The Politics of the Unconscious: Last Session

Hysteria, Surrealism, and Avant-Garde Dance
Marija Krtolica
October 1, 2017, 2:00 to 4:00 pm

Through theory and practice we will examine the psychoanalytic concept of the unconscious in the late 19th to 20th century. Starting with the fin-de-siècle Parisian hospital Salpêtrière, we will touch upon the historical resonances of the invention of mental pathology, and aesthetic forms that resonance has instigated. On September 17 we will look at the images of the mental patients of this period, many of which challenge the boundary between artistic representation and medical documentation. Next, we will examine the political meanings of Dadaist and Surrealist art, film and poetry and discuss grotesque dances by Valeska Gert (Weimar Era), and dance-theater of Pina Bausch and Mats Ek (1970s-80s). On the one hand, we will explore how the aesthetic de-hierarchization and commodity culture inform our practices as witnesses and makers. On the other, we will open up the concept of the unconscious and re-create it through imaginative practices. Performance practices will be related to the texts by Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Rancière.

Marija Krtolica (b. 1973, Belgrade) is an international movement artist, dance researcher and teacher (BFA NYU, MFA UC Davis, MA NYU, completing PhD in dance at Temple University in Philadelphia). Her current research focuses on the meanings and symptoms of hysteria in the nineteenth century, and critical re-investigation of hysterical scenes in Tanztheater. Recently, she presented papers at CUNY at Graudate Center conference Approaching Dance, NCSA Caucus in Charleston, the Department of Visual Arts conference at UCSD (2015), ACLA 2015 in Seattle, a Graduate Conference of the Department of English at the University of Chicago (2014), and Choreography Symposium at the University of Cologne (2014), At the artistic residence in Spread Art in Detroit (2015), the University of Arts Belgrade (2015), and at the Le Couvent artistic residence in Auzits, France (2016). Marija has worked with the lecture/performance mode of examining elusive boundaries between practice and theory. Marija has published papers in The International Journal of the Arts in Society (2009 and 2011), and The Journal of Arts Theory and History (2013). She has written articles and conducted interviews for the Belgrade dance publication Orchestra.

Fees are sliding scale. No one is denied participation for inability to pay.