Performativity and Expressive Dissent in Portugal in the 1980s and the case of Pop Dell'Arte

Abstract

The analysis of a diverse set of sociability and cultural trends of the 1980s in Portugal allows us to observe the expansion of a dissident type of experimentalism and aesthetic performance which, going back to the vanguards of the early 20th century, is extended, in this decade, to the Portuguese culture. These demonstrations are an artistic expression in which performativity lato sensu plays a major role in the country's cultural and artistic renewal. The present study frames this phenomenon as a specific cultural manifestation of the Portuguese worldview in the 1980s, building up the paradigmatic case of the Pop Dell'Arte band as well as on possible historical reasons for its unfolding.