After the rupture: Restoration or revolution?

Brejzek, T; Falkenberg, P

After the rupture: Restoration or revolution?

Brejzek, T Falkenberg, P

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Publisher:: Routledge
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Performance Research, 2014, 19 (6), pp. 22 - 29
Issue Date:: 2014-11-02

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Brejzek, T
dc.contributor.author	Falkenberg, P
dc.date.accessioned	2015-05-21T08:32:43Z
dc.date.issued	2014-11-02
dc.identifier.citation	Performance Research, 2014, 19 (6), pp. 22 - 29
dc.identifier.issn	1352-8165
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/35752
dc.description.abstract	How can a collapsing world be shown to be a chance for change? The catastrophe of the earthquakes that began on September 4th 2010 continues to shake Christchurch, New Zealand, to its very foundations. Much of the city was reduced to rubble - first by nature and then by governmental and corporate machinery. The ruptures caused by the earthquakes and what came after have created openings and a sense of urgency for creative experimentation and challenges to the status quo. Canterbury Tales (October 2013) was produced by Free Theatre for the Festival of Transitional Architecture and involved: artists and academics from Christchurch, Auckland and Sydney; Christchurch Symphony Orchestra; performers from Ngai Tahu and Pacific Underground; local businesses and the general public. As a carnivalesque celebration of community in the face of natural, and man-made, disaster, Canterbury Tales featured a procession of giant puppets and masked performers that led participants in a performative exploration of the destroyed city centre.Peter Falkenberg, artistic director of the overall production, and Thea Brejzek, who led the design project, Eye of the Storm, consider how performance in an earthquake zone can spatialize the transgressive potential of social, cultural and political ruptures. This paper reflects on the dialectical negotiation underlying the project: following Bakhtin, as a natural, cyclical, temporal interruption, while also facing a catastrophe that helps us create the real state of emergency Benjamin demands for our time. In Benjamin's words: The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the "state of emergency" in which we live is not the exception but the rule. We may be at a time in Christchurch, as everywhere, when we must confront a catastrophe that, being of our own making, is even more virulent than an earthquake.
dc.language	eng
dc.publisher	Routledge
dc.relation.ispartof	Performance Research
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1080/13528165.2014.985077
dc.title	After the rupture: Restoration or revolution?
dc.type	Journal article
utslib.citation.volume	6
utslib.citation.volume	19
pubs.embargo.period	Not known
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building/School of Design
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Strength - Contemporary Design Practice
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access
pubs.declined	1970-01-01T00:00:00.0+1000
pubs.deleted	1970-01-01T00:00:00.0+1000

Abstract:

How can a collapsing world be shown to be a chance for change? The catastrophe of the earthquakes that began on September 4th 2010 continues to shake Christchurch, New Zealand, to its very foundations. Much of the city was reduced to rubble - first by nature and then by governmental and corporate machinery. The ruptures caused by the earthquakes and what came after have created openings and a sense of urgency for creative experimentation and challenges to the status quo. Canterbury Tales (October 2013) was produced by Free Theatre for the Festival of Transitional Architecture and involved: artists and academics from Christchurch, Auckland and Sydney; Christchurch Symphony Orchestra; performers from Ngai Tahu and Pacific Underground; local businesses and the general public. As a carnivalesque celebration of community in the face of natural, and man-made, disaster, Canterbury Tales featured a procession of giant puppets and masked performers that led participants in a performative exploration of the destroyed city centre.Peter Falkenberg, artistic director of the overall production, and Thea Brejzek, who led the design project, Eye of the Storm, consider how performance in an earthquake zone can spatialize the transgressive potential of social, cultural and political ruptures. This paper reflects on the dialectical negotiation underlying the project: following Bakhtin, as a natural, cyclical, temporal interruption, while also facing a catastrophe that helps us create the real state of emergency Benjamin demands for our time. In Benjamin's words: The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the "state of emergency" in which we live is not the exception but the rule. We may be at a time in Christchurch, as everywhere, when we must confront a catastrophe that, being of our own making, is even more virulent than an earthquake.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/35752