Utopia and Performance
Conference Rationale
UTOPIA AND PERFORMANCE
Association of Nordic Theatre Scholars
Stockholm, 30 September to 2 October 2021
It is nothing like a dream to create the future. Utopia today, flesh and blood tomorrow.
(Victor Hugo)
Utopia is not a kind of free imagination. Utopia is a matter of the innermost urgency. You are forced to imagine it, it is the only way out, and this is what we need today.
(Slavoj Žižek)
The utopia for which I yearn takes place now, in the interstices of present interactions, in glancing moments of possibly better ways to be together as human beings.
(Jill Dolan)
These quotes represent the main accesses to the concept of utopia that are relevant to both performance practices and critical discourse. While Hugo points to an imaginary future, a vision that will be materialized soon, Žižek argues from the point of view of crisis. And Dolan adds aspects of communality to the idea of utopia. Theatre and performance engage in proposing such utopian visions as a remedy, as a critical stance in times of crisis, as an imaginary flight from straight realisms, as practiced performativities potentially materializing different futures. For the 2021 ANTS conference we invite contributions which investigate all utopian aspects that demonstrate the relevance and also the urge to practice, discuss, rethink and envision theatre and performance in manifold ways. The Theatre and Dance Department at Stockholm University celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2021. With the proposed theme, we also celebrate the Utopian spirit of its foundation and its future.
The term ‘utopia’ was coined and mainstreamed through the reception of Thomas More’s 1516 book Utopia in which he proposes a utopian concept of an ideal society located on a fictional remote island, and in this way, he disguises his critique of the English society of his time. In his book, More provides an etymology of the term deriving from the Greek u-topia, which means ‘non-place’. English pronunciation relates it to another Greek term, eu-topia, the ‘good place’. This has led to a general understanding of ‘utopia’ as a positive imaginary space in contrast to ‘dystopia’ as a disastrous setting, whereas the original meaning involves no judgement on the quality of the utopia. With the Enlightenment’s deliberate striving for the betterment of society, utopianism became associated with revolutionary thinking: Utopia was simultaneously located at the dawn of humanity and in the foreseeable future, almost within reach. Continue reading the Conference Rationale -->
Deadline for submission was 20th April, 2021.
Keynote speakers and Invited Artists
- Sean Metzger (University of California, LA)
- Susanne Foellmer (Coventry University)
- Willmar Sauter (Stockholm University)
- Linn Hilda Lamberg (Stockholm)
- Gry Worre Hallberg (Copenhagen)
View the keynotes on live stream!
Sean Metzger (US): “Seascapes and the Utopic Horizons of Performance Studies”
Sean Metzger is Associate Dean for Faculty and Students and a professor in the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television. He has published Chinese Looks: Fashion, Performance Race (2014) and The Chinese Atlantic: Seascapes and the Theatricality of Globalization (2020) both with Indiana University Press. He has coedited six collections of essays and a volume of plays and authored more than 50 articles and reviews. He is the former president of Performance Studies international and the editor of Theatre Journal.
Conference Abstract
“Seascapes and the Utopic Horizons of Performance Studies”
What are the potential uses of seascapes as analytical tools for theatre and performance studies? This talk investigates several horizons of possibility in relation to the development of oceanic paradigms that might envision Nordic cultural production in new ways. Recent activities that concern the region, such as China’s plans for a polar silk road, will be considered alongside theoretical issues. The theoretical discussion is anchored in a series of provocations provided by such emergent methodologies as ecodramaturgy and performance climates in an effort to think through both utopic and dystopic visions of the sea as they pertain to and are shaped through performance.
Susanne Foellmer (Coventry University, UK)
Susanne Foellmer's research areas embrace aesthetic theory and corporeality in contemporary dance, performance, and in the Weimar Era, relationships between dance and ‘other’ media, temporality, historicity, and politicality of performance. She also has been working as a dramaturge and artistic consultant for Isabelle Schad, Meg Stuart, and Jeremy Wade among others.
Susanne Foellmer is Professor in Dance Studies at Coventry University, Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE), UK. Her research areas embrace aesthetic theory and corporeality in contemporary dance, performance, and in the Weimar Era, relationships between dance and ‘other’ media, temporality, historicity, and politicality of performance.
Recent publications include: Performing Arts in Transition. Moving Between Media (ed., with M. K. Schmidt and C. Schmitz), Routledge 2019; Media Practices, Social Movements, and Performativity (ed., with M. Lünenborg and Ch. Raetzsch), Routledge 2018; and forthcoming: On Remnants and Vestiges. Negotiating Persistence and Ephemerality in the Performing Arts. Routledge 2022.
Susanne Foellmer Abstract (16 Kb)
Willmar Sauter (SE): “The Magic of Presence: Moments, Memories, Methods”
Willmar Sauter, Emeritus Professor of Theatre Studies, enrolled at the (then) Department of Theatre History in Stockholm in 1968. Since 1974 he has been employed by Stockholms University and he is still supporting a few PhD-students. His latest publication is Aesthetics of Presence: Philosophical and Practical Reconsiderations (2021).
Conference Abstract
“The Magic of Presence: Moments, Memories, Methods”
Every habitual visitor remembers some magic moments of theatrical events: a striking feeling of immediate presence. What are these experiences of presence about? What triggers them, under which circumstances are they taking place?
