The Ground of the cities - performance as catalysis

Maciel, Andrea ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5528-0298 (2020) The Ground of the cities - performance as catalysis. Studies in Theatre and Performance, 40 (1). pp. 35-43. ISSN 1468-2761

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Abstract

The Ground of the Cities is a performance that incorporates public space dynamics and acts in the fine line between life and performativity. It looks at the vulnerability of homeless people in the everyday life of contemporary cities in Brazil. Using The Ground of the Cities as a case study, this article considers how urban interventions may be understood as catalysis that expose the injustices embedded in a city’s social tissue. I propose that the practice-based investigation of public spaces through performance can engender new narratives in which the everyday conflicts of the city are re-written in an expanded participatory political dimension.