Absence, Presence, Embodiment

PPi is the Performance and Politics International Research Centre, an interdisciplinary initiative between the Departments of Theatre Film and Television Studies@AberystwythTFTSand International Politics@InterpolAberat Aberystwyth University, and one of the University's Interdisciplinary Research Centres.

Performance & Politics international (PPi) Aberystwyth University

In this three-day symposium we reflect on the politics of disappearance, investigating how aesthetic practices of representing absence and materialising presence engage with the embodied experience of those facing the trauma of disappearance. How does artistic practice make manifest what happens when someone is missing, relating the responses of relatives to the event of disappearance, and exposing how those responsible are called to account.
People who are disappeared leave traces behind: traces of presence, photographs and personal possessions. Though the demand is “We want them back alive!’ in the end it is often only human remains—skeletal traces—that are recovered and identified. The relatives of the disappeared also make traces of their own: their shoes wear out as they walk from office to office demanding action, as they march in protest, and as they search for the bodies of their missing relatives. They trace the names of their sons or daughters in thread, embroidering handkerchiefs or headscarves in their honour, and keeping the possibility of their return alive.
We explore how these material traces made by relatives form an embodied challenge to absence, one that can be animated and set to work, and we look at the spread of the search for and forensic identification of remains beyond ‘experts’. The symposium takes place alongside two exhibitions: Footprints of Memory: Searching for Mexico’s Disappeared, by Mexican artist Alfredo Lopez Casanova, and Stitched Voices, an exhibition including textiles marking disappearance.
Speakers include: 
<UL>
<LI>
Vikki Bell, Professor of Sociology, Goldsmiths
</LI>
<LI>
Arely Cruz-Santiago, Research Postgraduate, Department of Geography, Durham
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<LI>
Jill Greenhalgh, Theatre Maker, Artistic Director of The Magdalena Project
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<LI>
Eileen Harrisson, School of Art, Aberystwyth
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<LI>
Danielle House, ESRC Doctoral Candidate, Aberystwyth
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<LI>
Adrian Kear, Professor of Theatre and Performance, Aberystwyth
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Becky Knight, Textile Artist
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Alfredo López Casanova, Plastic Artist, Mexico City
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<LI>
Mike Pearson, Emeritus Professor, Aberystwyth
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María de Jesús Tlatempa Bello, Mother of one of the 43 Ayotzinapa Students
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</UL>
 
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<H2 CLASS="MsoNormal">PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME </H2>
Coffees/teas and lunches are included
 
Thursday 6 April 2017 Gallery 1, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Penglais Campus, Aberystwyth
15.30-17.00       Registration and coffee, Gallery 1, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Penglais, Aberystwyth 
16.00-17.00       Guided exhibition visit: Stitched Voices, Gallery 1, Aberystwyth Arts Centre 
17.00-18.30       Session (1) : Gallery 1, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Penglais, Aberystwyth Workshops: Embroidery for Peace (Danielle House) / Arpillera (Becky Knight)
19.00                  Dinner 
Friday 7 April 2017 Seddon Room, Old College, King Street, Aberystwyth
10.30-11.00        Registration and Coffee
11.00-12.00       Session (2): “The Missing Actor: Traces of Presence and the Aesthetics of Absence,” Adrian Kear, Professor of Theatre and Performance, Aberystwyth (Chair and introductory remarks: Jenny Edkins, Professor of International Politics, Aberystwyth)
12.00-13.00       Lunch 
13.00-14.00       Exhibition visit: Footprints of Memory: Searching for Mexico’s Disappeared, Ty Celf/The Art House, Maes Lowri /Laura Place, Aberystwyth
14.00-15.30       Session (3): Footprints of Memory Workshop and discussion of exhibition: Alfredo López Casanova, Artist, Mexico City; María de Jesús Tlatempa Bello, Mother of one of the 43 Ayotzinapa Students (Chair: Danielle House)
15.30-16.30       Session (4): “The Acts – Vigia,” A presentation of the performance  work The Acts - Vigia - an attempt to respond to the brutality of the feminicide perpetrated on the Mexico/US border. Jill Greenhalgh, Theatre Maker, Artistic Director of The Magdalena Project (Chair: Jenny Edkins)
16.30-17.00       Coffee 
17.00-18.30       Session (5): "Citizen-led Forensics: Searching for Disappeared Persons in Mexico," Arely Cruz-Santiago, Department of Geography, Durham  / “Of Grief and Reconciliation: Reflections on conflict embodied in the symbiotic relationship between stitch, sound and word, voiced through the prism of the Troubles in Northern Ireland,” Eileen Harrisson, School of Art, Aberystwyth (Chair: Adrian Kear)
19.00                      Dinner 
Saturday 8 April 2017 Seddon Room, Old College, King Street, Aberystwyth 
10.30-11.00       Registration and coffee
11.00--12.00      Session (6): “Ghosts in the city: on appearances and disappearances within the urban milieu,” Mike Pearson, Emeritus Professor, Aberystwyth (Chair: Danielle House)
12.00-12.30        Film showing: Absences / Ausencias Tatiana Huezo, Mexico/El Salvador, 2015
12.30-13.30       Lunch 
13.30-15.00       Session (7): Keynote: “Bringing the Past to Presence: Creative Memory and the Trace of the Creaturely,” Vikki Bell, Professor of Sociology, Goldsmiths (Chair: Adrian Kear)
15.00-16.00       Coffee and revisit exhibitions: Footprints of Memory / Stitched Voices
16.00                 Close

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