With Claire Bishop, Tania Bruguera, Ann Liv Young and hosted by Florian Malzacher
Ever since the audience light in most Western theatres has been turned off in the 19th century, artists have tried to push spectators out of their comfort zone again. While the breaking down of 4th walls for many years has been mainly a niche project of the avantgardes in recent years, audience inclusion has become a dominant feature also of mainstream theatre. But doesn’t actually much of so-called participatory theatre just mimic the very placebo-involvement also market-oriented democracies are offering?
Art theorist Claire Bishop reviews how the relationship between art and audience has changed in the decade that has passed since the first edition of her influential book
Artificial Hells. Artist and activist Tania Bruguera has always challenged her audience to become active participants not only in her performances but also in society. The stage personas of theatre maker Ann Liv Young tend to come too close – physically as well as psychologically – attacking her audience and making herself attackable at the same time. The 14th episode of “The Art of Assembly” looks at radical approaches to audiences, turning them from spectators into participants, witnesses, collaborators, and enemies.
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“Gesellschaftsspiele. The Art of Assembly” is a nomadic series of lectures and conversations hosted by Florian Malzacher, speculating on the potential of gatherings in art, activism and politics. Among the guests were so far Merve Bedir, Judith Butler, Radha D’Souza, Didier Eribon, Benjamin Foerster-Baldenius / raumlaborberlin, Max Haiven, Oliver Marchart, Alia Mossalam, Chantal Mouffe, Antonio Negri, Sibylle Peters, Milo Rau, Oliver Ressler, Jonas Staal, Nora Sternfeld, The Church of Stop Shopping, The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination, Dana Yahalomi/Public Movement.
The Art of Assembly is a series by Florian Malzacher & brut Vienna.
Videos of lectures and podcasts of all editions can be found at:
https://art-of-assembly.net
Claire Bishop is an art historian, critic and author. She is professor of art history at the Graduate Center of the City University New York. In addition to numerous articles in art journals, her publications include
Installation Art: A Critical History (Tate/Routledge, 2005),
Participation (Whitechapel/MIT Press, 2006),
Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship (Verso, 2012), and
Tania Bruguera in Conversation (Cisneros, 2020).
Tania Bruguera is a Cuban performance artist and activists whose work often considers totalitarianism, immigration, and human rights. In 2015 she founded the Institute of Artivism/Instituto de Artivismo Hannah Arendt (INSTAR) in order to “foster civic literacy and policy change.” In 2021 she agreed to leave Cuba to assume the position of senior lecturer in media and performance at Harvard University in exchange for the release of 25 political prisoners.
Ann Liv Young is a choreographer and performer. In her provocative works she tends to unsettle her audience by provoking them, embarrassing them and transcending the boundaries of intimacy. Trash and depth, naked flesh and gender awareness, flagellation and redemption, chaos and order – her works deconstruct pop-cultural stereotypes, interpret fairy tales very idiosyncratically or retell the biographies of historical personalities.
Florian Malzacher is a performing arts curator, dramaturge and writer. Current projects include
Training for the Future (with Jonas Staal) and the discourse platform The Art of Assembly. Among his recent publications are
Empty Stages, Crowded Flats. Performativity as Curatorial Strategy (2017, with Joanna Warsza), and
Gesellschaftsspiele. Politisches Theater heute (2020).
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