Ontology of Action: On the Breakthrough and Reconstruction of Legitimacy in the Theatricalization of Performance Art

This paper investigates the ontological foundations of performance art, focusing on how it transcends the “theatricalization” dilemma of conceptual art and reconstructs artistic legitimacy. It first outlines Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of embodiment and Nancy Fraser’s theory of the “subaltern counterpublic,” which provide the philosophical basis for bodily practice in art. Through the critical theories of Clement Greenberg and Michael Fried, the paper reveals how conceptual art, by emphasizing objecthood and contextual control, often falls into theatricalization and the “alienation” of artworks. In contrast, performance art relies on the artist’s bodily presence and immediate action, uniting creation with existence and resisting reduction to symbolic systems. Using Oleg Kulik’s Man-Dog series as a case study, the analysis shows how performance art, through its “eventhood,” “subject-object unity,” and the “liberation of social space,” transforms audiences from passive spectators into participants in unfolding events, thereby challenging institutional power and exhibition constraints. The conclusion argues that performance art replaces objecthood with action as the foundation of legitimacy, completing the transition from “art as object” to “art as existence.” By foregrounding the generative process of events, performance art reconstructs the ontological relationship between art and being, positioning itself as both an aesthetic and socio-political practice.