Talking through the body. Creating of common world and changing the community through a theatrical performance, a case study.

Sammanfattning: This thesis aims to present a practical example of how art can become an instrument capable of investigating, showing and facing a social problem. For doing so, art can overcome communication issues; secondly, it can create a “common world” of shared values that leads to changes in society. The ethnographic example shown here is set among the theatrical company of the KulturParken association (Uppsala, Sweden), which works with people with disability. The fieldwork focuses on the development and staging of their theatrical show “Sagan om Liv och Lust” which deals with the problem of sexuality and disability. The thesis structure follows two main arguments: communication process and evolution in society. The arguments are framed and analysed through the embodied knowledge concept and Turner’s theory about ritual in theatre, as well as through Kester’s dialogical and relational aesthetic theory and Rancière’s Dissensus one. This thesis highlights how disability arts and a disability aesthetic allowed the members of the company to develop a personal awareness, leading them to overcome self-imposed barriers and those imposed by society. Moreover, it shows how the receivers of the theatrical message become active actors themselves, carrying forward the communicative process.