Prosthetic performances : artistic strategies, and tactics for everyday life

The prosthesis is an object filled with various values. In medical and rehabilitative discourses, prostheses are instruments that "fix" "dysfunctional" bodies. This article, instead, uses the disability studies perspective in which they are perceived as social, cultural and political actors. Their usage as well as rejection may be read as a political act and/or identity statement. This article analyses case studies of public acts of rejection of the prosthesis or the contrary - their excessive use. Prosthetic performances by individuals with disabilities drew the public's attention to broader social problems, such as the "technological fix" of people who do not perceive themselves as broken and the inaccessibility of the public sphere and public spaces. As it turns out, prostheses have been used to challenge the very notion of "disability.