The Ground of the cities - performance as catalysis

ABSTRACT

The Ground of the Cities is a performance that incorporates public space dynamics and acts in the fine line between life and performativity. It looks at the vulnerability of homeless people in the everyday life of contemporary cities in Brazil. Using The Ground of the Cities as a case study, this article considers how urban interventions may be understood as catalysis that expose the injustices embedded in a city’s social tissue. I propose that the practice-based investigation of public spaces through performance can engender new narratives in which the everyday conflicts of the city are re-written in an expanded participatory political dimension.

KEYWORDS:

• Public space
• performance
• homelessness
• catalysis
• urban intervention

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Shelter UK, 2017. ‘More than 300.000 people in Britain homeless today’ . https://england.shelter.org.uk/media/press_releases/articles/more_than_300,000_people_in_britain_homeless_today November, 2017. Accessed October, 2018. [Google Scholar].

2. Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, 2017. ‘IBGE releases population estimative’ July, 2018. Accessed October, 2018. https://agenciadenoticias.ibge.gov.br/en/agencia-press-room/2185-news-agency/releases-en/22385-ibge-releases-population-estimates-of-municipalities-for-2018 .

3. Angra dos Reis is a Brazilian municipality in southwest Rio de Janeiro state. It is made up of 365 islands and a small port surrounded by steep, forested coastline. The city’s income derives from its port operations, a sizeable fishing industry, and the flow of weekend and holiday tourists drawn to nearby beaches and resorts.

4. Adrian Margaret Smith Piper (b. 1948) was part of the first generation of conceptual artists. She gained a PhD in philosophy from Harvard University, taught at Michigan, Harvard, Stanford, and has always acted in a hybrid zone between artistic creation and academic research.

5. Piper evockedIn this set of seven performance works, she used her own actions as a catalyst to invoke immediate and often negative reactions from the unsuspecting audience.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Andrea Maciel

Andrea Maciel has completed PhD in Performing Arts at Federal University- Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Visiting Scholarship at New York University Performance Department.  MFA in Theatre and Culture from PPGAC – UNIRIO, BA in Theatre for the same university.  Andrea was a visiting scholar at the University of Bristol where she concluded her Postdoctorate; Lecturer of the Department of Theatre – PUC-RIO and University of the City –Brazil, and has conducted several research groups in the field of Dance and Performance to undergraduate and posgraduate students at New York University and Federal University of Rio de Janeiro- Brazil. She is post-graduated in Laban Bartenieff System by Angel Vianna Dance College and has 15 years of practice on physical theatre  training for dancers and actors. She has studied and worked with master-teachers from all over the world including: François Kan (Pontedera Theatre), Renato Ferracini (Lume Theatre), Chico Pelúcio (Galpão Group), Gwen Williver (Trisha Brown Company), Pino di Buo (Potlach Theatre), Eugênio Barba (Odin Theatre). She works mainly with urban performance, with emphasis in the relationship between body and memory, choreography and architecture, performance and politics. Its main performances and installations: The Ground in the Cities,  and Body without Walls participated of important international eventes as such:  CORPOCIDADE - UFBA (2008), National Seminar on Art and City UFBA's School of Architecture, II, V, VII International Meeting of Performance of Hemispheric Institute – NYU. She also conducted research fellowship at Queen Mary - Department of English and Drama in 2018.