Katharina Pewny

Reckoning with Spirit in the Paradigm of Performance

Dealing with spirituality and religion in performance, Reckoning with Spirit in the Paradigm of Performance contributes to a quickly developing field of north-eastern theatre and performance studie...

Hearing the Political, Sounding Death: The Human Microphone and Motus's Alexis.

This article examines the acoustic dimensions of forms of collective performance and action at the interface of art and the political. Following an introduction to the dramaturgic function of acoustics in contemporary theatre, Jacques Rancière’s concept of the aesthetic of the political is explored with reference to the radio ballets of the Hamburg-based performance group Ligna. The Occupy movement’s collective practice of the “human microphone” and the Antigone performance Alexis. Una tragedia greca by the Italian theatre group Motus (2010) are also discussed. The choral speaking and use of music here bridge the liminal space between the individual and the collective, between death and life, between political isolation and worldwide empathy.

Performing the Precarious. Economic Crisis in European and Japanese Theatre (René Pollesch, Toshiki Okada)

In the last decade, the “precarious” – meaning the uncertain, unstable – was conceived as a theoretical concept in philosophy, sociology, and art theory. The changing working conditions in theNew Economy, theworldwide economic crash in the autumn of 2008 and the increasing poverty are frequently staged in contemporary theatre, performance, and dance. Texts and stagings of Berlin-based author and director Rene Pollesch and Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner and the Farewell Speech (2009) by Tokyo-based author and director Toshiki Okada are performances of the precarious that stabilize the unstable ground of precariousness, at least temporarily.

Der Penis als Dildo oder: Das letzte Spektakel der Männlichkeit (in der Performancekunst)

This essay focuses on ways of performing masculinity in three contemporary performances. Beatriz Preciados’s ‘theory of the dildo’, which states that any gendered body is a technological tool of sex, serves as the paper’s theoretical starting point. The aesthetic strategies and techniques, such as the economy of performance, tensions between word and movement (in dance), and the liminal space between performer and audience, are seen as constitutive for performances of masculinities.

Das prekäre Geschlecht. Die Krise weißer Männlichkeit in den Performing Arts

Die Performing Arts — Theater, Tanz und Performance Art — antworten auf gesellschaftliche Phanomene, sind aber auch an deren Fortschreibung beteiligt (vgl. Mersch 2005: 46). Ich werde daher meine Thesen zu den „Dimensionen der Zukunftsgesellschaft“ anhand ihrer asthetischen Strategien und politischen Effekte entfalten. „Gender in motion“ — das traditionelle Konzepte von weiser Mannlichkeit als Familienernahrer steht in der zeitgenossischen Kunstwelt vehement in Frage. These ist, dass in den mitteleuropaischen Performing Arts weise Mannlichkeit als prekares Geschlecht gezeigt wird.1 Diese These werde ich uber den Zugang der Performance Studies, die Kunst und Gesellschaft als immanent verwobene begreifen, entwickeln.