We have no choice.

We have no choice. If there is still any reason to produce art it has to be to produce something new, a different mode of thinking that doesn’t already exist. It has to work through an affect rather than a confirmation of an already existing structure. That’s why insisting on the difference between experience and experiencing is crucial when we speak about performing arts. Experience is the already known, calculable, possible, that which is derived from what already exists. Experiencing on the other hand is the singular event, it is a moment of unformed and incalculable potential. To experience performance isto confirm what one already knows, to be experiencing performance is when one can’t not let go of the already inscribed and accept the possibility of the new. That, of course, depends on what a performance proposes to its audience, on which new possibilities it can produce.

 June 2010, at the “Idee des Kommunismus. Philosophie und Kunst” conference in Berlin: another connection has been made between capitalism and art. While talking about communism one has to state that we are always already talking about capitalism, as this is the framework in which we are operating. We have no other choice than creating art inside the neo-liberal mess in which we are living. We cannot simply resist because we have no ground to resist from. Everything we do is already inscribed into capitalism and can be incorporated into the capitalist structure. The only way to create art that makes a difference is to produce the event, the scary unknown, to be experiencing, to bring on the not-possible-to-be-expected. The event cannot be called resistance in any sense, but it can produce perspectives that are not already integrated into the capital structure that can devaluate former understandings of how we act and think. That’s why art makers have to give up their pedagogical aspirations, to give up the control of their own artwork, the responsibility towards their own audience, if only three people leave on the premiere day, it’s not enough!

Yesterday at the Göteborg festival of dance and theater, Sweet & Tender Collaborations made an appearance in Atalante theater. The subject for their performance was a musical about the end of capitalism. This performance looked like a collection of short numbers composed into a musical. Working with a low budget, total of four days of actual rehearsal time, a very heterogenic group in terms of training, ideas, aesthetics, etc. the result could not have been different than unforeseeable for the collaborators. It takes courage to accept these conditions as a starting point for your production, that’s already exciting and already a very strong statement. But there’s more than that, and sadly it’s not enough. What is created from this point of departure should be carefully thought out, the content of the presentation cannot be just a collection of numbers composed together, this would be unfaithful to their promise. If the decision is to produce a performance together as a collective then exactly this should be done, and not as a random collection of people. If a brave first step is being taken, it must not prevent the second and third steps to take place. To produce experiencing you have to work your ass off, drop the fear of not being loved and stop engaging in excuses. If we want to change something about something with art then we cannot allow experiencing turn into experience.

Uri Turkenich