Performance of the City:

Catalog description

A founding tenet of the Performance Studies field is the significance of the site where performance takes place–including its metropolitan environment. This course serves to introduce students to the many performance cultures of Madrid and to the ways in which its unique urban environment, its many histories, cultures, sub-cultures, and multi-cultures are staged and performed by the city's residents, migrants, and visitors. The class will take Madrid itself as its main "performance" to analyze – by exploring the city's past and present, and its varied public spaces where the population gathers in a collective spectacle of social relations. Readings in urban performance studies with an emphasis on International Situationism and Gaia Theory will be supplemented by class trips to different live events including public parades, religious processions, experimental theater, classic flamenco dance, and a series of artistic dérives in the city.