The Adversaries

What do we mean, when we say that the current crisis of democracy relates closely to the fact that western societies make disappear dissensus and passionate negotiation from public sphere? How could our differences be revealed and dealt with in an agonistic spirit? How could we re-train ourselves, as citizens, to confront each in ways that do not end up in the dead-end of polarization?

The Adversaries is a participatory performance installation that brings in conflict two small groups of people in a performative, playful way. The aim is to provide space to participants to (self)reflect on the practice of conflict as a constitutive democratic practice. Through a step-by-step following of a series of instructions, the two groups are guided to detect an existing conflict between them and negotiate on it in a way that acknowledges the potential and possible limitations of such action. They, thus, attempt to create in common a new third space that emerges from the synthesis of their views, as they confront each other and themselves.

The Adversaries is the fourth work of the maker on the practice of democracy, following An Analogue Campaign (on public speaking), Languages of the Unheard (on the language of protest), and An Attempt to Devise a Democratic Assembly (on the practice of assembling).