Rediscovering Antigone

Daniela Beltrani, 2011-12-18

Earlier this year, Zack Razak invited Daniela Beltrani to present a lecture within the pilot series he curated, named The Lecher of Art and hosted by the Substation.

Monthly, from April to October (with the exception of July), the six invited artists would present a lecture on a specific theme, yet with an unconventional approach, which challenged the conservative rapport between lecturer and audience. Ultimately, the series was aimed at proposing new possibilities of conducting lectures and at creating a more active and experiential dialogue with the audience.

Other ‘lecturers’ include Isabelle Desjeux, Rubin Hashim, Siti Salilah Omar, Bani Haykal and Debbie Ding, with themes ranging from 'failure' to 'exam sitting' to 'walking'.

Justified by her humanistic education, Zaki asked Daniela to present classical studies. Professing a preference for the ancient Greek culture over the Latin one, she proposed to lecture on one of Sophocles’ best known tragedies, Antigone, highlighting the theme of struggle between the individual and the State.

The challenge of offering an unconventional lecture on a topic where many had lectured before found its resolution in Daniela’s performance art practice.

Thus, rather than preparing a talk on Antigone, she delved into an exploration of the Antigone within herself. For days she read and re-read the play, she meditated on it until she not only literally comprehended its words with her mind, but she felt them with her soul too. Only after this process was completed, she could let images of performative nature unravel from within herself. Only then she had the material for her lecture.

On the evening of 8 September, when the audience arrived, they were greeted individually by the smile of a Daniela barefooted and dressed in a white made-up dress. She tied a ribbon around their wrists.

She then guided them to the section of the stage reserved for them, under a bright flood of light and cornered by an installation of eight towers made up of parking coupons, reminiscent of the ubiquitous towers of HDB flats found in Singapore. The intentionally uncomfortable space was meant to inspire the audience to relinquish the metaphysical space of comfort and to allow new possibilities to materialise (see photo 1).

Access to the conventional and more comfortable seating area had been blocked with the typically red and white construction tape (see photo 2).

Daniela commenced her lecture with a short yet indispensable presentation of the play and its author, walking and talking to one member of the audience along an imaginary peripatos, demarcated with masking tape on the floor.

Antigone, daughter of Oedipus, finds herself in the position of having to disobey the law of his uncle, the king of Thebes Creon, who had forbidden burial of her brother Polynices and decreed the death penalty for the transgressor. Her seemingly defiant act is in fact respectful of the more worthy divine law, which she considers above that of man’s. To this end, Creon due to his hubris will meet divine retribution in the desolated personal landscape he will find himself in, after the suicide of Antigone will have brought about the demise of those close to him.

The area in between the peripatos and the audience was the centre where the core of the lecture took place.

She chose to read 14 significant passages from the play. After each reading she proceeded to hole-punch the singled-out text and collect the round discarded parts in a bowl. After this repetitious action, she would then perform actions she felt were relevant to the text.

Water was poured from a Grecian style jug at decreasing height causing different spillages of liquid and sound; a golden thread was stretched, measured and cut whilst two mirrors reflected the image either side of her head; a tall and robust member of the audience was invited to lie down and place all of his weight upon her; she was dragged by the power of her counterparts when she alone played tug of war against four members of the audience; lemon juice was squeezed out then passed from her mouth to that of one member of the audience then back to her; a new pencil was sharpened incessantly until it was almost disintegrated; audience was invited to colour the lenses of made-up glasses, to wear them and decide the colour of her dress.

This is just a selection of the actions performed.

At the end of this marathon, she picked up the bowl containing the round cut-outs from the parking coupons she had collected over a period of time and the hole-punched text, and scattered them over the audience, signalling the end of the performance.

The positive feedback received from the audience confirmed the effectiveness of this method of lecturing, which aimed at moving their emotional intelligence, rather than their logical one. Reason can only open certain doors; to unlock others empathy, induced by the artistic experience of performance art, proved to be one of the keys.

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