Wednesday, May 1, 2013

"The most dangerous forms of oppression are created by shaking hands" Interview with Cristina Toderas

As part of my performances in Bucharest, I was interviewed by journalist Cristina Toderas. The full interview can be found here (Romanian).






A translation with Google Translate (and some grammatical corrections) follows.

"The most dangerous forms of oppression are created by shaking hands"

People Spoke is the performance that Richard Pettifer aims to discuss individual freedom and its limits. The show is part of Global Warming tour, which began on 1 January 2013 and will be completed when the artist will comes to Berlin, where he will join other artists who protest against unsustainable methods used by governments. During the tour, departing from central Australia to Darwin, then across the Timor Sea to Indonesia, stopping in Java and Sumatra Islands, then in Singapore, Peninsular Malaysia, Thailand, Myanma, Northern India, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey to Europe Richard preferred to travel by bus or train. A plane used only twice since the beginning of the challenge, when it was absolutely necessary. The only way to leave Australia is flying, and the artist needed artificial wings to cross Myanmar. 




In areas visited, Richard is supported by local theaters and by promoting the cause and providing space for his performances.Below you can read an interview with Petiffer, performer of the controversial show The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, a monologue started to visit a factory iPhones in China. The artist talks about libertarian speech about how he builds plays and how the scene is space for discussion of current issues.

Interview by Cristina Toderaş

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I understand that you are in a world tour against global warming. What is it exactly?When [artist] Sonja Hornung moved to Berlin, I faced a difficult decision. We worked together on global warming before (see the "Brunswick Beach" on www.richardpettifer.blogspot.com), and this helped us to know more about science, but also to talk with scientists who complained when we were telling about their findings and ordinary people who were very scared of what the future will bring. Her journey was necessary travel, although I think she felt bad that the plane generates around 4 tonnes of carbon dioxide. I started writing proposals to theaters that attracted me on the route Melbourne-Germany, and working on a piece with the subject "protest" song to compliment The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, Mike Daisey, I played in June 2012. I also began to develop workshops based on Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed. So it was that I found Lorgean Theatre. I found the perfect space to try something new. The project can be best described as a hybrid of ideas taken from tourism slowly (Slow Travel Movement), the theater activist and Theatre of the Oppressed.Have you ever felt oppressed?I feel oppressed all the time, all of us, and identifying structures and mechanisms that maintain this state of affairs can help to form links with other humanities.

What kind of oppression you mean, governmental or passive? Where would you feel most constrained?Governmental oppression is easily identifiable. Government tells you directly that you or can not do something, then it is up to you if you obey or not. Often there is no choice, and sometimes you insinuate or to disobey the rules are made just to keep up appearances. Other forms of oppression are not so obvious. Many of the most dangerous forms of oppression are created by shaking hands, nodded his head and blinks of an eye, the government plays a very small role in this case. The results are the same for each individual, and to discuss these issues openly and agree that there should be resistance against them is something wonderful.I noticed, for example, that many governments, in order not to appear oppressive, will distance themselves from governments thought of as oppressive. The message to the people is: "Look, these people are oppressed! Aren't you are lucky to enjoy freedom? ". And the common man should think: "God, how lucky I am that I am not oppressed the poor Iranians." Meanwhile, they may suffer much without knowing it consciously. I always get suspicious when they see media in a country other country describe as oppressive - for me that means that the country is trying to hide something.Personally, I felt oppressed in India. From what I have seen, India has serious problems in terms of gender relations and consumerism. If you can not afford to buy anything, you're scum. I was sometimes treated poorly or sometimes well. However, I felt pressured to show a masculine authority, especially in contacts you have had with women, but also in competition with other men. I find this oppressive.How long have you worked at the journey?I worked eight months before leaving Australia. There was never any contracts, so uncertainties were everywhere and I relied on the goodwill and dedication of theater that I have came across. I won't tell you all my adventures, but in short, I can say that everything that could go wrong went wrong, except theater that I created and performances that were incredible experiences.

"Theatre that I created." Sounds interesting. Tell us more.I think the most interesting thing are the circumstances in which I tried to create. My tour was ad-hoc, so there was always the possibility that things may fail or new opportunities. This insecurity has become itself a theater and the whole thing around it became an exercise in insecurity. When I was attacked in Caboolture, Queensland, this has turned into a performance that I did - initially for a friend - on the phone while walking through Calcutta, at night. I was very afraid to do this, but I wanted to restore the state I was in during the attack, so it had to be a real threat around. Similarly, in Iran have broken a fish sculpture from the house of my host insisted that they are free to do what I want, but I was treated with such politeness that I felt stifled - it took a violent demonstration. These are new and old ideas.Theatre Lorgean, like you said, it has more of your performance inside the house. Even in this space people feel oppressed. Here in Romania, in my opinion, the consequences are more powerful because it's our private space. Something similar happened during the communist era, when people were afraid to speak out even in their homes or to decorate the interior in a more personal way.I had a similar experience in Iran. You can not do anything in public, but you can do what you want in private. As long as you do not get into people's personal space, the government can run freely in the nuclear program, and people are mostly happy. It goes largely on fear. In addition to the perception of government-built stories and myths, there is little evidence that would be a different country from another. However, I felt strange there. I think perhaps it was similar with the Romanian government was under the Soviet Union. You could live your life without meeting with the police, but they were always there.I had an interesting conversation with a few students from Iran about Western art as a form of resistance. I was introduced to an artist working in an area called "illumination", which in Persian means drawn art used to illustrate the ancient texts. Usually it's leaves, vines and mythical paintings, and often uses gold paint. There's something very traditional about which I knew nothing. I asked about the rules of this art. "Symmetry" was the reply. The artist showed me a sketch, which was half a picture and then showed me how to create the second half by folding it. I had an immediate reaction to this. I showed them how to fold and then put a dash in the top corner to break the symmetry. The artist shook his head sternly, "No, no, no" and explained that it would be disrespectful to the tradition. I talked about cognitive independence, that the result so strict tradition makes artist / vulnerable to appropriation political interests. "What do you mean?" Asked my host. "Give me an example." I hesitated. "The Nazis and Wagner."Much of western art is about freedom of speech, I said, and this is a reminder that not only what is allowed should be allowed. Especially German art, German theater or at least appear to be dependent of this idea ... gray line, gray line, gray line, gray line, red line, gray line, gray line etc. Celebrate the anomaly. But I'm suspicious that this type of individualism has its own ideology, stating that this argument is no less independent. Individualism may be actually based on consumerism and Western art can be seen as in league with this.

