6533b821fe1ef96bd127b116

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Od scenografii teatralnej do scenografii społeczno--politycznej

subject

description

The paper is an attempt at comprehensive conceptualization of the category of ‘social and political scenography’. The author’s reference point are artistic practices (institutional theater, field theater, happenings), various performances, rituals of social life (e.g. funerals), public assemblies, including religious ones, but also different forms of unconventional participation (manifestations, demonstrations). The concept of “performance” was adopted as the common denominator of all these practices. The author tried to prove the thesis, that the social scenography (just like contemporary theater scenography) was not only a decorative background for collective social activities, artistic performances or theater shows but it co-creates their significance and sense together with structure and functions. Thus, the social scenography is included into the mainstream of the event, ceasing to be decoration and becoming part of actions and activities. Moreover, thanks to the scenographic desing , one can symbolically mark real space thereby creating the boundaries of separated or distinguished spatial structures together with their meanings. These consider- ations over demarcation have shown that the social scenography allows us to understand the mechanisms of constructing spatial geography of various socio-political events. These mechanisms have deep political significance because setting boundaries always involves inclusion and exclusion of entities and problems from the social space. These are meaning constructing processes; they are not neutral, because they are always connected with ideological practices and power structures. In order to clarify his assumptions, the author draws on performance and theater studies (e.g. the concept of expanded scenography), cultural studies and the concept of the demarcation of social space by Henri Lefebvre. The text also describes the structure of social scenography, which includes stable architectural objects, visual information elements, decorative and symbolic elements, stage objects, people as stage elements, secondary scenographic transformations of existing spaces, iconographic materials, visual and spatial objects, multimedia projections. The author has showed that the individual practices of socio-political scenographic design are complex, being based not only on intentional in- teractions, but also on unintended political entanglements. These practices are applied both to the holistic political events and to those that gained a political status as a result of scenographic intervention or its interpretation in public discourse.