Gesellschaftsspiele
The Art of Assembly
With Ahmed Al-Nawas, andcompany&Co., Athena Athanasiou, Marco Baravalle, Anna Clara Basilicò / Rise Up For Climate Justice, Merve Bedir, Z. Blace, Claire Bishop, Claudia Bosse, Tania Bruguera, Judith Butler, Teodor Celakoski, Jodi Dean, Die Vielen, Radha D’Souza, Didier Eribon, Marcelo Expósito, Caitlin Fisher, Benjamin Foerster-Baldenius / raumlaborberlin, Michael Gabriel, Max Haiven, Trajal Harrell, Satu Herrala, Edit Kaldor, Oliver Marchart, Markus Miessen, Alia Mossallam, Chantal Mouffe, David Mulder van der Vegt, Antonio Negri, Ahmet Öğüt, Marina Otero Verzier, Sibylle Peters, Julia Ramírez-Blanco, Milo Rau, Oliver Ressler, School of Resistance, Jonas Staal, Sarah Waterfeld/Staub zu Glitzer, Nora Sternfeld, The Church of Stop Shopping, The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination (Labofii), Lotte van den Berg, Eva von Redecker, Dana Yahalomi / Public Movement, Ann Liv Young et al.
Hosted by Florian Malzacher
XVIII: BODY NEXT TO BODY: GATHERING MASSES IN SPORT EVENTS (with Z. Blace, Caitlin Davis Fisher, Michael Gabriel, Florian Malzacher)
activism Affect/Emotion Agonism Antagonism Anti-Racism Architecture Art Art/Artists Art Institutions Artistic Activism Artistic Intervention Assembly Black Lives Matter Bodies Capitalism Care Change Chantal Mouffe Civil Disobedience Climate Crisis Collective Decision Making Collectivity Consensus Covid19 Crisis of Representation Decision Making Deliberation Demands Democracy Demonstrations Extractivism Feminism Financial Crisis Future General Assembly Institutions Judith Butler Occupation Occupy Movements Occupy Wall Street Parliament Participation Performative Assembly Podcast Police Violence Presence Public Space Representation Resistance Social Injustice Social Media Social Movements Society Solidarity Square Occupations Theatre Theatricality USA Workers
Whether in Tunis, Cairo, Madrid, or Lisbon, in Athens, New York, London, or Istanbul, in post-Fukushima Tokyo, in the midst of Niemeyer’s iconic parliamentary architecture in Brasilia, under the umbrellas of Hong Kong, or on the streets of Minneapolis: social and political movements of recent years have often been characterised by their search for alternative forms of gathering, of arguing and making decisions, of negotiating community and society. The potential of these assemblies lies in more than just the demands they put forward; many of them change reality merely by practicing radical models of democracy.
The arts have also shown a renewed interest in concepts of gathering and creating public spheres in which society is not only mirrored but constantly tried out, performed, tested, reimagined, or even reinvented: Court hearings on artistic freedom, religion, and censorship; tribunals on exploitation and violence; summits on climate change or cultural policy; parliaments allowing those who are usually silenced to speak... Theatre in particular has become a stage for assemblies on the fine line between art and reality, a democratic arena of radical imagination.
But what is the future this concept of gathering has ahead of it after months in a state of emergency that has thrown pretty much all areas of social life out of step? Gesellschaftsspiele: The Art of Assembly brings together protagonists from various fields of art, politics and theory to speculate on the potential of assembly in a time of experiencing that nothing is certain – a time in which every form of physical togetherness has become precarious.
“The Art of Assembly” is based on:
Florian Malzacher. Gesellschaftsspiele. Politisches Theater heute. Berlin: Alexander Verlag, 2020.