Politics of Process/Process of Politics in Performance

This research project initiated by Dr. Stefanie Sachsenmaier(Manchester University) and Dr. Gigi Argyropoulou takes its starting point from a series of recorded discussions with practitioners in performing arts that are made publicly available as a short podcast series. These conversations take as their starting point the ‘politics of process’ in the making of performance. Rather than focusing on the finished artwork and focus on evaluating its meaning and impact on audiences, reflecting broader discourses on the arts. In defiance of product-oriented thinking, the focus here will be on the ways of doing and making work and how these reflect political positionings. This forms part of a wider curatorial ethos that is invested in practices of prefiguration in the field of performance in relation to wider social structures. The conversations will address the ways in which processes are organised and the politics by which these are underpinned. How are creative processes entangled in different socio-political contexts? How do artists, performance-makers and collectives organise themselves in their making of their work? How does this form of organising also constitute a form of existing in the world concretely, critically and/or pre figuratively?

The project is also partly in collaboration with Dr. Aparna Nambiar (Singapore University) and Brahma Prakash (Jawaharlal Nehru University)