Performing Artists' Identities and Antagonistic Appeals (1902-1955)

Abstract

In this paper we will analyze the working conditions of artists during the first five decades of the 20th Century. In the first section, we will focus on the characteristics of the commercial organization of performing arts, as well as on the emergence of the associations and unions that gathered the diverse agents of the sector and on the conflicts and identities that arose in the biennium 1919-1921. We will also look into the legislation and the limited role played by the State, both national and municipal, regarding the working conditions of the artists. Finally, we will analyze the incursion of the artists in the political field. In the second section, we will consider the imaginary imposed by the independent theatre that, in order to transmit an emancipatory message to spectators, displaces the relations of production to the exterior of artistic activity, constructing the figure of artists as an activists. Conversely, the first Peronism tried to privilege the labor dimension of all activities, even cultural ones, thus appealing to artists as workers. We consider that deeper conflicts underlie in this dispute, such as the mutual influence between the State and artistic production, or the connections that culture and arts have with the world of work.