Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship - autonomous ...
Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship - autonomous ...
Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship - autonomous ...
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
artificial hells<br />
rehearsals involving mere hundreds – led to slow performances: ‘<strong>the</strong> unexpected<br />
need to stagger exits <strong>and</strong> entrances created long periods <strong>of</strong> dead air,<br />
to <strong>the</strong> point that <strong>the</strong> performance lasted a full six hours’. 64 Moreover, <strong>the</strong><br />
repetitive nature <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> plots – endless uprisings <strong>and</strong> rebellions – needed<br />
more variation to succeed artistically, but this could not be done without<br />
jeopardising historical accuracy <strong>and</strong> a consistent ideological message. As<br />
von Geldern notes, ‘each revolt was a swirling mass <strong>of</strong> bodies – no leader<br />
could st<strong>and</strong> out in <strong>the</strong>ir midst; <strong>and</strong> each revolt was equally unorganised as<br />
it stormed <strong>the</strong> staircase’. 65<br />
The culmination <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 1920 spectacles, <strong>and</strong> arguably <strong>the</strong> most successful<br />
artistically, was The Storming <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Winter Palace, held on 7 November to<br />
celebrate <strong>the</strong> third anniversary <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Revolution. Directed by Nikolai<br />
Evreinov, <strong>the</strong> re- enactment involved over 8,000 participants <strong>and</strong> over<br />
100,000 spectators who were assembled into two groups in <strong>the</strong> centre <strong>of</strong><br />
Uritzky Square. It focused on a single event – <strong>the</strong> Bolshevik- led Red Guards<br />
leading an assault on <strong>the</strong> Winter Palace – <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong>refore lacked <strong>the</strong> Leninist<br />
historicism <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> preceding spectacles; from a <strong>the</strong>atrical point <strong>of</strong> view, this<br />
also meant that it was more concise <strong>and</strong> negotiable (<strong>the</strong> event lasted an hour<br />
<strong>and</strong> a quarter). The proceedings began at 10 p.m. <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> action took place<br />
over three areas in front <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Winter Palace, which were fl oodlit at different<br />
key moments in <strong>the</strong> action. According to <strong>the</strong> <strong>the</strong>atre historian František<br />
Deák, <strong>the</strong> direction was very effective <strong>and</strong> much better organised than <strong>the</strong><br />
actual storming <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Winter Palace, which had been full <strong>of</strong> confusion. 66<br />
Three stages appeared simultaneously – two conventional ones (representing<br />
<strong>the</strong> ‘red’ <strong>and</strong> ‘white’ armies respectively), <strong>and</strong> a ‘real, historical stage’<br />
(<strong>the</strong> Winter Palace itself) – but only one was lit at any given time, to focus<br />
viewers’ attention. 67 Richard Stites has observed how <strong>the</strong> organisational<br />
model <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se colossal events was wholly military, with performers grouped<br />
into units <strong>of</strong> ten <strong>and</strong> receiving instructions through a chain <strong>of</strong> directorial<br />
comm<strong>and</strong>: ‘actors were divided into platoons whose leaders were rehearsed<br />
by directors according to a detailed score or battle plan <strong>and</strong> deployed by <strong>the</strong><br />
use <strong>of</strong> military signals <strong>and</strong> fi eld telephones’. 68 As such, <strong>the</strong> re- enactment was<br />
highly directed <strong>and</strong> seemed to aim at producing a screen memory, improving<br />
<strong>the</strong> original events <strong>and</strong> allowing a secondary incident in <strong>the</strong> Revolution<br />
to play a leading part in <strong>the</strong> collective imaginary, even for those who had<br />
participated in <strong>the</strong> original events. Evreinov reportedly<br />
went as far as to look for <strong>the</strong> actual participants in <strong>the</strong> event <strong>and</strong> used<br />
<strong>the</strong>m in <strong>the</strong> performance. This was very much in agreement with his<br />
<strong>the</strong>ories <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>the</strong>atricality <strong>of</strong> life <strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong> a <strong>the</strong>atre <strong>of</strong> memory in which<br />
<strong>the</strong> past (<strong>the</strong> mental spectacle) is changed into <strong>the</strong> present – <strong>the</strong> spectacle<br />
<strong>of</strong> live action – by a full re- creation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> circumstances pertaining to<br />
<strong>the</strong> actual event as it took place in reality. 69<br />
59