Site-specific, participatory, lecture performance in London 28.06.2025 | Documentation video installation in Berlin 26.07.2025
The project is a thesis adapted into a lecture performance. It analyzes settler colonialism as performance and introduces resistance as an eighth function in Richard Schechner’s performance theory. It established a dialectical structure wherein resistance is the thesis and erasure its antithesis. It examined notions such as repertoire, Ausnahmezustand, imposed-temporality, and SC elimination logic. It presents case analysis of Indigenous epistemologies and Palestinian Sumud. It concluded resistance as a distinct performance function, in opposition to SC systems of erasure, thereby preserving Indigeneity.
The lecture performance, participatory site-specific divides the audience into three groups: Settlers, Indigenous, and Bystanders. Beginning on a site of erasure with a drone and a camera operator in tow, it unfolds as a gamified experience in the public sphere. Participants experience the piece’s themes firsthand by enacting tasks assigned in real time, culminating in a lecture by me while footage of the documentation is projected. Audiences witness themselves as active participants in settler colonialism’s performance, reinforcing the work’s core provocation: settler colonialism is not just history, but an ongoing performance.
Credits:
Mudar Al-Khufash Writer & Performer
Sînziana Cojocărescu Director & Dramaturg
Claire Gilbert Producer for BÉZNĂ Theatre
Dan Light Video Design
Aydan Tair Video stills
Supported by Unity Theatre Trust
