Diana Taylor:
Presente! The Politics of Presence

To what extent does performance allow itself be understood as the art of (body) memories? Based on a multitude of performative beginnings, different memory and remembrance practices will be discussed: from reconstructive archival work, to reenactments, all the way to other interpretations of past knowledge in theater spaces. The symposium is composed of three moderated lectures on three nights which combine innovative theoretical thinking with artistic and didactic artistic practices.

Diana Taylor is university professor of performance studies and Spanish at New York University. Her research interests include Latin American and US theater and performance, performance and politics, feminist theater and performance in the Americas, hemispheric studies, human rights, and trauma studies. Taylor’s books include Theatre of Crisis: Drama and Politics in Latin America (1991), Disappearing Acts: Spectacles of Gender and Nationalism in Argentina’s Dirty War (1997), The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas (2003) and she co-edited among other publications Holy Terrors: Latin American Women Perform (2004), Stages of Conflict: A Reader in Latin American Theatre and Performance (2008), What is Performance Studies (2015), Dancing with the Zapatistas (2016). She founded the network The Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics and is currently President of the Modern Language Association (MLA).

CONCEPTION, ORGANISATION Prof. Dr. Magdalena Marszałek (University Potsdam), Prof. Dr. Dorota Sajewska (University Zürich / University Warsaw), Prof. Dr. Małgorzata Sugiera (Jagiellonen University Krakow)

Symposion in th escope of the international research project Performances of Memory: Testimonial, Reconstructive and Counterfactual Strategies in Literature and Performative Arts of the 20th and 21st Centuries. Funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the National Science Center (NCN, Poland).