Virtues of violence: a testimonial performance or, an affidavit of lies, excuses and justifications

This is a performance lecture of statements/ records/ made up lies. We collected testimonies that spoke of some of the violences that we are facing – from Greece and Turkey - but these glimpses of frustration, bruising, broken dreams are evident everywhere, with different masks and excuses: ‘neoliberalism’/ ‘extremism’/ ‘factionism’/‘unionism’. All have the common suggestion: that this is how we play the game

It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of wor(l)ds

The concept of ‘occupying’ in resistance movements is performative, embodied and affective. It involves ideas and feelings, sounds, smells and words. Thus, this presentation format is that of a dialogue/ performance of collected stories of protesters from Athens and political prisoners. The presenters attempt to resist discursive borders of social science and the arts by occupying both. The stories evoke the urban remapping of a politically charged multitude (in squares and streets) alongside narratives of personal resistance from within institutions (prisons). The common element is a view of resistance as embodied, and with an aim to radically transform the spaces of domination and oppression perceived to be limiting the human rights of the subjects. The data evoke effects/affects of resistance by recalling images (photographs); interview testimonies and narratives of resisting bodies

Creating change, imagining futures: participatory arts and young people ‘at risk’

‘What is art?’ and ‘what is social change?’ are two debates that have intersected at various points in discussions about the role of art in society. Both questions set off important conversations about the possibilities and limitations of identifying what counts as art and what kinds of impact can be made. At heart, however, is the need to understand how creativity, aesthetic problem solving and non-verbal communication respond to and engage with the political realm. Instead of maintaining false distinctions between the value of art as aesthetic and its potential as a tool of social cohesion, this discussion document opens up questions about practices that operate in the realm of community-engaged, participatory work with children and young people ‘at risk’ of offending

Asylum spaces: hunger strike and the disappearing immigrants

The paper analyses a large-scale hunger strike act, performed by 300 immigrants staged in the Law School building in Athens in January 2011. In order to unpack the complexities of such a performance, the researcher’s own position as occupying overlapping roles as witness, audience, researcher, artist is explored. The starting point of analysis is the socio-political context in Athens which prepares the stage for that performance. The Law School building is introduced in order to critically reflect on the ‘academic asylum’ state and the multiple meanings of being in a space always already inscribed by powerful social memories, drawing on Lefebvre’s work on the social production of space and the power of remapping. To remap means to engage into a compelling negotiation of space, stereotypes, feelings and practices such as inclusion, recognition and openness. Hunger strike is examined as a means of practicing resistance and as a spectacle, referring to the importance of the image in postmodern societies to evoke genuine human reactions. The ‘performance’ is analysed from the audience’s perspective, critically questioning issues of participation and representation. Finally, the paper considers the wider social, political and cultural implications of such a performance. The paper is concerned with how the strategy of engaging with invisible bodies and performative resistances can unpack hierarchies of representation. It focuses on a specific resistant act which can be read as a performance; dealing with the narratives that provide the act with its socio-political context, as well as the categories of audience witnessing of the act

Projections of an urban revolution

This chapter is concerned with the new projections of crisis in the urban landscape of Athens, exploring urban aesthetics and civilian performances in the era of austerity

Staging women in prisons: Clean Break Theatre Company’s dramaturgy of the cage

The article explores the limitations of the dramaturgies of the cell through a close reading of several key play texts commissioned by the UK’s leading arts in criminal justice organisation working with women, Clean Break. The apparently humanist positioning of women in prison as just like everyone else erases the specificity of women’s backstories. Conversely, by adhering to the constructions of female prisoners as holding binary positions of either ‘monsters’ or ‘victims’ of the system, plays can re-inscribe morally unitary approaches to women’s deviance and resistance. Many plays about women in prison hold a claim for resisting stereotypes and are in opposition to the injustice of criminal justice processes, and yet, in the realist mode, the monster/ victim position seems to be an inescapable binary

For the best [evaluation report]

The evaluation considered the long term arts process conducted by artist Mark Storor with patients on dialysis in the award winning production 'For the best in Liverpool'

Awaiting justice in South African prisons: performing human rights in a state of exception

The paper analyses the state of exception experienced by awaiting trial detainees in South Africa; and then makes the case for ambitious arts models to be staged as a means of challenging the abuses of human rights