Who has access to the center?

Portmann, Alexandra (22 June 2022). Who has access to the center? (Unpublished). In: International Federation of Theatre Studies.

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When we think about the dualism of center and periphery in the performing arts, we must necessarily also think about access to institutions. Even if artists are locally anchored in the same place, by no means all of them have access to the same infrastructures, funding and networks. Unquestioned rules and production conventions contribute to professionalization in the performing arts, but at the same time they create exclusion mechanisms for ways of working and aesthetics that do not operate along these rules. In this lecture I would like to reflect on an expanded understanding of the local and how barriers to cultural institutions and funding through organized networks can be broken down. The central question is how the dualism of periphery and center can be softened, at least to some extent, through collaborative ways of working and inter-local cooperation.
This institutional perspective on the question of the relationship between center and periphery allows us to rethink the concept of the local: How can a cultural institution anchor itself in a multi-voiced urban society? What role do institutions take in not only producing local artistic practices, but also making them visible to a broader cultural-political discourse? To what extent can the practice of collaboration drive a process of institutional opening that not only provides the infrastructure for a variety of artistic practices, but also has the potential to critically question the aesthetic and epistemological premises of cultural institutions and funders?
Starting point for the discussion of these questions are two production houses of the so-called independent theatre scene (Freie Szene) in German-speaking Switzerland: the Kaserne Basel and Gessnerallee in Zurich. Both institutions have been in a process of institutional transformation for a long time and are critically examining not only their own production conventions and networks, but also their own operating structures and management understandings.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Division/Institute:	06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of Art and Cultural Studies > Institute of Theater Studies
UniBE Contributor:	Portmann, Alexandra
Subjects:	700 Arts > 790 Sports, games & entertainment
Language:	English
Submitter:	Alexandra Portmann
Date Deposited:	05 Apr 2023 16:10
Last Modified:	27 Mar 2024 07:38
URI:	https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/181470