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Abstract

In the first decades of the twentieth century, the act of participating in any form of artist gathering was one of the defining characteristics of the historical avant-gardes. The aim of this essay is to analyze the modalities and implications of group formation and collective speaking in the context of the avantgardes, taking into account the often heterogeneous objectives and the different contexts of these collective undertakings and discourses. Special attention will be devoted to the discursive articulation of group formation – the use of a performative ‘we,’ alongside concepts such as ‘group’ or the label of a movement – with attention also being paid towards the distinct tension between groups as institutionalized phenomena and groups offering alternative ways of social organization (apart from established artistic or institutional circles).