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Choreographing Agonism Choreographing Agonism Chantal Mouffe’s Political Philosophy and Contemporary Performing Arts Goran Petrović - Lotina Dissertation proposal for the doctoral degree in art studies 2017 !ii to Ljiljana & Žarko Dean Prof. dr. Marc Boone Rector Prof. dr. Rick Van de Walle !iii !iv Administrative PhD supervisor Prof. Dr. Christel Stalpaert (Ghent University) PhD supervisors Prof. Dr. Bojana Kunst (University of Giessen) Prof. Dr. André Lepecki (New York University) Additional member of the Doctoral Advisory Committee Prof. Dr. Katharina Pewny (Ghent University) !v !vi Contents Summary ix Samenvatting xi Acknowledgements xiii Introduction xv 1 THE POLITICAL DIMENSION OF PERFORMANCE PRACTICES 1 The post-foundational turn: Mouffe and the radicalisation of democracy 2 Art and agonism 9 Choreographing agonism 14 2 CONTINGENT OBJECTIFICATION 25 Choreography as a language-game in Mette Edvardsen’s performances 26 Abundance and lack: positivity and negativity 31 Withdrawal or engagement? 35 Abstractions or objects? 41 Opposition or paradox? 45 3 RECONSTRUCTING THE BODIES 49 Disorder and order: Rancière and Mouffe 50 The case of vanguard movements in art 57 The articulation of mise-en-sense into mise-en-scène and Marlene Monteiro Freitas’ choreography 59 Redrawing limits between the intelligible and abject bodies 63 4 THE RETURN OF DRAMA 69 The horizontality of protest movements and post-hegemony 70 The quasi-verticality of protest movements and hegemony: a choreography of sublimation 73 Relational dialectics: horizontality and verticality 76 Hans Thies-Lehmann: protest movements and postdramatic politics of perception 79 The return of drama: redrawing the limits between the audience and the performances 83 Tragedy and drama 90 !vii 5 PERFORMING ALTERNATIVE COLLECTIVES 93 Bojana Kunst: performing resistance to the capitalist techniques of production 93 Struggle against the capitalist techniques of domination 98 From rational identities towards relational collectives 104 Common-cause of unity 107 The articulation of alternative collectives 111 Performing alternative collectives in Rimini Protokoll’s 100% Brussels 114 6 CONCLUSION: PERFORMANCE AS AGONISTIC PRACTICE 121 The relationship between the choreographers and the performers 123 André Lepecki: performance as “a true affective-political field of compossibilization” 125 Event as unconditioned truth 130 The compossibility of concepts 135 Opinion formation: a flight from the unconditional truth 138 Performativity of names: the articulation of affects into representations 144 Performance as an agonistic choreo-political practice 148 BIBLIOGRAPHY 153 !viii Choreographing Agonism Chantal Mouffe’s Political Philosophy and Contemporary Performing Arts Summary This PhD employs contemporary political philosophy and performance theory. Its objective is to explores the relevance of political philosopher Chantal Mouffe’s notion of agonism for performance theory, by continuously looking at the different philosophical, political and artistic discourses that cherish performance theory nowadays. Since agonism implies conflict and struggle, the main research question of this dissertation is: how might performance contest dominant politics and contribute to the constitution of democratic politics giving rise to alternative ways of living together? To answer this question, it was necessary to unfold a politico-philosophical framework of Mouffe’s notion of agonism. Therefore, this dissertation starts with the observation of two distinct trajectories within contemporary continental philosophical thought: the trajectory of immanence (Deleuze) and the trajectory of quasi-transcendence (Derrida).1 Whereas the former gives rise to the project of absolute democracy (Hardt, Negri), the latter gives rise to the project of agonistic democracy (Mouffe). The distinction between these two philosophical and political trajectories is deepened in psychoanalytic terms and envisaged as a distinction between the positive ontological imaginary of abundance — desire for being in-itself, and the negative ontological imaginary of lack — desire for the lack-of-being. It is stressed that the negative ontological imaginary of lack anticipates a co-constitutive relationship between lack and abundance, precisely because the dimension of negativity precludes both the idealisation of lack and the idealisation of abundance.2 The suggested co-constitutive and agonistic type of relationship between the paradoxically differential positions, such as lack and abundance, also became a challenge to philosopher Jacques Rancière’s one-sided political model of communal anarchism, which advocates politics of disorder above the politics of order, or mise-en-sense above mise-en-scène.3 In order to move towards pluralism, relations between the paradoxically differential positions are envisaged in terms of dialectics. Relational dialectics recognise antagonistic conflicts and polemics to be inherent in societies (Gramsci, Schmitt). Further on, antagonistic conflicts and polemics are envisaged by means of discourse formation (Laclau, Mouffe), allowing for the articulation of antagonism into agonism (Mouffe).4 The operation of articulation requires articulation of initial immediacy into discursive 1 See chapter 1. 