It's morning at Faki
on Day 3, and the festival settles into a familiar rhythm: healthy vegetarian
lunches, random happenings and events, somehow a lot of pressure, and at the
same time, none. Violence hangs in the air as a kind of general idea along with
the sounds of punk metal until 5am, ever-present, acknowledged, discussed - and
importantly, never, ever acted upon.
Day 2’s performances
were characterised by a more direct contact with contemporary politics and propaganda, as opposed to the shock of yesterday.
The neo-Marxist Sketches of Freedom kicked
things off, complete with unscheduled stage intruder, followed by Dutch/Malaysian
collaboration Can’t See Through Your Eyes
and the intriguing The More You Dance the More You Get, a metaphor for people trafficking. Norwegian
Terrorist/Capitalist/Christian cult music theatre project U-DUB was the entry for oddest but potentially most avant-garde work of the festival, whilst Japanese dancer Kazuyo Shionoiri’s meditation on death was an intensely personal
communion.
Today’s casualties in terms of criticism are both performers of Emptiness/Fullness and Can’t See Through Your Eyes - being dance performances which I read as not engage a discourse outside of their own logic - not the fault of the works by any stretch, but I am just lacking the tools to dissect such work in a useful way.
Today’s casualties in terms of criticism are both performers of Emptiness/Fullness and Can’t See Through Your Eyes - being dance performances which I read as not engage a discourse outside of their own logic - not the fault of the works by any stretch, but I am just lacking the tools to dissect such work in a useful way.
I am
holding up ok, by the way. I think we all are.
Sketches of Freedom
The term ‘Creative
Class’ is used to describe the demographic of young people who are
characterised by a particular type of exploitation. Working mostly in culture
and tech (or combinations thereof), they spend their time floating from unpaid
internship to short-term freelance gig, never enjoying fundamental rights or
government support, appropriating/hijacking infrastructure where they can, and scavenging
from the edges of societies. A particular type of oppressed, they will never
enjoy wealth, and conversely, are powerful influences in symbolically shaping
cultures and politics (referred to as ‘change makers’).