Participation – what does it mean?
In both my theatrical and academic work in the field of cultural psychology, I focus on participation—specifically its phenomenological aspects—as well as formats and settings that are participatory in nature.
In this context, I define participation as both the act of being present as an audience member—which is integral to the performance—and, beyond that, as active involvement within the performance itself.
As such participation can be understood as a prerequisite to interaction. However, at what point it comes to an interaction remains arbitrary. The theater theorist Erika Fischer-Lichte applies the notion of freedom to theater. She proposes that the spectator ain`t bound to a supreme objective, but can instead freely relate anything to everything during a performance. This follows the idea of „receiving is producing, watching is acting“ (1997:35). This would imply that watching is not a passive, receptive behaviour, but a constructive action.
Claire Bishop, professor of art history and known for her scientific research in the area of participative art, has shaped the meaning of „participatory art“ (Bishop 2012). She describes a turning point in the 1990s, from where on artists and audience were increasingly described as „coloborator and producer of situations“ and „co-producer or participant“ (2012:2) respectively.
Over the past 20 years, I have specialized in participatory art through the development of formats such as schau.Räume, which involve experts from everyday life, as well as participatory projects in which the audience becomes active participants. Furthermore, I have developed a queer-feminist perspective in my work that is relevant to all my projects. This aspect is closely linked to the question of representation, which constructs realities rather than merely depicting them, as is commonly assumed. In this context, I explore the following questions:
What stories are performed by whom?
Which ones aren`t?
How does performativity and performance relate to each other?
What roles do memories and renewals play?
Under the label „participating arts“ I further develop these thoughts within my projects, engage in scientific research and publish findings.
More information about the project description you find here: