Laboratory on Feedback in Artistic Processes 3

work and the role of the dramaturge within that context. However,
the figure of the dramaturge is always established in relation to
the audience. It’s an activity, a practice of observing the process
from the inside while retaining a certain distance towards the object
of observation. It represents the position of an “ideal spectator”.
The practice of dramaturgy is, therefore, primarily connected
with an act of watching that precedes an act of watching reserved
for the spectators. A dramaturge anticipates the reactions, questions
and overall experience of the spectators. In my practice, I
consider the position of the dramaturge as a welcome outsider,
a troublemaker, an agent provocateur who brings up questions,
introduces different perspectives and rearranges structures. The
method of her work is conversation.
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For me, the most important questions when starting a conversation
with an artist should, therefore, revolve around the question,
“Why do we make what we do visible, by which I mean public?
What does that act of making visible do to the material?” The first
part of the question has to do with the intentions of the artist and
the second is about the effect the work has on the spectators, regardless
of the artists’ intentions. Often the gap between these
two questions remains wide open even after the work has been
made. The role of the dramaturge is not to offer answers but to
start asking the questions that will hopefully resonate later with
the spectators.
In the meantime, the ambiguity and instability of dramaturgy
has recently been revealing its pitfalls. The dramaturge has been
transformed from a mediator between the artwork and the public
into a gatekeeper between the artist and curator. And since, in
the field of contemporary dance, we have become accustomed
to borrowing terminology from different spheres (philosophy, visual
arts, art history), the function of the dramaturge now revolves
around juggling these borrowed notions in order to provide