Sunday, 27 May 2018
6:45 – 9:30 pm
SALON
Performing No-thingness
Critical reflection with Jonathan González, participants and audience. Moderation: Nana Adusei-Poku
“Difference, embodied and spectacular, is a poor condition out of which to construct subjecthood, but can be an effective position from which to perform” (Gaines, 2017). Black performers embody one of the strongest antagonisms which the racial discourse has produced. The tension between subjective agency and being objectified are two poles that Black performers grapple with. Afropessimism and Black Nihilism, currently the strongest intellectual discourses speak to this antagonism and influence contemporary Black aesthetic strategies, which are echoed in the works that “Performances of No-thingess” engages with. This session hence aims to address the question of subjectivity and objectification from a historical as well as contemporary perspective and discusses different performative approaches in relationship to the question of care, hopelessness and matter.
The Performers will discuss their presented works during “Performances of No-thingess” and the audience is incited to actively ask questions.