當我們對於表演藝術作品的存有狀態進行思考時，會發現一個有趣的問題。比如說一首樂曲，它必須要在被演奏之中才能存在。但是每一次的演奏都不可能是完全相同的，而且演奏者也不會想要讓每次的演奏都相同，因為表演藝術的一項特性就是它因著演出時空的不同，而有不同效果的表演。在此我們遇到一個情況：這一件作品每次出現的面貌都是「不同的」，可是我們總是說它是「同一件」作品。這裡我們面臨一個抉擇：到底是表演藝術的作品不具同一性呢，還是它的同一性與我們一般所認知的有差別呢﹖本文擬從表演藝術的作品不具同一性呢，還是它的同一性與我們一般所認知的有差別呢﹖本文擬從高達美（Hans-Georg Gadamer, 1900-）對於藝術經驗的分析出發，指出表演藝術作品的同一性乃是藝術經驗整全性的一種表現，而非一般物體的同一性。

　　　　　When we consider the “Mode of being” of a work of performance art, we encounter an interesting problem. A piece of music, for instance, must exist in its being played. Every performance of the same piece, however, cannot be the same. The performer doesn't intend to play the piece exactly the same, if it can be avoided. This is because an important aspect of performance art is that it can manifest itself in different ways in different situations. The problem we now have is that every performance of any piece is “not identical”, but we consider it to be “identical”. We now have to choose whether any performance has its own identity or whether it is identified with the work. I try to consider this choice from Hans-Georg Gadamer's analysis of the experience of art, which indicates that the identity of the work of performance art is not that of a common physical object, but comes from the integration of the experience of art.