{"id":16721,"date":"2021-11-25T00:33:15","date_gmt":"2021-11-25T00:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.jtcarthage.tn\/?page_id=16721"},"modified":"2024-11-21T20:22:00","modified_gmt":"2024-11-21T20:22:00","slug":"conferences","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jtcarthage.tn\/en\/conferences\/","title":{"rendered":"Conferences"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

International Scientific Symposium of the 25th edition of Carthage Theater Days (November 25 – 27, 2024)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Symposium Paper<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Theatre, Genocide and Resistance: Towards a New Humanistic Horizon<\/b><\/p>\n

In its contemporary era, Humanity has had bitter experiences with destruction. This<\/span> latter has a material meaning, which involves demolition of streets, roads, buildings,<\/span> institutions, headquarters, statues, and landmarks, along with the complete devastation of<\/span> their contents. The aim of those who perpetrate destruction is to make life hard for people,<\/span> to disrupt their communication, to break the bond that should unite them, and to reduce the<\/span> continuity and harmony of their material and intellectual production.<\/span><\/p>\n

Destruction, however, also extends to all sites of art production and circulation, giving it a moral significance and becoming part of an ethnic genocide that assassinates all human<\/span> memories preserved by those arts, along with the repository of histories, the archive of<\/span> current life, and the record of desired futures. It prevents the narration of local stories by<\/span> artists rooted in their cultures and engaged with their peers from all areas of the world,<\/span> across languages and cultures.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this context, several texts, including the Roerich Pact (1935) and the Convention<\/span> Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (1972), serve as legal foundations for strong human and international opposition to all acts of cultural genocide<\/span> and for seeking justice against them. Moreover, they affirm the human right<\/span> to international protection against such crimes and the obligation to combat those who<\/span> perpetrate them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the millennial history of genocide, some of which is known while some is silenced, modernity has elevated it to an unprecedented level in terms of planning, organization, and<\/span> the development of technological means to facilitate its perpetration, exploit its outcomes,<\/span> and promote it within international, regional, and national political agendas. These agendas<\/span> include ethnic cleansing, forced displacement, erasure of memories, appropriation of<\/span> tangible and intangible heritage, and the eradication of ethnic existence. These are the<\/span> defining characteristics of the deliberate, total, or partial, extermination of a human group<\/span> identified by its religious, racial, ethnic, or national identity, through systematic, sustained,<\/span> large-scale, and targeted violence<\/span> aimed at its extermination. While genocides have a history<\/span> in modern Europe and the Global<\/span> North, the atrocities witnessed in the colonized and semi colonized<\/span> countries of the Global South over the past five centuries <\/span>– <\/span>from South America to<\/span> Africa, Australia, and Asia <\/span>–<\/span> embodied a strict and systematic imperial capitalist plan to<\/span> impose horrific destinies on their peoples and<\/span> cultures.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Gaza, since October 2023, the relentless wars aimed at erasing contemporary human<\/span> cultures<\/span> \u2013 <\/span>previously seen in Bosnia, Croatia, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo,<\/span> Darfur, Sudan, and elsewhere<\/span> \u2013 <\/span>have reached an unprecedented level trough a Zionist criminal<\/span> escalation. Evidences are proven through repeated massacres targeting children, women, and the<\/span> elderly, as well as air and ground raids that have obliterated homes, schools, hospitals,<\/span> archaeological sites, and religious, cultural, artistic, and academic institutions. The Zionist<\/span> invaders of Palestine, even before the establishment of the Zionist entity through war,<\/span> killing, destruction, and global imperial colonial support, have committed one premeditated<\/span> massacre after another, carrying out acts of genocide<\/span> \u2013 <\/span>spatial, ethnic, and cultural<\/span> \u2013 <\/span>without<\/span> any effective deterrence. In facing this horrific aggression, Palestinians stand as representatives of humanity in this bitter experience, bearing its weight, which necessitates<\/span> deepening thought and reinforcing action in the realm of resistant art.<\/span><\/p>\n

