2021
Hiding In Plain Sight: Studies On Symbolic Violence
Vol.I
Those who fall asleep in a democracy will wake up in a dictatorship.
Otto Gritschneder
“Studies On Symbolic Violence Vol. I” is the first full-length production of the research project which premiered on 30th July 2021 at Flutgraben, Berlin. It gathers and integrates the material from the previous research phases, further developing and contextualizing the existing Studies and adding new ones. The piece is conceptualized as a first gathering of the SVOYA party candidates – the role which is imposed on the audience members. SVOYA, or Symbolically Violent Overworked Young Artists Party – a fictional party, created by the performers, is not easy to get into. The 6 Studies take the potential party members, as well as the performers themselves, through various trainings, tests and coaching sessions – all set to determine whether one is to become a member or not.
Symbolic power and violence, discipline and domination are the mechanisms of control that are hiding in plain sight in almost every aspect of our society: from the dictatorships of totalitarian, capitalist, democratic or viral character, to the naturalisation of self-surveillance, -optimisation and -exploitation. Despite being constantly surrounded by symbolic power, we are mostly unaware of it – just like fish that don’t know they’re wet.
How does symbolic power and violence affect the body and the mind? How can we recognise and make visible the symbolic mechanisms of power? How can art function as a site of resistance?
Inspired by the philosophical discourse on the subject, personality cults in politics and art, as well as video-tutorial culture, „Studies On Symbolic Violence Vol.I“ explores mechanisms of symbolic power in social and private contexts through performative and artistic means. Through the Studies, the four performers create diverse spaces that alternate between home-workout and stand-up comedy, commercials and interrogation, political party gathering and a party.
SVOYA
Symbolically Violent Overworked Young Artists
Yana Novotorova
concept, development, performance
Sophia Seiss
development, performance
Véronique Langlott
development, performance
Vitalii Shupliak
development, performance
Claudia Barths
dramaturgy, technical support
Pitt Wenninger
technical support, photography
Hannah Rettl
production assistance
An important part of the piece is the advertisement campaign that precedes the performance. Playing with the cliches of political staging, propagandistic art and dating commercials, the performers market themselves as the faces of SVOYA, inviting passersby to join the Party – leaving it open, which meaning of the word is actually implied.
The performance itself consists of
six
Studies
Study #1
In Study #1 a female voice welcomes the candidates, invites them to take a seat and asks them, in an imperative form, to sign a contract that they have found on their seats – a prerequisite for the participation in the SVOYA training program. After that, the first training session begins. While a video of a man’s face (performer Vitalii Shupliak) is being projected on the back wall, the voice proceeds with the facilitation of the training session. Blinking, breathing and swallowing – this is what is being trained. Broken down to minuscule details, these automatic bodily processes are made into an exercise to be repeated and perfected – standardized, normatized, deprived of their natural rhythm through the symbolic violence of the language which doesn’t give the listener a chance to eschew it.
Study #2
Accompanied by the Moonlight Sonata, an unusual exercise routine is being demonstrated in Study #2 . It might appear like a regular Yoga sequence at first, and yet, there is a difference. Smoothly and almost imperceptibly, the common Yoga poses and gestures become something else: Gyan Mudra turns into an A-okay; a side-stretch becomes a hand waving gesture, a twist turns into a handshake. In this Study, the juxtaposition of a yoga routine with political gestures playfully merges and recontextualizes the two exercise regimes, pointing out the fluidity of the borders between the two.
Study #3
Study #3 reflects on the way of exercising that has become indispensable under the latest pandemic circumstances: a YouTube home workout. Being the participants of the training themselves, the four performers do their best to execute a grotesque compilation of exercises that are shown on the video. From ballet, martial arts and yoga, to marching and catwalk tutorials – this Study highlights the overwhelming variety of practices that we subject our bodies to, being caught up in the competitive race of self-optimization.
Study #4
This study is a further test, an interrogation, during which the candidates are being questioned by the performers. “Are you a radical?”….”Are you intelligent?”…..”Are you pregnant?” – these and other seemingly random questions fill up the space as performers increase the frequency with which they are being asked, locking their eyes on the candidates. No one answers, or at least so it would appear. The occasional “Are you answering my questions?” brings awareness to the fact that, once a binary question like this is asked, we can’t help but to answer it internally – thereby revealing our implicit belonging to certain groups and categories, defined by gender, age, marital status, professional success, religious beliefs and so on. The symbolic violence of these normative societal characteristics is intensified when performers switch from questions to affirmations, asserting the symbolic power to determine who the audience members are: “You are fit!”, “You are depressed!”, “You are an artist!”, “You are a freak!”.
Study #5
In Study #5 the candidates witness an episode of the “It’s Never Too Late Night Show”.
“In this show, we tell the stories of those unique individuals, who prove that it is never too late to make your dreams come true!” – says the moderator of the show, performer Sophia Seiss.
This time a very special guest has been invited to the studio – Diana, who is an accomplished… Dictateress! Diana – formerly a dancer, and now the head of the SVOYA party – tells her success story, giving tips to the future Dictateresses-to-be on how to achieve their goals. She gives practical advice on posture and body language, demonstrating how a successful speech should be held. The speech is an entry point to the final scene of the piece, a crescendo, in which the accumulated protest and resistance against the hegemony of symbolic power is being let out through the body.
Study #6
What would it be like if dictators used modern social media to create their public image and promote their personality cults? In Study #6 artist and performer Vitali Shupliak humorously explores this question through a series of images that, using instagram filters, modify and deconstruct the faces of those political figures who can be named dictators. Exhibited in the form of flags that are lying on the ground, the images are looked at from the bird’s perspective and are occasionally stepped on by the visitors – a more than desired effect of the chosen arrangement.
Commercial
Breaks
What is a political party without its merchandise? At SVOYA we know the importance of product placement! SVOYA Water is the official water brand of the SVOYA party. The water is being advertised throughout the piece through commercials of various styles and formats. Be it thanks to an intriguing commercial à la “sex sells”, or an authoritative “doctors know best” promotion – SVOYA Water will leave no one indifferent!
Supported by the NATIONAL PERFORMANCE NETWORK – STEPPING OUT, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media within the framework of the initiative NEUSTART KULTUR. Assistance Program for Dance.
Supported by NRW KULTURSekretariat and Tanzrecherche NRW scholarship, event center Tor 28, Tanzfaktur Köln, IZONE Kiew, FLUTGRABEN Berlin, Tanzfabrik Berlin.