This lecture is an attempt to point out some decisive parameters that facilitate strong experiences of performative situations. On the basis of a new rhombic model I will show how these parameters coordinate the senses of the beholder and create magic moments of presence. Then, presence remains as future memories of the past.
Invited Artists
In the spirit of creating a new future in-between art and research, we have invited two Nordic directors and performers who both realize utopias in and possibly beyond performance. They will present their views on utopia through their work of art, and engage in a conversation with each other and the audience. The panel will be live streamed for the general public.
Gry Worre Hallberg/Sisters Hope (Copenhagen)
Gry Worre Hallberg is the co-founder and artistic director of the award-winning performance group and movement Sisters Hope and has founded the large-scale project Sisters Academy exploring new modes of Sensuous Learning. Furthermore, Gry is also behind the vision The Sensuous Society: Beyond economic rationality – which explores how the qualities of the sensuous relate to a more sustainable future. Moreover, it is the visionary fundament for Sisters Hope’s work. Besides being a requested speaker, facilitator and teacher, she has been invited to do two TEDx talks on the subject: Sensuous society at TEDxCopenhagen (2013) and Sensuous Learning at TEDxUppsalaUniversity (2015).
She has published a number of articles about Sisters Hope’s work and method and submitted an artistic reserach PhD (2021, University of Copenhagen) titled Sensuous Society - Carving the path towards a sustianable future through aesthetic inhabitation stimulating ecologic conncetedness in which she argues that we must develop practice spaces in which we can move from temporary participation to permanent inhabitation of the arts.
http://sistersacademy.dk/about/
Linn Hilda Lamberg (Stockholm)
Linn Hilda Lamberg is a Swedish trans-disciplinary artist. Since 2007 she has founded and led two artistic companies, Poste Restante (together with Stefan Åkesson and Erik Berg) and O (together with Jens Nielsen and Tomas Rajnai). In immersive situations she explores the relationship between art and its audience. Linn Hilda holds a position as phd-candidate at Stockholm University of the Arts.
Conference Programme
Utopia and Performance, 30 September – 2 October 2021.
Conference Funding
Contact
The conference is organized by Theatre studies at Stockholm University, the Department of Culture and Aesthetics, together with the Association of Nordic Theatre Scholars (ANTS).
Contact us: ANTS21@teater.su.se
Conference coordination: Meike Wagner and Kim Skjoldager-Nielsen.
Organizing team
Rikard Hoogland, Dirk Gindt, Tiina Rosenberg, Kim Skjoldager-Nielsen, Magnus Tessing Schneider, Meike Wagner, Julia Stina Skoglund.
Practical Information
Information about Covid-19 restrictions, transports, and tourist information for participants of the conference Utopia and performance.
Covid-19
We abide by the restrictions and recommendations by the Swedish Health Authorities. Our aim is to hold an on-site conference; should this, however, turn out to be impossible, we have a plan B in place for an on-line zoom-based conference. We monitor the situation and will keep you informed about significant changes.
Transports
The Department of Culture and Aesthetics is found by the red dot on the map.
Metro and bus
Find travel planners and ticket information at the Stockholm public transport website. (You'll find the travel planner under "Reseplanering".)
Regional and domestic train
Are you travelling to or from Sweden and Stockhom by train? Find all information here: https://www.sj.se/en/about/about-sj/climate-friendly.html
Airports
Arlanda and Bromma
Skavsta
Västerås
Airport coaches
Fast train, Arlanda airport-Stockholm
Tourist information
Visit Stockholm
Find restaurants, exhibitions, historical sites and more at https://www.visitstockholm.com/
Theatres
- The Royal Opera
- The Royal Dramatic Theatre
- Kulturhuset: Stockholm House of Culture & City Theatre
Historical theatres
- The Drottningholms Slottsteater was built in 1766 at the request of Queen Lovisa Ulrika.
- In the Ulriksdal Palace Park you will find the rediscovered treasure from 1753 that is Confidencen, Sweden’s oldest rococo theatre.
- Gustavus III’s Theatre at gripsholm Castle
- Strindbergs Intima teater
Museums
- Dansmuseet, a museum for movement and dance
- The Swedish Museum of Performing Arts
- Moderna museet, one of Europe’s leading museums for modern and contemporary art
- Fotografiska, exhibits world-renowned photographers
- Strindbergsmuseet, located in the authur August Strindberg's last appartment, exhibits various aspects on his life and work
- Nordiska museet, Sweden’s largest museum of cultural history
Archives and libraries
- Musik- och teaterbiblioteket, the library of music and theatre
- Kungliga biblioteket, the National library of Sweden
Registration
The call for papers is closed. It will be possible to attend the entire conference without a paper presentation, provided that you register for the conference.
Registration
- International delegates use IBAN
Bank: Danske Bank, Norrmalmstorg1, 11146 Stockholm, Sweden
Bank account: 12810117756
IBAN: SE1612000000012810117756
SWIFT/VIC: DABASESX
Please don’t forget to give the reference:
Reference: 106/5539201
- Swedish delegates use Bankgiro
Bankgiro 5050-0206 (Danske Bank)
Please don’t forget to give the reference:
Reference: 106/5539201
Fees
Regular: €50
Student: €25
Senast uppdaterad: 28 oktober 2021
Sidansvarig: Institionen för kultur och estetik