The Centro de Estudos em Artes Performativas (CEAP) gathers a group of teachers and researchers from the Faculty of Human Movement of the University of Lisbon (FMH-UL) whose research approach a culturally contextualized study of performative arts, in the perspective that the identity processes are signaled, formed and negotiated through the movement of the body.

The English term 'performative' was first used by John L. Austin in 1955 in a series of conferences entitled 'How to do things with words'. Austin was a philosopher of language who discovered and defended the transformative power of discourses. At the same time, in the field of artistic production, from the 1960s onwards an artistic trend coined as "performance art" emerged. This trend overflowed the conventional classifications in the arts, and developed in the borders of plastic arts, dance, music and theater, and placed above all the body in the centrality of its productions. In the late 1980s, with Judith Butler and other theorists, a renewal and expansion of the performative concept took place. The representational presupposition of artistic languages was questioned, considering what was happening in the field of art itself. In many studies, the notion of 'performativity' has been adopted alongside or substituting the notion of 'expressiveness'. Traditionally called 'performing arts' (theater, dance, music, circus) began to be rethought in the scope of performance, extending to modalities previously considered outside the field of art.
The current use of the term 'performative aesthetics' regards research domains that focus on the founding presence of the body and movement in the processes of creation and reception.

The Centro de Estudos em Artes Performativas (CEAP) covers the following areas:

• Documentation and interpretation - The transience of performative phenomena and their intangibility create additional needs focusing issues such as the registration, inventorying and treatment of performative events.

• Iconography of the body and human performance - This line of research develops the analysis and interpretation of the processes of representation of body and performance considering the diachronic and synchronic axes.

• Lusophony and identities - From the notion of expressive culture, we intend to analyze the phenomena of interculturality, multiculturalism and cultural exchanges, while considering the porosities and impermeability of social groups

In addition to the research activities, the CEAP´s  mission is also  to act as a platform for  disseminating artistic and academic events in the domain of performing arts.

More info: https://ceapfmh.wordpress.com