Testimony in Practice: Working with Stories of the Self and Others

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Testimony in Practice develops and extends the cultural and social impact activities of the AHRC network "Culture and its Uses as Testimony" (2016-18). This network brought together researchers and practitioners working in a range of international and disciplinary contexts to explore if and how testimony mediated in and through different cultural forms might foster reconciliation and a sense of symbolic justice in post-conflict societies. The network's findings include the principle that all testimony is produced through culture, broadly understood to include artefacts (e.g., film, literature) and institutions (e.g., education, the law). The network further highlighted the necessity of focussing on the impact of different kinds of mediation on the production and reception of testimony.An unforeseen pathway to impact resulting from that network was the decision by three network members, Eugenio Szwarcer and Carles Fernandez Giua of the Catalan theatre company La Conquesta del Pol Sud, and the Romanian and German novelist Carmen-Francesca Banciu to produce a collaborative documentary theatre performance. The play is based on Banciu's life as a dissident author in communist Romania and titled *Bucharest*. This innovative production combines verbatim and literary forms of presenting the self to highlight issues of authenticity, voice and power. Testimony in Practice brings *Bucharest* to Birmingham and ensures that the potential impact of this collaboration is fully realised. It does this by engaging new communities and audiences through a series of workshops, a testimonies campaign, and an intermedial exhibition. It will have impact in four areas: cultural production, social well-being, public understanding and economic impact.The project responds to needs expressed by two different non-academic communities: - a need for greater sharing of research and practice in the ethics and methods of using testimony in artistic production - a need for increased public understanding and recognition of the life stories of Central and Eastern Europeans (CEEs) living in the UK It is divided into two interlinked strands which address these different needs: Creative and Social.1. The Creative strand engages cultural practitioners with the innovative approach and collaborative method used in *Bucharest*. It does this through the performance of the play at the Birmingham European Festival (attended by theatre practitioners from across Europe), a practitioners workshop, an open-access "Making Of" film and guide, two creative writing workshops on "Writing the self", and a reflective journal article.2. The Social strand is inspired by the life-story approach of La Conquesta and Banciu and engages expatriate communities, schools and the local public with the subject of the play: the history of communism, the revolutions of 1989 and the experiences of Central and Eastern European migrants. In co-operation with our partners, the Polish Expats Association, the Central and Eastern European Arts Space, Centrala, and the Romanian Cultural Institute, we launch an online campaign to gather the life stories of CEEs living in the UK. The testimonies form the basis of an interactive and intermedial exhibition displayed in Birmingham and London and two schools workshops, in which pupils create their own artistic responses to the material. The launch of the project in 2019 is particularly timely as Europeans commemorate the end of division and the triumph of liberal democracy over communism. And yet these anniversaries come at a time of great turbulence for a continent that seems ever more divided. Testimony in Practice emerges from this context and directly addresses it. It stages the possibility that culture can provide opportunities for marginalised groups to voice their life experiences and to have these recognised and heard by diverse audiences, thereby fostering a greater sense of social recognition and community cohesion.