This thesis seeks to unfold the concept of the ‘degree zero art’ as an artistic and cultural project as manifested in the practices of two very different artists, Milan-based Piero Manzoni (Soncino 1933- Milan 1963) and Rio-born Hélio Oiticica (Rio de Janeiro 1937-1980), during the second half of the twentieth century. Despite the clear contrasts between their works and their very different cultural formations, the thesis focuses on these artists in order to show how their practices align around the challenge to aesthetic categories, stylistic labels and political frameworks employed by much recent critical literature. In order to discuss intellectual and critical structures developed to narrate varieties of North American conceptual practices, this thesis proposes a new interpretative frame: a ‘degree zero aesthetics’, creating a transnational dialogue between the work of Manzoni and Oiticica. Borrowing from the understanding of zero proposed by the German Zero group at the beginning of the sixties, I argue that the idea of zero denotes a fresh start and constructive will; it therefore explains the process of erasing and rebuilding from scratch that has characterised the post-war generation. Alongside the process of construing an aesthetic around the notion of ‘zero’, this thesis aims to deconstruct popular sites of discourse around the tropes of ‘participation’ and ‘politics’, critically readdressing the historiography surrounding these themes. Lastly, this project attempts to discuss the literature on both artists, who have become paradigmatic of certain key movements and moments in Latin American and European art respectively, and in recent elaborations of global art histories.

À partir d'une enquête ethnographique sur les réceptions situées d'un tableau de Nicolas Poussin conservé au musée des beaux-arts de Lyon, cette thèse interroge la place de la visite au musée d'art dans les répertoires de loisir des classes moyennes et supérieures. Elle s'appuie sur trois matériaux principaux : environ 50 journées d'observations in situ de l'activité des visiteurs, 45 entretiens de réceptions menées au musée, et 18 entretiens biographiques portant sur les habitudes de visite de visiteurs occasionnels ou réguliers aux profils sociaux similaires à ceux arrêtés au musée. La thèse met en évidence l'importance du statut des œuvres dans l'orientation et dans l'allocation de l'attention des visiteurs. Cet usage pratique de la légitimité culturelle produit un paradoxe : le tableau examiné est considéré comme un chef-d'œuvre, mais il suscite peu d'intérêt esthétique. L'examen lexicométrique d'un corpus d'articles de presse consacrés au tableau confirme que cette réaction s'étend à des publics professionnels comme les journalistes. Le malaise que provoque cette contradiction témoigne de l'importance de la compétence artistique statutaire. La thèse examine alors la place des dispositifs de médiation dans la réduction de cet écart. On peut interpréter la tendance à la déconnexion entre leur usage et la contemplation des œuvres comme un signe de l'importance du discours autorisé de l'institution pour les visiteurs faiblement ou moyennement dotés en ressources spécifiques. Enfin, l'analyse des biographies de visiteurs montre le poids de l'injonction normative à la visite ainsi que l'importance de son inscription dans des routines de loisirs. / Drawing on an ethnographic study of the receptions of a Nicolas Poussin's painting curated at the Fine Arts Museum in Lyon, France, this dissertation analyses the position of museum visiting in the leisure repertoire of the middle and upper-middle classes. Three main data sources are used: about 50 days of observation of the activities of museum visitors, 45 reception interviews carried out inside the museum, and 18 biographical interviews on visiting habits with occasionnal or regular museum visitors. The dissertation sheds light on the central role of the artwork's status in their orientation and the distribution of their attention. This practical use of cultural legitimacy leads to a paradox: the painting is considered a masterpiece, but it has little aesthetic appeal. A lexicometric analysis of a corpus of newspapers articles confirms that this perspective may be extended to professional audiences, such as journalists. The unease this contradiction provokes in the audience is a reminder of the centrality of statutory artistic skill. The dissertation then analyses how mediation devices are used to fill this gap. The disconnection between the use of devices and the contemplation of the painting might be interpreted as the sign of how important the authorized, institutional discourse on the artwork is for visitors with low to average levels of specific resources. Finally, an analysis of visitors' biographies demonstrates that a normative injunction to visit greatly weights in visitors' practices, but that visits mostly occurs when they are embedded into leisure routines.

This is the first study to approach, both historically and theoretically, the emergence and development of performance art in Greece from the 1970s to the 2010s. Drawing on an interdisciplinary framework - including feminist theory, philosophy, sociology, art history, and more - the study aims to address an evident gap in histories of contemporary Greek art. The research begins with the emergence of performative artistic practices in the 1970s, in the conditions set out by the seven-year Dictatorship (1967-1974) and follows, selectively, the complex trajectory of these practices while investigating their connection with wider socio-political and economic developments. The thesis should not be read as a survey, despite being the first book-length analysis of Greek performance art in both English and Greek. The material included here has been selective (drawn out of years of field research) and yet presents, and represents, the spectrum of themes and positions making up the history of performance art in Greece. My contention is that the rise and establishment of performance art in Greece reflected both the political ferment of the time (early 1970s) and an enquiry into the possibility of flight from traditional media. The dual aim of this study is, first, to facilitate and encourage the integration of performance art in a revised Greek art history; and, second, to contribute to an expansion of performance art histories in an international context through the negotiation of hitherto unknown material synthesised in a study of adequate length. This thesis has required large-scale in situ research and overcoming the major obstacle of the absence of relevant publicly held archives. This was one reason why even an elementary linear history of performance art had been such an overwhelming task in the past; a second reason is the overall marginalisation of performance art theory in the Greek context. Through the Greek paradigm, the thesis illuminates new aspects not only of performance but also of post-performative participatory practices, engaging new conceptualisations. By identifying fundamental issues in the production, dissemination, and reception of performance art in Greece, I provide a critical analysis not only of its achievements and potential but also of its impasses and failures. My intention in undertaking this research has been to disprove the notion - implied or stated as a matter of fact in histories of contemporary Greek art - that performance art has had only a sporadic and inconsistent presence in this 'periphery' scene. I argue that the artists investigated in this study are conclusively part of the history of performance in the 20th and 21th centuries, thereby setting the terms and calling for further research on the subject.