Motivos para desejar uma arte da não-compreensão

Irritação, como introdução. O impulso de tratar da não-compreensão parte das malfadadas discussões sobre os orçamentos para a cultura. Tradução de Stephan Baumgärtel, professor da Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina. Texto originalmente publicado sob o título "Ästhetik. Eine Kolumne. Über die Wünschbarkeit einer Kunst des Nichtverstehens", in: Merkur 48 (1994), pp. 426 – 431

Motivos para desejar uma arte da não-compreensão

Irritação, como introdução. O impulso de tratar da não-compreensão parte das malfadadas discussões sobre os orçamentos para a cultura

Dramma didattico, teatro post-drammatico e questione della rappresentazione

The article shows how Brecht (with Fatzer) has somehow gone beyond “himself”, and beyond what could be politically argued. As priority is given to representation and not to education, the play accomplishes itself only at the moment of its reduplication and reception. In this sense, Fatzer reveals itself as an example of post-dramatic theatre, where irreconcilable and performativity themselves produce meaning.The article shows how Brecht (with Fatzer) has somehow gone beyond “himself”, and beyond what could be politically argued. As priority is given to representation and not to education, the play accomplishes itself only at the moment of its reduplication and reception. In this sense, Fatzer reveals itself as an example of post-dramatic theatre, where irreconcilable and performativity themselves produce meaning

Esthetics of resistence, esthetics of revolt

Neste artigo, pretendemos recapitular primeiramente o que se pode dizer, em linhas gerais, sobre a relação entre política, sobretudo ideologia, e teatro. Em seguida, levantaremos a questão sobre de que forma o teatro pode se sustentar adequadamente apenas por meio de uma certa estética do risco e até mesmo de um tipo de traição. Justamente lá onde se compreende e se pratica arte e teatro como compagnon de route da ação política, eles devem manter uma distância, enfim uma relação de conflito com a própria convicção e tomada de partido, com o próprio pensar. Por fim, levaremos essa tese para a área de conflito entre uma estética da resistência e uma estética da revolta.

At tænke teater, turde tage chancer og ikke stole på formler: – et blik på dramaturgiens aktuelle position og uddannelsens muligheder

The German professor of Theatre Studies argues for the necessity of educating dramaturgs with an open mind towards contemporary art and culture. Likewise he emphasizes the need for having the courage to experiment with new forms of expression and working methods

Traces of the (m)other: deconstructing hegemonic historical narrative in Teat(r)o Oficina Uzyna Uzona's Os Sertões

This article focuses on the way in which renowned São Paulo-based theatre company Teat(r)o Oficina Uzyna Uzona deconstructs hegemonic historical narrative in their 2000 - 2007 25 hour-long production of Euclides da Cunha’s seminal Brazilian novel Os sertões (“Rebellion in the Backlands”), an account of the War of Canudos (1896-1897), the first major act of State terrorism carried out by the nascent Brazilian Federal Government on the country’s subaltern population. The Teat(r)o Oficina’s epic adaptation fuses events from the colonial period, the military dictatorship and contemporary 21st Century São Paulo to relate the repetitive cycles of misappropriation, oppression and resistance that have characterized the history of Brazil and its people over the centuries. However, any fatalistic view of victimhood as an essential aspect of Brazilian subjectivity is radically challenged by the vibrant, rhythmic, material impact of the theatrical super-signs underpinning the performance text. Drawing on Julia Kristeva’s notion of the semiotic - the pre-linguistic, illogical, rhythmical materialism of language intimately related to a primordial relationship with the abject mother – I shall suggest that it is the rhythmic, libidinal force of the performance and its extensive use of the cultural manifestations of Brazil’s subaltern population that imbues Os Sertões with the silent presence-as-absence of the abject Brazilian (M)Other – the Black, Indigenous and Mestiza matriarchal line whose alternative discourse is often barred from hegemonic accounts of Brazilian historiography. Her silent heritage is embodied on stage by the members of the Oficina, who reclaim an alienating national heritage for themselves by transforming the often tragic tale of Brazil’s past into a joyous celebration of tenacious vitality

Acts of communion: encountering taste in Reckless Sleepers’ The Last Supper

An article about the aesthetics, politics and dramaturgy of taste implicit in Reckless Sleepers’ The Last Supper (2003). The authors explore notions of gustatory taste and the multi-sensory potential of serving food in performance and the ethics of (mis)representation of real life events; the assassination of the Romanovs and Che Guavara proving to be the most unreliable narratives. The piece sits between fact and fiction, the found and the fabricated, and is punctuated with the arrival of the real last suppers of convicted felons. The work speaks from a primarily western religious perspective, inspired by Da Vinci’s Last Supper (1498) and the act of communion that takes place in church services. In this way, it leans towards an occidental, spiritual notion of taste, where transubstantiation allows the rice paper script to become both the body of Christ and the symbol of his own last supper. Nietzsche’s notion of intoxication comes into play as performers and audience share wine, or blood, and drink to absent friends. The article proposes that the piece enacts a dramaturgy much like a meal, where conversation ebbs and flows, and a sense of togetherness, or act of communion, is engendered. The authors posit that the tacit contract with the audience is redrawn by food as both an aesthetic and dramaturgical encounter. As such, it becomes an invocation (or intoxication) of taste, mortality and last-ness that continues to resonate thirteen years after its devising. Both Pinchbeck and Westerside wrote about this performance when they first saw it at the same venue in 2006, both conducted interviews with members of the Reckless Sleepers, Mole Wetherell and Tim Ingram, for their ongoing research into dramaturgy, aesthetics and taste in contemporary performance. Now this research is woven together into a tapestry of reflections on the piece, a pentimento of memories