Philosophy Through Performance: the example of Bad.co

Through an interdisciplinary approach, Philosophy Through Performance: the example of Bad.co will attempt to open theoretical discourse about teaching philosophy through performance within the example of a collaborative performance collective from Zagreb (Croatia), named BADco. In their own words, they are “reconfiguring established relations between performance and audience, challenging perspectival givens and architectonics of performance, problematizing of communicational structures – all of that makes BADco. an internationally significant artistic phenomenon and one of the most differentiated performance experiences.”

One of the significances of this collective is that its members / performers have different profiles and educational backgrounds, however, all of them are highly-educated top experts in their domains. BADco consists of four choreographers / dancers, two dramaturges, one philosopher and the company production manager. These urban activists promote human rights, free culture, free software and are active on cultural and political scene in their country and abroad. Their work could be described as a combination of performance and contemporary political philosophy. Since their beginning in 2000, their performances have been presented in many known venues, such as: 54th Venice Biennale; Centre Chorégraphique National de Caen, PS122 New York; Julidans Amsterdam; Dance Zone, 4+4 Days in Motion Prague; Rozdroze Festival Warsaw; Chelsea Theater London, BYCEM Athens, Metropolis Biennalen Copenhagen and many more. In this seminar we will systematically analyze the relationship of philosophy and performance by investigating how BADco relates to philosophy and which mechanisms it uses in order to present a certain philosophical thought within its performances.

Mirjana Batinić is a PhD candidate at the department of Philosophy and Theory of Visual Culture at University of Primorska, Koper, Slovenia and the department of Philosophy at University of Malta. She is also new media artist working mainly in the medium of interactive installations, sound and video art.

Duration: 20 min