LIsbon, Lack and Excess: lecture performance, Spielart Wake Up Festival 2013
The words austerity and debt imply or signify a lack of something. These two words are part of the vocabulary used in mainstream media to describe the current economic situation in Portugal.But lack often comes along with excess: excess of unemployed (especially young high qualified) people; excess of international corporations buying real estate historical property at almost zero cost; excess of tourism and places being ‘touristified’; excess of police intervention; excess of theatre and dance companies forced to reduce size or close doors; excess of research centers firing people… and also excess (or shall we say lack?) of small artist and citizen driven initiatives trying to reinvent a more sustainable and equal world. Focusing on critical performance and visual artwork, Ana Bigotte Vieira will try to sketch a composite portrait of the current moment. She has invited Swiss artist and cultural critic Sandra Lang, who knows well the Portuguese- Lisboan panorama, to mediate Vieira´s understanding of what’s going on. Operating as an accomplice, an outsider and an expert, speaking German as well as understanding Portuguese, Lang will comment, elucidate and interpolate this portrait.
