine “the absolute peak point of the art of cinema in the American slapsticks,” and oppose others that recognize the primitive American comedy as “a great era that concludes with the end of silent cinema.” In between, the grotesque in the form and performance art is the principal motivation of this investigation. In addition to Vattimo’s nihilism and weak thought, plus the absurd condition of the human factor, the silent comedy and contemporary art establish their connection via certain theories, such as Paul Ardenne’s contextual art or Hervé Fischer’s sociological theory, to reach the nonsense that science observe through the Theory of Chaos and Quantum Physics. A better understanding of the satiric and confusing landscape of slapstick aesthetic today, as well as its absurdity, noncommons sense and social significance, are the central goals of this dissertation.