DRAMATURGIES OF RESISTANCE — collectivity, performance, dialectics

Jumana Manna, A Magical Substance Flows Into Me, 2016

A two-day online symposium consisting of film screenings, seminar presentations, and dialogues with artists, writers and scholars.

JUNE 18–19 2021, 11:00–4:30PM (EDT | Toronto) — Zoom

FRIDAY 18 JUNE

  • 11-12:30: Thinking/Walking (with Kant) | D.N. RODOWICK, in conversation with IAN BALFOUR & REBECCA COMAY
  • 1-2:30: A Magical Substance Flows Into Me (2016) | JUMANA MANNA, in conversation with SAMI KHATIB
  • 3-4:00: ANGELICA NUZZO + ROCÍO ZAMBRANA

SATURDAY 19 JUNE

  • 11-1:00: Event for a Stage (2015) | TACITA DEAN, in conversation with MICHAEL NEWMAN
  • 1:30-2:30: ROBYN MARASCO + LEIF WEATHERBY
  • 3-4:30: SAMI KHATIB: The Cunning of Attrition + ADANIA SHIBLI: With Minimal Force

This online symposium is free, but registration is required in order to receive the Zoom link (for participating in dialogues / Q&A): register for free on Eventbrite (places limited). We will also livestream the symposium via the Dramaturgies of Resistance Facebook Page. Some sessions will remain in the Page's video archive for a short period after the symposium, to allow for access by those in different timezones.

NB: To respect the current censure and boycott of the University of Toronto by the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), this event is no longer affiliated with the Jackman Humanities Institute at the University of Toronto, and is instead being hosted as an independent event. This means that all of our participants have agreed to forego their fees and honoraria in order to continue with the event; we are grateful for their solidarity.

For further details about the censure, see censureuoft.ca.




INFINITY Minus Infinity
The Otolith Group in conversation with Denise Ferreira da Silva

The Otolith Group, INFINITY Minus Infinity, 2019

The Dramaturgies of Resistance event series continues on Thursday, March 18, 2021 with a live screening of The Otolith Group's celebrated recent film INFINITY Minus Infinity (2019), followed by a discussion between Otolith (artists Kodwo Eshun and Anjalika Sagar) and Denise Ferreira da Silva (University of British Columbia), whose formulation of an "Equation of Value" centrally informs the film's “aesthetic imagination of blackness as that which holds and hosts the capacity to disrupt life” (The Otolith Group, 2020).

Please register only if you intend to attend the Webinar, which will allow participants to ask questions during the final Q&A. As with the Hito Steyerl lecture, we will also livestream the event through the Facebook event for maximal accessibility — follow the @DramaturgiesofResistance Facebook page for regular updates, or check dramaturgiesofresistance.com for a link to the livestream at the event time. (Note that viewing Facebook Live streams does not require a Facebook account.)

The Otolith Group | INFINITY Minus Infinity (2019)

Denise Ferreira da Silva, "1 (life) ÷ 0 (blackness) = ∞ − ∞ or ∞ / ∞: On Matter Beyond the Equation of Value" (2017)

RSVP on Facebook and Eventbrite.



Hito Steyerl: Lecture

Hito Steyerl, SocialSim, 2020
Single channel HD video and live computer simulation Dancing Mania
Duration: 18:19 min (single channel), Dancing Mania duration variable
Image CC 4.0 Hito Steyerl. Image courtesy of the Artist, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York, and Esther Schipper, Berlin

On Friday, January 22, 2021, artist, filmmaker, and media theorist Hito Steyerl joins the Dramaturgies of Resistance collective for a discussion of recent work, including a live Q&A with the Zoom webinar audience.

Hito Steyerl is an internationally renowned artist, filmmaker and scholar whose deft navigation of the disparate modes of art-making and theorizing continues to expand the ways we experience and examine the social roles of art and museums, experimentation with media and forms of presentation, and our interactions with realized and potential uses of artificial intelligence. At this unprecedented time, when it seems as if “everything is canceled,” Steyerl’s most recent work explores the complex relation between spread (of conspiracy theories no less than viral contagion) and simulation (from the automization of performance to our capacities for virtual interaction with statistical probability of human risk).

More information on Steyerl's recent exhibition "I Will Survive" can be found at the Düsseldorf Kunstsammlung (K21)

RSVP on Facebook and Eventbrite.