Reviewing Spectacle: The Pasts, Presents and Futures of the Situationist International in Contemporary Performance

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Few texts bear more contemporary relevance than Guy Debord's The Society of the Spectacle (1967), one of the key works of the Situationist International (SI, 1957-72). Debord highlighted the ideology of consumption, which organizes everyday life into a spectacle via packaging and marketing. Half a century later, what can be gained from returning to the SI's critique of spectacle? Our project investigates, theoretically and creatively, how contemporary performance mediates SI concepts in a digitalized, accelerated world.Aims:1: Provide the first theorization of the specifically French contribution to the history of performance, which has generally been theorized as an Anglophone phenomenon.2. Analyse appropriations of practices developed by the SI to critique the society of the spectacle, by 5 contemporary performance makers.3. Contextualize SI theory and practice historically in mid-20th-century Paris, where they constituted active political resistance, to ask if their value might have shifted across generations.4. Ask if performance might enable a future for the SI different from the one it imagined, where art would be subsumed into everyday life, and suppressed. How can the embodied presence of the performer challenge the flatness of screen simulation? How can witnessing the creation of images in performance foster a critical understanding of the production of spectacle?The project enables collaboration between scholars, Artistic Partners and the heritage sector in France and the UK. 2 symposia at our Partner Institutions (théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers Paris and Centre for Contemporary Art Glasgow) address our Aims via papers, and discussions with artists. These will provide material for 2 special issues co-edited by French and UK investigators. Our Artistic Partner, Graeme Miller, will make a performance in response to the Guy Debord archives held at the BNF, creating a contemporary reactivation of the SI's history and a significant impact activity.