Artistically speaking
This year’s festival panel discussions will focus on art and esthetics. With the ambition of providing space for in-depth conversations concerning relevant issues, we’ve invited international and Swedish guests to the Crystal Foyer at Stora Teatern. Free admission.
The Queer Costume onstage and in parade
Sunday August 19 at 14.00–15.30 PM
– Kristallfoajén, Stora Teatern / Gothenburg –
The conversation will be held in Swedish and English
Inspired by The Decades Ball and Europride’s parade, we’ll take a closer look at the significance of queer costuming as artistic expression and political statement. What have clothes and fashion meant for HBTQIA activism? Can we see traces of ballroom and whacking fashions on Europe’s established stages? Has drag become mainstream?
Participants:
Yolanda Bohm Ramirez
Carl Olof Berg
Alyssa Chloë
Zafire Vrba
New paths, new rooms
Tuesday August 21 at 15.30–17.00 PM
– Kristallfoajén, Stora Teatern / Gothenburg –
The conversation will be held in English
Issues of power relations and the culture of silence were prominent in this past winter’s political debates. What is the importance of trust, working methods and the performance space itself in the artistic process? Can the kind of social mobilization we have seen in the #metoo-movement contribute to artistic mobilization? And could new ways of organizing performance art provide better conditions for creativity? Follow a visionary conversation about working methods, artistic creation, and artistic form and content within and beyond institutional performance art.
Participants:
Karmenlara Ely
Sonya Lindfors
Kristina Ros
Ulf Friberg
Catharina Bergil
Esthetic trends and pitfalls
Wednesday August 22 at 15.00–16.30 PM
– Kristallfoajén, Stora Teatern / Gothenburg –
The conversation will be held in English
Clearly influenced by German theatre, our stages have in recent years been filled with new, playful forms. Classics have been deconstructed, live projections and sound art have shared performance space with acting, and texts have lost their dominant position.
But formal renovation of theatre is not welcomed by one and all. Debaters sound the alarm, proclaiming shallow productions resulting from conceptual experimentation. Does the rule of the director impoverish the art of the actor? Is the theatre experiencing an identity crisis in the midst of its enthusiastic search for renewal? This will be a conversation about trends and pitfalls, manifestos and the search for expanded expressivity – a conversation about the theatre of today and tomorrow!
Participants:
Marie Brassard
Joel Nordström
Fredrik Hannestad
Kirsten Dehlholm
Theresa Bener
Tragedy, the Greeks, and us
Friday August 24 at 18.30
– Göteborgs Stadsteater / Gothenburg –
The conversation will be held in English
Book your ticket here.
Our time is out of joint, and our world is filled with conflict and concern. In an exclusive festival lecture, philosopher Simon Critchley appeals to the theatre to help us understand our contemporary context and to encourage our opposition. In Greek tragedy, humanity was already confronted with rage, mourning and war. And, like us, ancient audiences saw private lives and public institutions collapse before their eyes, and beautiful words conceal brutal acts of violence.
Simon Critchley is a professor at The New School for Social Research in New York, and a frequent contributor to The Guardian and The New York Times, in which he edits the column The Stone. In his work as a writer and philosopher he explores a broad spectrum of fields such as philosophy, political theory, religion, ethics, esthetics, literature and theatre, and also specific subjects such as David Bowie, football and Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
Moderated by Kristina Hagström-Ståhl.
22.30 Artist talk: Simon Critchley and Thomas Ostermeier.
The conversation series Artistically speaking is curated by Catharina Bergil, Head of the acting unit at the Academy for Music and Drama, University of Gothenburg.