The international symposium “Dance, Politics &
Co-Immunity“ is
dedicated to the question of how dance, both in its historical and in
its contemporary manifestations, is intricately linked to
conceptualisations of the political. Whereas in this context the term
“policy” means the reproduction of hegemonic power
relations within already existing institutional structures, politics
refers to those practices which question the space of policy as such by
inscribing that into its surface which has had no place before.
Thinking politics as the absent political within policy is therefore by
definition linked to the idea of choreography in the truest sense of
the word: The art of choreography consists in distributing bodies and
their relations in space. It is a distribution of parts that within the
field of the visible and the sayable allocates positions to specific
bodies. Yet in the confrontation between bodies and their relations, a
deframing and dislocating of positions may take place. This ongoing
distribution and reconfiguration of the sensible (Jacques
Rancière) which structures the body and its parts and links
it to the existing symbolic order of any given society can be
considered a site of resistance allowing for interventions into
hegemonic discourses, traditional distributions and fixed framings. In
the public space of theatre, whose characteristic feature is the
separation of stage and auditorium, dance may not only distribute its
bodies, but also split and to share that which is separated and yet
united: The community of bodies as well as their words and the objects
they produce.
Over the past years the term “policy” has undergone
a renaissance in political philosophy. On the one hand there are those
who bemoan the disappearance of politics (Alain Badiou), on the other
hand others welcome its return and relational integration into
sociability (Nicolas Bourriaud). Inbetween these extremes there are
those who accuse political philosophy itself of playing into the hands
of the powers and of thereby sacrificing the idea of politics for a
universal process of administration (Colin Crouch, Chantal Mouffe,
Jacques Rancière). In the course of this discussion the
question of what constitutes a democracy becomes more and more virulent.
Recent developments in the world economy suggest that Michel
Foucault’s concept of “governmentality”
of self, other and society, which he developed in his lecture series
between 1977 and 1979, is more pertinent than ever.
Whereas the citizens of the one world have involuntarily become bearers
and sharers of incalculable risks, the frontiers to the other world are
protected more and more rigorously. Examples of this are the
overflowing refugee camps e.g. on the southern Italian shores as well
as international airports that resemble high security tracts searching
and registering masses of bodies in their microstructures with new
technological devices. While one part of the world population
deterritorialises itself voluntarily, the other part is forcibly
prevented from entering this space defined by its increasing mobility,
acceleration, and high speed communication highways. Neoliberal
dispositives of power are linked with technologies to secure and
enclose territories, discourses and bodies whose general health is
cared for while they are deprived of a possible shared way of life.
The renaissance of the political goes together with the rebirth of a
long discredited term: That of community. In the German political
tradition of Ferdinand Tönnies, community - in a Romantic
understanding - opposed to society. In the works of Jean-Luc Nancy and
Roberto
Esposito, however, community no longer appears as a simple opposition
to political developments, but rather as a contested space of
discussion that risks community in a dialogue between equals. Although
contemporary developments in world politics and world economy establish
increasingly asymmetrical relationships between people, it is the idea
of a community of equals that may subvert these developments.
Viewed against this background, how did dance and how does dance, then,
do politics with the body in the public (theatrical) space? How can it
become political? The symposion looks for theoretical models,
historical constellations, contemporary experiments and practical
consequences that elucidate the relation between dance, politics and
policy – which, in Jacques Rancière's terms, might
be called ”police” as well. What does the
structuring and distribution of bodies and their parts look like in
historical formations of dance such as the court ballet of the 17th
century, the Romantic ballet of the 19th century or the German Dance
tradition of the Weimar Republic? What historical departures of dance
where linked with political contexts and how? Which political contexts
provoked dance as a critical intervention? Which contexts suppressed
dance or, contrary to that, teamed up with dance in order to change and
rearrange the distribution of bodies in the social and theatrical
arena? What does a critical bodily practice look like in the age of
genetic engineering and reproduction by the mass media? Does the
relation between body and text have to be redefined? Are there
choreographic practices that may subvert the dominant powers? How do
the artists themselves think about their aesthetic practice and how
does that influence the choices they make? What are the consequences of
these choices for their institutional working conditions and practices?
Participants of the symposion are invited to think about the multiple
connections between politics, community, dance, and globalisation from
the perspective of Dance and Theatre Studies, History, Philosophy, and
Sociology. One focus of "Communications” will be the
discussion of recent developments in contemporary dance and the
production of new spaces for collaboration and exchange. In how far do
they help to reformulate what economists call the “becoming
immanent” of the world”? On an artistic level the
conference wants to look for possible answers by presenting pieces by
dance makers dealing explicitly with the issues raised here. Apart from
more established artists like Xavier Le Roy or Mette Ingvartsen a
younger generation of artists shall use the conference as their
platform. This is why the organisers are planning to draw on artists
and their work from institutions that have been supported by Tanzplan
Deutschland over the past years. They are invited to explore the
relation their work undergoes with social or political developments.
The title of the conference paraphrases on purpose a text by Roberto
Esposito. In his trilogy Communitas-Immunitas-Bios Esposito describes
the reciprocity of opening and closure of social systems and of bodies
alike. He tries to make this movement productive for a rethinking of
the political in terms of an interweaving of communitas and immunitas -
in a space where life is given a form in order to grant all bodies
survival.