ASSEMBLIES § Il/legal Fictions
©La Strada Graz/Nikola Milatovic
Idea, creation: Danae Theodoridou
In collaboration with: Ilektra Fragiadaki, Betina Panagiotara, Manos Vavadakis, Katerina
Zisoudi
Set & costume design: Magda Dimou
Dramaturgical advice: Lara Barsacq, Rudi Laermans, Efrosini Protopapa
Performed by: 25-30 audience members
Danae Theodoridou is a performance maker and researcher based in Brussels. Her artistic research focuses on social imaginaries, the practice of democracy and the way that art contributes to the emergence of socio-political alternatives. She teaches in Fontys Academy of the Arts (NL), curates practice-led research projects, and presents and publishes her work internationally. She is the co-author of The Practice of Dramaturgy: Working on Actions in Performance (Valiz, 2017) and the author of Publicing: Practising Democracy Through Performance (Nissos, 2022).
Danae’s residency is part of the ongoing research Il/legal Fictions. It is supported by the Flemish Ministry of Culture. Thanos Papadogiannis will act as a critical responder to the residency and provide written documentation for it.
‘An Attempt To Devise a Democratic Assembly’ by Danae Theodoridou
Sunday 18 February, 15.00-18.00
The language of the event is English.
The participation is FREE, but the number of participants is limited. Please reserve you place by 14 February here
In this participatory performance, the audience members/participants create their own citizens’ assembly following a script given to them, which assigns ‘roles’ (of speakers, listeners, moderators) to the members of the assembly, instructing them on what to do or say (or even refuse to do or say if they want to). Part of the text is left open, giving space to participants to express their thoughts about democracy and our social coexistence. Through a game structure, the assembly is led step by step into a collective reflection on the practice of assembling and our attitude towards it. Recognizing the central role of the body in politics, the work explores how the way we use and position our bodies in relation to other bodies can affect the way we think, speak, feel and act politically.
An Attempt To Device a Democratic Assembly is part of the maker’s five-year-long artistic research on the Practice of Democracy, focusing on the relationship between performance and politics. After the Analogue Campaign (2019), which focused on the practice of public speaking, and Languages of the Unheard (2020), which experimented with the language of protests, this time the focus is on an embodied approach to the practice of assembling. Through a playful role-game in which a temporary assembly is formed, participants experiment with ways to practice democracy both individually and collectively, as part of a multi-voiced group.
