Under the title “The presence of the elsewhere in the now (Die Gegenwart des Anderswo im Jetzt)”, the festival Theaterformen, which took place in Braunschweig in June 2010, devoted a full weekend to debating issues of colonialism and racism. Within the context of this colloquium, which opened up diverse, partly conflicting perspectives on the topic’s complexity in talks, debates, performances and video installations, a dramaturgy of heterogeneity allowed visitors to carve their own itinerary amongst people and things. The following considerations should be understood as an initial ex post mapping of an individual path through events. In the process, lines are of necessity drawn to reading and theatre experiences that were and are relevant at other times and in other contexts.
In this interview Professor Brian Singleton gave us upon leaving Berlin and the Centre he complicates terms like Orientalism, Interculturalism and Interweaving. In Ariane Mnouchkine’s performance “Les Naufragés du Fol Espoir” he perceives an ethically conscious Intercultural he generally believes to not have happened yet.
As I have argued in my recent book The Transformative Power of Performance, performances epitomize the state of in-betweenness. These states give rise to performances, because they take place through the bodily co-presence of those who perform and those who look on. Whatever the performers do affects the participating spectators; and whatever the spectators do affects the performers and other spectators. Thus, a performance comes into being only during its course. It arises from the interaction of performers and spectators.
Upon leaving in July 2010 Professor Daryl Chin is giving us an interview about his time and experiences at the Centre for Interweaving Performance Cultures from 2009-2010. Therein Daryl shares his perspectives on the development and specificity of art under the conditions of the Modern.
Daryl maintains a cultural blog, Documents on Art & Cinema.