2 See chapter 2. 3 See chapter 3. 4 See chapter 4. !ix mediation: of order into disorder, abject bodies into intelligible bodies, mise-en-sense into mise-en-scène5, horizontal politics into vertical politics, passive onlookers into active citizenship,6 the multitude into the people7, and affects into representation8. The operation of articulation requires a view on societies — including social practices of performance — in terms of discourse, hegemony and antagonism. These three political components enable us to envisage what I call the contesting political dimension of performance that is manifested through the strategies of engagement, giving rise to the choreography of articulation. The insights into contemporary performances by Arkadi Zaides9, Mette Edvardsen10, Marlene Monteiro Freitas11, and Rimini Protokoll12, are just some of the possible examples that allow us to observe how choreographing agonism performance practice and performance theory may contribute to the constitution of democratic politics and different ways of living together. 5 See chapter 3. 6 See chapter 4. 7 See chapter 5. 8 See chapter 6. 9 See chapter 1. 10 See chapter 2. 11 See chapter 3. 12 See chapter 5. !x Choreografie van agonisme Hedendaagse podiumkunsten en de politieke filosofie van Chantal Mouffe Samenvatting Dit doctoraat is een toepassing van politieke filosofie en performancetheorie, met als doelstelling het onderzoeken van de relevantie van de notie ‘agonisme’ in het werk van de politieke filosofe Chantal Mouffe voor performancetheorie. Dit wordt bereikt door grondige inspectie van de verschillende filosofische, politieke en artistieke discoursen die performancetheorie heden ten dage koesteren. Aangezien agonisme conflict en strijd impliceert, is de hoofdonderzoeksvraag van deze dissertatie: hoe kan performance tegenstand bieden aan de heersende politiek en bijdragen aan de totstandbrenging van een democratische politiek die alternatieve manieren van samenleven doet ontstaan? Om deze vraag te beantwoorden, was het noodzakelijk om het politiek-filosofisch kader van Mouffe’s notie van agonisme uiteen te zetten. Daarom begint deze dissertatie bij de observatie van twee verschillende trajecten binnen het hedendaagse continentale filosofische denken: het traject van immanentie (Deleuze) en het traject van quasi- transcendentie (Derrida).13 Waar eerstgenoemde het project van absolute democratie op gang brengt (Hardt, Negri), brengt laatstegenoemde het project van agonistische democratie op gang (Mouffe). Het onderscheid tussen deze twee filosofische en politieke trajecten wordt uitgediept in psychoanalytische termen en beschouwd als een onderscheid tussen het positieve ontologische denkbeeldige van overvloed - het verlangen naar in- zichzelf-zijn, en het negatieve ontologische denkbeeldige van gebrek - het verlangen naar gebrek-aan-zijn. Het wordt beklemtoond dat het negatieve ontologische denkbeeldige van gebrek de co-constitutieve relatie tussen gebrek en overvloed anticipeert, precies omdat de dimensie van negativiteit zowel de idealisering van verlangen als de idealisering van overvloed vooropstelt.14 Het gesuggereerde co-constitutieve en agonistische type relatie tussen de paradoxaal differentiële posities, zoals gebrek en overvloed, werd ook een uitdaging voor het eenzijdige politieke model van communaal anarchisme van filosoof Jacques Rancière, dat pleit voor een politiek van wanorde boven een politiek van orde, ofwel mise-en-sense boven mise-en-scène.15 Om naar een pluralisme van posities te gaan, worden relaties tussen paradoxaal differentiële posities beschouwd in termen van dialectiek. Relationele dialectiek erkent antagonistische conflicten en polemiek als inherent aan samenlevingen (Gramsci, Schmitt). Verder worden antagonistische conflicten 13 Zie hoofdstuk 1. 14 Zie hoofdstuk 2. 15 Zie hoofdstuk 3. !xi en polemiek beschouwd door middel van discoursvorming (Laclau, Mouffe), wat de uitdrukking van antagonisme in agonisme toelaat (Mouffe).16 De operatie van uitdrukking van een initiële directheid in een discursieve bemiddeling: van orde in wanorde, abjecte lichamen in begrijpelijke lichamen, mise-en-sense in mise-en-scène17, horizontale politiek in verticale politiek, passieve omstaanders in actief burgerschap,18 de menigte in het volk19, en
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