Being and Body

Abstract

This thesis explores the connections between the artistic practice of Jerzy Grotowski and the philosophy of Martin Heidegger. Specifically it seeks to examine the potential for Grotowski style performance to cultivate access to what Heidegger describes as ‘the clearing’. To begin I examine the similarities in the poetics of both Heidegger's writing and the practical work conducted by Grotowski in order to establish potential avenues of inquiry for my research. Once I have identified specific areas for investigation a series of live performance experiments, designed to cultivate access to ‘the clearing’, were undertaken so as to explore these connections in an embodied manner. The remainder of the paper is focused on analyzing the textural descriptions of participants' experiences of ‘the clearing’ in order to expand our understanding of the phenomenon. Overall this project hopes to expand the academic understanding of how we engage with philosophy and what constitutes valid knowledge in the field.