‘To speak the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth’: About political performances of listening
Citation
Marschall, Anika (2017) ‘To speak the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth’: About political performances of listening. Platform: Journal of Theatre and Performing Arts, 11(Winter 2017), pp. 67-87.
Abstract
In this article, I discuss performative sound interventions by British-Jordanian media artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan. I employ
performance studies discourses to think through the politics of
authenticity that his works address. I argue that Hamdan’s performative interventions aim to bring forth a new form of political agency that grounds on us rethinking the dramaturgy of
listening. Different from an aesthetic of authenticity as seen in
verbatim theatre, he does not aim to give a voice to the voiceless
in order to challenge the norms of cultural belonging and identity politics. Instead, his artistic works about legal authentication
processes produce a new sensibility for the act of listening and
the political positioning of the listening subject. Interrogating
how the politics of listening coalesces with an aesthetic of authenticity, I argue, can impel us to reconsider our understanding
of the vox populi and naturalised practices of exclusion.