"WHO IS THE BOSS?"

Keywords: oppression, domination, exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, violence

research

Why are people so willing to humiliate people from other social groups? What are the factors responsible for psychological and physical aggression? What are those aspects of human nature which lead to social exclusion? What are the cognitive, affective and motivational components of intergroup brutality? How can we resist, protest and fight against domination and oppression? What are our tools and how can we use them?
Through discussions (based on readings, life experience, self-examination) and practical application (creation of performance, dance, theater, acting, storytelling, drawing, writing, painting, collage, photo, video, installation art, multimedia art…) we will trace the history of different forms and levels of domination, including institutional, interpersonal, and unconscious, their similarities and differences. We will discuss the experience of living with alienation, whether it is due to race, sex, sexuality, class, ethnicity, religion or an intersection of these, the ways in which the theoretical texts we discovered relate to our personal experiences and to socio-political contexts, and we create in response concrete actions, activist performances and politically engaged body-works.

during the classes, activities will involve

  • Theory
Presentation, discussions (based on readings, life experience, self-examination), screenings and readings from texts by writers, theorists, artists...
  • Thematic experience
Ritual, ceremony, promenade, multi-sensorial experience, hiking...
  • Practice
Performance, dance, movement research, acting, puppet theater, narrating and composing through structured-improvisation and movement; developing scores for solo and group choreographies; creative writing in different form (poetry, manifest, comics, diary...) making exercises and creative tasks in different medium (drawing, paining, collage, video, photo, installation art, multimedia art...), searching through storytelling, personal narratives, historical material, archives and divers audiovisual resources...​

public showings

Students have regularly possibility to organize public presentations (performances, public space intervention...), showings (pop-up exhibitions, screenings, discussions, talks...), participative group experiences (ceremonies, rituals, promenades, celebrations...) and many other public forms to share their works, test their ideas, present their process.