In Bucharest have two representatives in a public space and a private one. You adapt performance according to this site?Consciously, no. What's important is not how it looks and feels. My goal is authentic action that does not change shape. Having said that, I'm already ashamed to be acting, as I'm not an actor, and to do it in a public space enhances the shame.The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs is a monologue written by Mike Daisey American who was at the center of an international scandal last year in the theater. The author was accused of lying in the monologue, the sections in which he speaks about his visit to China and factories that produce iPhones. There are plenty of drama and excitement to this topic in people's answers on the internet, on forums, in the media and artistic community. People were very angry. I play the monologue, which is very well written and entertaining, informative and political, in a shirt that says 'liar'. This is a reminder of several things - I'm not Mike, I do not have an American accent, that the performance itself was a lie, that the events I describe did not happened to me (although it's performance during insist that I have happened to me, and the power of the play is based on my delusional belief in this regard). However, it is obviously a reminder if the questions were asked on this text - it was a lie or not - were wrong. There are many other things to discuss in the piece. What is the nature of the work now? Exploit Chinese labor for the benefit of the developed world? Are both producers and consumers
exploited in this relationship? The play raises so many questions that it seems ridiculous to stick to the accuracy of it. The questions themselves are very accurate.How were you received in the artistic community in the countries where you stop along the tour? How to report people to the idea that individuals around the world are linked together through oppression, regardless of their social status?People have been very receptive to my work. Especially in Indonesia, where I was fortunate to enjoy the support of Mime Theatre Bengkel who worked very hard for me and let me sleep in their workshop. In India, I worked on a new piece with a group called the League of Shadows, but I did a performance about how to be attacked in Australia. In Iran I didn't perform at all, but I had many discussions about art with students, I wrote something and I did a small performance however when I broke my host statue without his permission. People thought my work and ideas are interesting, but it is obvious from the expression they have while playing and talking it much thought. You can see their minds calculating. It's a difficult thought, I think, and a new one for many people.We can say that your tour is a great performance against global warming or that every stop you make in a different city is a special show?Each time it's different shows, but all are under one umbrella - climate change. In my opinion, these are the strongest of the oppressive forces of the 21st century. And all my shows start from this idea.

What does this project mean to you and what will happen in Berlin when you get there?This project is important to me due to the simplicity and pragmatism. I have been in a situation and I turned to theater to innovate. I'm proud of that. It is the opposite of many fantastic pieces of theater that have little to do with reality and whose only function is show. I live these ideas as I perform - they are real. This is a special form of sincerity. When I get to Berlin, I will join other artists in the struggle for survival. I want to work with software programmers out there, because there are new battlefields in the policy of the [program], just as Agony / Ecstasy points out. And it is not clear whether the "individual" is winning these battles.You can say that this journey is one of discovery?You could say that, but these ideas were born in my head long ago, I'm merely collecting them in my head at the right time and combining them with the circumstances. My head is like a little old fish aquarium where old fish swim around and meet newcomers and they form new relationships between them, giving rise to new things. In reality, we are a combination of new fish and old fish. So there is no revelation - just follow my logic and instinct.You become very spiritual! I think you should be more pragmatic. What if we really could travel on earth? What is stopping us? What I saw is that sea routes have disappeared due to availability of air travel and illegal immigration ships, so there is no demand for it, but political barriers. Similarly, in Europe by train costs increase, while lowering administration costs of an airline.What if all our resources would turn into marine and rail routes? It's a better infrastructure in the first place. I imagine a bridge between Australia and Europe that can travel in a practical and logical, not suicidal, as I describe, if I was in a radical mood or if I read the scientific literature on climate change.
Where have you played?I had a few performances in Sydney before I left. I went to Indonesia in Darwin, [Australia], I went through Bali, Java and Batam Islands. We had a performance in Yogyakarta, located in Java, with a troupe of mimes who called Bengkel Mime Theatre. We took a boat to Singapore via Batam Island, where we went through Malaysia to Thailand and Phuket Island. I spent a week searching for a boat from Phuket to the Andaman Islands, which are nearby, and to a part of India, but it was not possible. So I went to Bangkok and then flew to Calcutta. I played there a version of the beloved story Porphyria, by Browning, on the roof of an apartment block, along with a Bollywood actress. Then I crossed the border into Pakistan and then into Iran.

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