The theater holds boundless possibilities for engaging performance artists and their<\/span> audiences in creating events, texts, and images that reconnect with life from within the<\/span> heart of genocide and destruction. Indeed, theater, as an all-encompassing practice, spans<\/span> from individual or collective creative writing to the performative act that mediates the<\/span> relationship with the audience, culminating in the emotional and sensory interplay, where<\/span> texts engage with other texts beyond the spectacle of performances. This immense capacity<\/span> for resistance has always been<\/span> inherent in theater. Throughout humanity’s struggles against<\/span> tyranny, oppression, and the violation of rights, theater has never been a passive witness.<\/span> How many theaters have been<\/span> founded on the Freedom principle and named after it? How<\/span> many theatrical practices have helped sustain a people under siege, reinforcing their sense<\/span> of self and inspiring them to take pride in the free, creative human spirit, especially when<\/span> strongholds of resistance have fallen? How many theaters have been built, brick by brick, to<\/span> represent their creators rather than their oppressors, to express their anxieties, convey their<\/span> suffering, and radiate their hopes? How many theaters have brought together painters,<\/span> musicians, poets, writers, philosophers, and social scientists to practice free creativity in the<\/span> face of destruction, genocide, colonialism, and tyranny? Wasn\u2019t this<\/span> philosophy behind the<\/span> ‘Theatre of the Oppressed,’ which originated in Brazil during the 1970s and spread<\/span> worldwide? Wasn’t this the approach of South African theater artists who created anticolonial,<\/span> anti-apartheid, and anti-genocide dramatic expressions as part of the ‘Truth and Reconciliation’ process in the 1990s? Wasn’t this the philosophy behind ‘Mashirika’ in<\/span> Rwanda (1998), which united people of diverse languages, cultures, national identities, and<\/span> artistic experiences to establish a theater practice opposing genocide? Isn’t this the spirit of<\/span> the ‘Freedom Theatre’ in Jenin Camp (2006), to cite only few examples?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Resistance is the condition for human survival in the face of the enemies of humanity, and<\/span> free creativity is the most significant event at the heart of this resistance. It is an event, but<\/span> it is also a structure and a social-historical process that regenerates life by bearing witness,<\/span> recording history, preserving the archive of human existence, and creating possible futures.<\/span> Therefore, theater, as both an event and a structure, is shaped by creators who denounce<\/span> oppression, expose injustice, unveil crime, and provoke inquiry.<\/span><\/p>\n

Genocide Theater works to create states of interactive awareness<\/span> – <\/span>both individual and collective<\/span> – <\/span>regarding tyranny, exploitation, dehumanization, racism, and discrimination<\/span> by transcending the performer-spectator binary. While the theatrical script put words in actors\u2019 mouths, it also gives them the space to speak-out and perform in ways that silence genocide and destruction voices. As theater artists dress the characters they<\/span> portray with masks, they simultaneously strip away White masks that prevent Black Skins<\/span> from revealing themselves and confronting their enemies with unveiled faces.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this critical juncture in Palestine, that the emancipatory human thought faces today, the<\/span><\/p>\n

necessity for an anti-genocide theater is more urgent than ever, aligning with a new<\/span> humanistic horizon that seeks to reestablish the defense of free humanity. In theater, and on<\/span> the stage, there is dialogue and the clash of words and ideas, a confrontation of viewpoints, a subversion of tyranny through humor, and a reversal of the ‘inevitable’ fate<\/span> \u2013 <\/span>rooted in free individuals crafting chosen destinies. The theater draws its core from<\/span> classical and popular literatures, both ancient and modern arts, the human and<\/span> social sciences, and from philosophies. In this sense, theater cannot fulfill this role unless it<\/span> contributes to bridging the gap between the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Art, considering<\/span> them as the collective knowledge of human beings about themselves<\/span> –<\/span> their past, present, and future<\/span> aspirations<\/span> – <\/span>and viewing theater as a crucible for the arts, literatures,<\/span> and disciplines<\/span> concerned with Mankind and Society.<\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore, several aesthetic and ethical issues arise that could serve as key topics for the<\/span> 25<\/span>th<\/span> edition of the Carthage Theater Days Symposium, which will be held under the theme ‘Theater, Genocide, and Resistance: Toward<\/span>s<\/span> a New Humanistic Horizon’:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. <\/b> The aesthetic specificities of practicing Genocide Theater and Resistance Theater in<\/span> various societies during the colonial and consumer capitalist eras.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. <\/b> The ethics of depicting destruction and genocide on stage and transforming them<\/span> into theatrical scenes.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. <\/b> The relationship between Theater and the Human and Social Sciences, which explore<\/span> the memories of genocide and resistance and the social-historical construction of<\/span> identities.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. <\/b> Genocide Theater and Resistance Theater and creation of possible futures.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Symposium Director\u00a0: Mounir SAIDANI<\/b><\/p>\n

    Symposium Coordinator : Basma FERCHICHI<\/b><\/p>\n

    [\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    [vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] International Scientific Symposium of the 25th edition of Carthage Theater Days (November 25 – 27, 2024) Symposium Paper   Theatre, Genocide and Resistance: Towards a New Humanistic Horizon In its contemporary era, Humanity has had bitter experiences with destruction. This latter has a material meaning, which involves demolition of streets, roads, buildings, institutions, headquarters, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jtcarthage.tn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16721"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jtcarthage.tn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jtcarthage.tn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jtcarthage.tn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jtcarthage.tn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16721"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jtcarthage.tn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18353,"href":"https:\/\/jtcarthage.tn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16721\/revisions\/18353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jtcarthage.tn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}