Sociology of the artistic action

Sociology of the artistic action

Ilaria Riccioni

Free University of Bozen

What is a social action and what is an artistic action? What are the characteristic that allow a sociological reflection on a social action that gives form to a new world elaborated by creative individuals? According to Georg Simmel “All the human operations are nothing but ways in which we enter practical relation with the environment” so how can an essay by Artaud, the action of the avant-gardes of futurism, Dadaism, vorticism be understood as the re-elaboration of a given social and historical context? How can we interpret the artistic action if not within a social action with a certain given aim and motivation elaborated by a given social, historical and political situation?

The intent of this paper is to analyze some art works within their specific context in order to find out how the Weberian social action, and the criticism that Alfred Schutz moved to it through the concept of “multiple realities”, can grasp the multiple layers of art as part of the social action.