David Bowie e la performance nell'arte visiva dagli anni Settanta ai Duemila

La figura di David Bowie si pone al confine tra arte performativa e visiva, soprattutto in relazione al suo uso del corpo in modo tale da esporre temi quali il travestitismo, la gender fluidity, la perdita di connotazioni umane per abbracciare quelle animali o robotiche, con un parallelo evidente con l'aspetto performativo della body art. --- Since the beginning, David Bowie’s artistic attitude was based on the concept that his body was a powerful communicative media. The encounter with choreographer Lindsay Kemp was fundamental for the genesis of his alter-ego Ziggy Stardust. With his deep interest in the history of visual arts, the closeness to artists like Richard Long, Hamish Fulton, Gilbert and George, Bowie is up to date on new trends in performance with groups like Fluxus, Wiener Aktionismus, Gutai, and other artists. From these early artistic events, Bowie assimilates and amplifies the theme of sexuality that meticulously builds up in his androgynous universe. This gender ambiguity seems to anticipate what will later happen in the visual arts: the asymmetric maquillage of Aladdine Sane can be associated with the post-human body deformations of Matthew Barney in Cremaster; the use of photography to divulge an iconic image of his body hypostasis (and particularly the collaboration with photographer Mick Rock) anticipates artists such as Vanessa Beecroft, Maurizio Cattelan, and Marina Abramovic; the use of his own body as a transformation surface and his frequent changes of look are similar to the artistic language of Louis Alders, Urs Luthi, Cindy Sherman, and Yasumasa Morimura.