STREET ARTISTS IN EUROPE - Fondazione Fitzcarraldo

2.3. An alternative approach
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Street Artists in Europe
It is difficult to define artistic innovation. Art is constantly changing. Old forms are replaced by
new, which in their turn become old. So street arts have reinvented, in contemporary urban
settings, forms of theatre and popular festivals that come from very ancient traditions, for
example theatre on the boards, carnival, travelling fairs.
Street arts are innovative not so much because they offer completely new forms of
entertainment, but because their approaches are an alternative to the rules and practices that
predominate in other artistic fields, for instance:
• the choice of urban space;
• a different attitude to the audience.
In addition
• the rejection of traditional scenography in which all eyes are fixed on the same point;
• a non-hierarchical structure and fragmentary use of specialist and technical languages.
Aesthetically, street arts are now going through a phase in which there is a new desire to break
down barriers and this is also starting to emerge in other artistic fields. Contemporary dance
‘gets down’ into the street and brings in movements like hip hop. People working in the theatre
are asking whether they have a duty to involve themselves in social issues and to seek closer
contact with the public.
2.3.1. Contact with the public: the essence of the performance
Contact with the public is a fundamental element of street arts. The spectators play an essential
part in the performance and it is reliant on them. That contact is a form of encounter which
emphasises the balance of power that might be established between actors and the public, a
reminder that audience reaction can either carry the performance along or destroy it.
In their desire to alter the traditional relationship with the audience, artists want spectators to be
active and reactive, at risk of never being certain whether the public are on their side. That
delicate balance means building a relationship through impromptu actions, the effect of surprise
and amazement. Hence the importance of the body in the response to those artistic performances
that seek to create a kind of collective identity, whilst eliminating the distance between
performers and public.
Street theatre breaks down the impassable barrier between audience and actors and bridges the
gap between the stage and the body of the theatre. This ‘crossing of the line’ 97 brings together
two coexisting worlds, the world of the performers and the world of those who are watching and
listening to them.
Contact with the public stimulates creativity. That relationship must also be given special
attention and a specific artistic language so that new types of relationship can be created. The
relationship with the public must be at the heart of street theatre, precisely because this type of
97 Dort, Bernard, La pratique du spectateur, Paris, P.O.L., 1995, p. 40.
PE 375.307