Articulate! Activate! Protest!

In recent times, dance has been displaying a remarkable political punch in its artistic and popular implementations. In a global context, dance artists are not only developing concrete protest formulas that are taken up by political movements. Dance is also providing an adequate and timely visualization of political protests. In literature there is a multitude of authors that make voices readable that are not being heard and make bodies visible that are not being seen. With lectures, discussions, and artistic interventions the symposium "Articulate, Activate, Protest!" will present subjects dealing with the possibilities and access methods of artistic and political articulation through words and the human body.

To what extent can, especially in times of political crisis, dance's specific knowledge of the body contribute to the development of a political linguisticality (the capacity for language), agency, and crisis management? In which narrative forms do political aspects express themselves nowadays? What demands are currently being made on art that is perceived as being politically and socially committed? The symposium "Articulate, Activate, Protest!" is devoted to these questions.

"Political Articulation in Dance and Literature" offers different perspectives from different disciplines, and will feature artistic contributions from the performer Claudia Bosse, the author Lena Gorelik, and the performance artist Joana Tischkau together with the author Michael Donkor.

Subjects will include, among others:
- Post-colonial settings and their aesthetically and socially critical dimensions.
- The exercise of power via language, and the power of nonviolence in dance and literature.
- Jacques Rancière and a political aesthetic between dance and literature.
- The connection between literature and dance in forms of protest and activism.
- The (queer) tango, and the severity of performing with the body.
- Marching methods in contemporary dance.
- The digitalization of literary protest on the African continent in times of the pandemic.

Schedule und Book of Abstracts to Download

Schedule (subject to changes)

Thursday, May 13th

2 – 2.25 p.m. Welcome and Introduction with Nina Hümpel, Gabriele Brandstetter, Sigrid Gareis and Fabienne Imlinger

2.25 – 2.45 p.m. Lecture: Katja Schneider (Frankfurt a.M. / Munich): Politische Artikulation und DANCE 2021

2.45 – 3.30 p.m. Lecture: Maria Muhle (Munich): „Der Lichttanz“. Ästhetik und Politik bei Jacques Rancière

3.30 – 4 p.m. performance lecture: Claudia Bosse (Vienna / Berlin): READing oder poröse zwischenräume. lesen von organen, raum, (um)welt

4 – 4.30 p.m. Break

4.30 – 5.15 p.m. Lecture: Lucia Ruprecht (Cambridge): Über die Macht der Gewaltlosigkeit in Tanz und Literatur

5.15 – 5.45 p.m. Artistic Intervention: Lena Gorelik (Munich): Die Macht der Sprache

Friday, May 14th

12 – 12.30 noon Artistic Intervention: Joana Tischkau (Frankfurt a. M. / Berlin) and Michael Donkor (Oxford), in English!

12.30 – 1.15 p.m. Lecture: Madhu Krishnan (Bristol): Praxis and the Politics of Production in Contemporary African Literature

1.15 – 2 p.m. Vortrag: Jay Pather (Cape Town): Embodied, Emboldened Protest: Social Agency and Political Articulation in South African Dance

2 – 3 p.m. Break

3 – 3.45 p.m. Lecture: Adam Czirak (Vienna): (Non-)Performances der Übersetzung. Postkoloniale Kritik in Tanz und Literatur

3.45 – 4.30 p.m. Lecture: Gabriele Brandstetter (Berlin): Marschieren – March-In. Zur Artikulation choreografischer Interventionen

4.30 – 4.45 p.m. Break

4.45 – 5.30 p.m. Artist Talk: Niv Sheinfeld & Oren Laor with Gabriele Brandstetter

Saturday, May 15th

11 – 11.45 a.m. Lecture: Paula-Irene Villa Braslavsky (Munich): The Queer Pleasure (of Failure) – Differences, Programs, and Practices in Argentine Tango

11.45 a.m. – 12.30 noon Lecture: Ong Keng Sen (Singapore): Extravagantly Enigmatic: The internal alterity of gay men and de-translated acts of embodiment

12.30 – 1 p.m. Break

1 – 1.45 p.m. Final Discussion with Claudia Bosse, Sigrid Gareis, Fabienne Imlinger and Joana Tischkau