Violence and Trauma in Contemporary Performance

Performances dealing with histories of violence and trauma in contemporary societies.

In this book, scholars and artists from different fields such as performance studies, cultural and visual studies, psychology and performance art address how performances and performance practices engage with histories of violence and trauma in contemporary societies. They explore performance practices as alternative approaches to transitional justice schemes, as embodied encounters with witnesses inside and outside rehearsal spaces, and as research environments for artists working on intergenerational trauma, the legacies of colonialism and migration. The collection offers new ways of seeing, healing and remembering violence and trauma in and through contemporary performances. It challenges common assumptions about dominant and silenced narratives, as well as precarious and resilient bodies that embody performances of historical and ongoing violence and trauma.

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Introduction
Histories of Trauma and Violence : Performance Practices of Removing and Remembering
Christel Stalpaert, Marieke Breyne, Pedzisai Maedza, and Sofie de Smet

PART I
Politics of Truth Commissions: Performance Practices as Transitional Practices of Justice

Chapter
Performing Transitional Justice : Individual Accountability and Societal Reparation in Rwanda 94 (Groupov, 2000) and The Truth Commission (Action Zoo Humain, 2013)
Klaas Tindemans

Chapter 2
The Truth Commission According to Action Zoo Humain : Performing Differential Futures from a Traumatic Colonial Past in Belgium
Christel Stalpaert and Evelien Jonckheere

Chapter 3
Youth Day Commemoration in South Africa: Forgetting through Remembering
Pedzisai Maedza

PART 2
Performing Trauma: Dialogical Dramaturgies of Embodiment in Transgenerational Landscapes

Chapter 4
‘Peeling the Wound’ : Dramaturgies of Haunting on the Neo-Apartheid Stage in South Africa
Mark Fleishman

Chapter 5
Embodied Aesthetics of Vulnerability in Post-Marikana South Africa
Marieke Breyne and Sofie de Smet

PART 3
Artistic Voices as Embodied Testimonial Practices of Loss and Violence

Chapter 6
Introducing Poo-tee-weet?
Christel Stalpaert

Poo-tee-weet? (On Catastrophic Mourning)
Mekhitar Garabedian

Chapter 7
Introducing Man on a Horse
Samah Hijawi

Man on a Horse
Samah Hijawi

Chapter 8
Introducing the Freshly Defeated
Sofie de Smet

The Freshly Defeated
Ayham Salloum

Notes on Contributors

Sofie de Smet

Sofie de Smet is an interdisciplinary postdoctoral researcher in Psychology and Performing Arts at KU Leuven and Ghent University, and is active as a licensed family therapist in trauma care. Her research focuses on the impact of collective violence on community relationships, and the development of creative community-based mental health care, performance and rituals in dealing with histories of displacement, violence, and discrimination.

Marieke Breyne

Marieke Breyne is a performer with an MA in Educational Sciences of Ghent University and an advanced MA in Theatre Studies of Antwerp University. She organizes training and research events and artistic residencies.

Pedzisai Maedza

Pedzisai Maedza is an assistant professor in Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies at University College Dublin and Research Associate at the University of the Free State, South Africa.

Christel Stalpaert

Christel Stalpaert is senior full professor in Performing and Media Art Studies at Ghent University. She is co-director of the research centre S:PAM (Studies in Performing Arts and Media).

Mark Fleishman

Klaas Tindemans

Evelien Jonckheere

Evelien Jonckheere promoveerde in 2014 aan de vakgroep Kunstwetenschappen van de UGent. Haar proefschrift, waarop deze publicatie is gebaseerd, werd in 2015 bekroond met de Cultuurprijs voor kunstgeschiedenis en archeologie van de provincie Oost-Vlaanderen.

Ayham Salloum

Samah Hijawi

Mekhitar Garabedian

Sofie de Smet

Marieke Breyne

Pedzisai Maedza

Christel Stalpaert