Conversation
The Art of Assembly XIV: Audience as allies, witnesses, and enemies

With Claire Bishop, Tania Bruguera, Ann Liv Young and hosted by Florian Malzacher

03/17/22
7:00pm EST
Goethe-Institut New York

This event takes place in-person at Goethe-Institut New York and will be live-streamed simultaneously via Facebook live. To attend in person, please follow the registration link below.

Ever since the 19th century, when the audience light was turned off in most Western theaters, artists have experimented with pushing spectators out of their comfort zone. While breaking down the fourth wall had mainly been a niche project of the avant garde, audience inclusion has become a dominant feature of mainstream theatre in recent years. But frequently, so-called participatory theatre mimics the placebo, surface-level involvement that is offered by our market-oriented democracies. The 14th episode of The Art of Assembly looks at radical approaches to audiences, turning them from spectators into participants, witnesses, collaborators, and enemies.

Joining host Florian Malzacher in this conversation are Claire Bishop, Tania Brugera, and Ann Liv Young. Art theorist Claire Bishop reviews how the relationship between art and audience has changed in the decade since the publication 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.
Registration 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. Guests so far have included 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).