2nd ICCPA 2023

Performing Crisis,
Critical Performativities

If Eric Hobsbawm has dubbed the last so-called short twentieth century the Age of Extremes, perhaps it is no wonder that our twenty-first-century global society today is witnessing a myriad of crises caused into being by the push and pull of those extremes. It is as if Yeats’ prophecy in his “Second Coming” that “the centre cannot hold,” and so, as Newton’s Second Law of Thermodynamics establishes: “things fall apart.” Alluding to Yeats, Achebe’s monumental novel, suggests that the globalizing trends of the recent centuries have conditioned human life to constantly adapt to circumstances literally on the edge. The way humans behave personally and interact socially at the interpersonal, local, national and global levels have changed drastically due to both adverse situations and advancements. Thus, various cultural practices are also modified, both in the form of daily activities and in the form of ritual, ceremonial and formal practices, including the prevalence in the secular, religious, artistic and institutional realms in various fields. Policies and procedures for carrying out various activities in various sectors have also been reorganized to take into account the health protocols that apply in different jurisdictions. The production and presentation of performing arts such as theatre, dance, music and film as well as the understanding of performance have also changed. Under these circumstances, it can be said that the performing arts are also experiencing a crisis although crisis has always been crucial concept in the arts in general.

Yet, the COVID-19 pandemic, like the Spanish Flu pandemic of the early twentieth century along with World War I, has also provided space for the world community to reflect on the various crises experienced by various groups of people in the world, including, but not limited to, the climate crisis, conflicts between groups of people, and mass movement of people both voluntarily and involuntarily through displacement and human trafficking. Apart from that, popular and academic discourse is increasingly paying attention to how various bodies are also experiencing crisis, whether those that are labeled “disabled” or “different” or those viewed as “normal” bodies. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say that humanity too has been ushered into the twenty-first century by the global economic crisis.

These globally occurring crises saturare the world’s cultural discourse as well. Varied forms media, old and new, cover these crises experienced by various groups in society. Likewise, literature, fine arts, and various forms of the performing arts themselves represent these crises in their own way and in their own media.

Therefore, the Faculty of Cultural Studies, Universitas Padjadjaran invite aspiring and experienced scholars and practitioners to share the thoughts, experiences, and work in Second International Conference on Culture and Performing Arts (2nd ICCPA) focusing on the theme “Performing Crisis, Critical Performativities.” The organizers welcome abstract submissions for individual papers, panel, workshops, and performances pertaining, but not limited to the following topics:

• Performing Arts in the Age of Crisis
• Critical Cultural Performances and Performativities
• Representations of Crises and Precarity Literature, Art, and Media
• Local Languages in Crisis
• Teaching the Arts in Crisis

The details for the abstract submissions are available HERE.