Maaike Bleeker: On Being Implicated
Aesthetic Seminar are organized by Anika Marschall (Post.Doc, Dramaturgy), Peter M. Boenisch (Professor, Dramaturgy) and Karen-Margrethe Simonsen (Associate Professor, Comparative Literature) for the School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University.
Info about event
Time
Location
School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Langelandsgade 139, Building 1584, Room 126, 8000 Aarhus C
Maaike Bleeker: On Being Implicated
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“I am German, white and Christian, that’s a complex starter kit” observes theatre maker Julian Hetzel in a press release for his creation Schuldfabrik (2017). Hetzel is well aware of his privileged position and his observation is not a complaint. Rather, it addresses the complexity of being implicated and how this affects his work as critical maker. As Sarah Ahmed points out “We are implicated in the worlds that we critique; being critical does not suspend any such implication.” Ahmed is not the only one addressing the complexities of what it means to be implicated. Media theorist Mark Hansen argues for a phenomenology of implicatedness to account for how human experience increasingly takes shape within networks extending beyond out awareness and operating in ways we do not have access to. Michael Rothberg proposes the notion of ‘implicated subject’ to describe the condition of indirect participation in injustices initiated in a distant times and places, but carrying present consequences. My presentation will look at the potential of theatre and performance to investigate and question various aspects of being implicated and engage the audience in thinking through the consequences of this condition. I will look at the creative process and work of Julian Hetzel, Dries Verhoeven and others to show what their work helps to understand about being implicated, how this affects agency and responsibility, and what might be the critical potential of material and embodied practices of staging and performance in this condition.