Performing Action, Performing Thinking

In its central section Performing Action, the issue of Maska subtitled Performing Action, Performing Thinking broaches a re-examination of the performativity of various oppositional political movements and actions, which—intentionally or inadvertently—aestheticise politics and thus establish themselves as politicised artistic events.

Aldo Milohnić in his essay Artivism and Tanja Lesničar-Pučko in her article Wadassassination of the Church, or the Limitations of the Artistic Church Credo analyse Slovenian instances of such events, whereas Susan Leigh Foster in her text Choreographies of Protest explores the position and meaning of the body in actions of this kind.

The essay by Inke Arns examines the strategy of affirmation as a form of resistance in various media–activist projects. The second thematic section The Thinker on the Stage features the essay Theoretical Performance by Miško Šuvaković, which contextualises the notion of performance in relation to various performative practices of the twentieth century. The essay accompanies two interviews conducted by Andreja Kopač with Juan Dominguez and Ivana Müller, whose performances offer two different examples of “theorising” on stage.

The issue is rounded off with another thematic section, The Society of the Spectacle, which features Lev Kreft’s analyses of the link between telenovella and melodrama and Jure Stojan’s discussion of the terrorist scenario and the theatre of terrorism.