Volume 1 of the book series Performing Urgency edited by Florian Malzacher.

Whom to represent, in which way, and with what right? The recent crisis of representation in democracy has also hit the representation machine of theatre at its core. Theatre, long considered to be the political art form, now struggles with how to relate adequately to society. Often it is either trapped into the content-driven world of representation or indulges in the belief of the transformative power of aesthetics alone.

Not Just a Mirror maps a movement of artists from all over the world searching for the political theatre of today. A theatre that wants to engage with society both in its contents as in its form, creating a contemporary community in which social and political actions can be deployed and in which societies in their — actual or possible — varieties are played out, performed, expanded, tested, or even invented.

Not Just a Mirror is comprised of eight essays, two interviews, and 15 case studies of political theatre makers, and investigates the performing arts as a political laboratory of the present. It explores how theatre, dance, and performance reveal their essential agnosticism, provoking the potential to actively change society rather than merely serving as a cover-up for the dysfunctions, fractures, and wounds of society.

With contributions by Julian Boal, Boris Buden, Matan Cohen, Annie Dorsen, Galit Eilat, Monika Ginterdorfer, John Jordan, Alexander Karschnia, Hervé Kimenyi, Beatrix Kricsfalusi, Bojana Kunst, Hans-Thies Lehmann, Judith Malina, Florian Malzacher, Tala Jamal Manassah, Oliver Marchart, Carol Martin, Lloyd Nyikadzino, Giulia Palladini, Roman Pawłowski, Jeroen Peeters, Goran Sergej Pristaš, Christian Römer, Sylvia Sasse, Francesco Scasciamacchia, Michael Sengazi, Vassilis Tsianos, Margarita Tsomou, Benjamin Wihstutz and Franck Edmond Yao.

A publication by House on Fire, Live Art Development Agency & Alexander Verlag Berlin.

The book series Performing Urgency is supported by the Culture Programme of European Union.

Photographies above from
Filipe Braga