The PERPHOTO research project dedicates its final international conference to the multiple challenges, opportunities, and limits that arise from the encounter and intersection between photography and performance, in theoretical and practical issues.

Apparently based on an ontological paradox, due to the ephemeral and eventual fictional nature of the performative act opposed to the petrification and alleged transparency of photography, the relationship between photography and performance opens a wide and challenging field of experimentation, rich in reciprocal suggestions, either in stage photography in its strictest sense, in the different forms of performed and staged photography, or through the appropriation of photography as dramaturgical issue or optical device in stage productions.

Although these topics have been addressed over time by scholars coming from different disciplines, such as visual culture, theatre studies and Performance Art, it still seems necessary to undertake an in-depth theoretical reflection, even beyond the possible practical applications. The processes, perspectives, and limits emerging from the intertwining of photography and performance still need to be questioned, considering, namely, the archive, the body, and the medium. 

The conference aims to stimulate a transdisciplinary debate and is open to contributions that critically discuss these issues, using any chronological or geographical focus, with a strong methodological implication.

The conference is organized by Filipe Figueiredo and Cosimo Chiarelli, within the research project: PERPHOTO – Performing the gaze, funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), and hosted by the Centre for Theatre Studies of the University of Lisbon.