01 Jul The Politics of Love #5: Accountability
The fifth edition of our discussion series Politics of Love is an extension of a previous discussion topic touched on in the performance festival Save Your Soul. In that discussion we spoke of letting go — of the pain, of the past — and exorcising discordant stories that possess our bodies and haunt our daily lives. This talk goes further and explores how letting go of the specters of trauma can be accompanied with accountability. In this discussion we ask who are we — as artists, as individuals, as institutions and as community — responsible to?
On stage, in textual practices, as well as in visual mediums, the current zeitgeist of the art world is obsessed with the vulnerable and asking hard, personal questions. But we must be aware that therapy is messy; to heal wounds is to conjure demons. How deeply does the stage allow us to look into our subjectivities, how they affect us, our choices, those around us, and the earth? How do we hold each other as community when the image invoked in the mirror of our practices threatens to destroy us? The special circumstances of minority communities and their place within the arts community will be a focal point. This evening, we will be joined by a panel of activists, artists, and academics invested in community-based practices and healing wounds through closure and acceptance.