Between Monotony and Destruction: Urban Performance as Resistance
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Warwick
Department Name: Sch of Theatre, Perform & Cult Poli Stud
Abstract
In 1925, writer Stephen Zweig proclaimed inevitable monotonisation of cities that 'grow increasingly similar in appearance', foreshadowing an urban world united by McDonald's Arches and Starbucks coffee shops. In 2005, Paul Virilio, architect and thinker, predicted the death of metropolis and subsequently the end of the performance, referring to the terrorist attacks of 9/11 as 'the greatest work of art ever'. If contemporary city oscillates between monotonisation and destruction, can performance still function as an act of intervention? Are street performances and public projects means of reclaiming the city or simply death-defying acts?
This project explores the idea and practice of performing the city as a communal and personal means of counteracting both montonisation of urban landscape and the spectacle of its destruction. It examines the relationship between city and performance against the backdrop of political and cultural memory by focusing on cities especially charged with historical baggage, such as Berlin and St. Petersburg on the one side, and Sarajevo and Belgrade on the other, where the first and the last chapters of the 20th century European history were played out in most dramatic ways.
Although the link between performance and the city could be traced from the Athenian civic and religious festivals to the 1960's avant-garde, performances that violated the boundaries between theatre and city, audience and participants, outside and inside, thatre and performance have not been considered as modes of imagining and/or relating to the city. This omission is surprising, since modernist and postmodernist thatre and performance are deeply rooted in the urban context, expressing its fascination with the metropolis as a repository of cultural and political meanings and often appropriating urban space for performative interventions. The specific problems explored in this project arise from the lack of adequate research on urban performances in the area of theatre studies as well as from the need to approach the phenomenon of performing the contemporary city as a means of political, social and cultural critique.
This project aims to explore the link between theatre and the city as a lens through which both politics of place and intrinsic theatrically of its everyday life could be seen more clearly. Focusing on case studies from Belgrade, Sarajevo, St. Petersburg and Berlin, this project does not only deal with materials that have been very little (if at all) explored, but it also offers a new perspective on urban performance as expression of civic disobedience and as an act of survival, political cleansing and reconciliation. In addition, this project aims to itnroduce new conceptual approaches and terminology for interpreting the relationship between performance and the city in the area of thatre and performance studies.
The approach is interdisciplinary - combining thatre practice and theory with works in cultural and social studies, literary theory and social anthropology that explore the notion of the city as text and the idea of reading urban landscape as a complex structure of historical, cultural, spatial and socioeconomic meanings. The outcome of the research, a monograph, should appeal to both academic and more general readers with interest in performance practice and theory, political theatre, cultural and urban studies and the relationship between urban experience and issues of place, politics, history and memory. This study should also be informational and inspiring for artists in the area of theatre and performance, since it addresses creative strategies of performing the city, intervening, protesting and mobilizing the audience.
This project explores the idea and practice of performing the city as a communal and personal means of counteracting both montonisation of urban landscape and the spectacle of its destruction. It examines the relationship between city and performance against the backdrop of political and cultural memory by focusing on cities especially charged with historical baggage, such as Berlin and St. Petersburg on the one side, and Sarajevo and Belgrade on the other, where the first and the last chapters of the 20th century European history were played out in most dramatic ways.
Although the link between performance and the city could be traced from the Athenian civic and religious festivals to the 1960's avant-garde, performances that violated the boundaries between theatre and city, audience and participants, outside and inside, thatre and performance have not been considered as modes of imagining and/or relating to the city. This omission is surprising, since modernist and postmodernist thatre and performance are deeply rooted in the urban context, expressing its fascination with the metropolis as a repository of cultural and political meanings and often appropriating urban space for performative interventions. The specific problems explored in this project arise from the lack of adequate research on urban performances in the area of theatre studies as well as from the need to approach the phenomenon of performing the contemporary city as a means of political, social and cultural critique.
This project aims to explore the link between theatre and the city as a lens through which both politics of place and intrinsic theatrically of its everyday life could be seen more clearly. Focusing on case studies from Belgrade, Sarajevo, St. Petersburg and Berlin, this project does not only deal with materials that have been very little (if at all) explored, but it also offers a new perspective on urban performance as expression of civic disobedience and as an act of survival, political cleansing and reconciliation. In addition, this project aims to itnroduce new conceptual approaches and terminology for interpreting the relationship between performance and the city in the area of thatre and performance studies.
The approach is interdisciplinary - combining thatre practice and theory with works in cultural and social studies, literary theory and social anthropology that explore the notion of the city as text and the idea of reading urban landscape as a complex structure of historical, cultural, spatial and socioeconomic meanings. The outcome of the research, a monograph, should appeal to both academic and more general readers with interest in performance practice and theory, political theatre, cultural and urban studies and the relationship between urban experience and issues of place, politics, history and memory. This study should also be informational and inspiring for artists in the area of theatre and performance, since it addresses creative strategies of performing the city, intervening, protesting and mobilizing the audience.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Silvija Jestrovic (Principal Investigator) |