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Performing Pandemic Grief: The Arts of Losing (Day 1, 17 November: Online only)

When: —
Venue: Online

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Day 1: Online only

Keynote lecture

Sarah E. Wagner, Professor of Anthropology, George Washington University, USA 

Artist presentations

Michael Buffong, Artistic Director, Talawa Theatre Company
Rachel Mars, Theatre maker and performer
Conor Mitchell, Artistic Director Belfast Ensemble

New commission launch

Aya v. O (a.k.a. Yanik Riedo) and Bruno Vilhar, 'Danse Macabre' (binaural audio work, in association with BiGS (Birkbeck Gender and Sexuality), and Peltz Gallery where it will be presented) 

Description

This Wellcome ISSF-supported symposium, hosted by Birkbeck Centre for Contemporary Theatre, explores the role of theatre, performance and related art practice in the experience and expression of grief in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Planned as a hybrid event, taking place online (17 November, via Teams) and in person (18 November, Birkbeck School of Arts), this symposium approaches grief as a psychological, medical, anthropological and cultural response to death and loss, including in an expanded sense that includes relationships, employment, social life, cultural participation and life opportunities. Bringing together artists, academics, community organisers, health and social care professionals, the symposium aims to explore why and how people grieve and don’t grieve; where and when this happens; the role of art, ritual, social and cultural practices in this process; and the particular nuances of grieving in the wake of COVID-19.  

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic calls on us to examine our relationship to grief with urgency, owing to the scale of its impact (an estimated 6.5 million have so far died); the ways in which its speed has made grief difficult or even impossible to process; how pandemic grief has become folded into other events, including personal illness and loss, the Black Lives Matter movement (and its losses),  the war in Ukraine, the death of world leaders; climate grief; and how social quarantine and accelerated digitization have frustrated established mourning practices and produced new forms. The symposium is spurred by the contention that the arts have emerged as important strategies and practices to support the processing of grief during the pandemic, and it aims to stimulate and support conversations around this phenomenon.  

The symposium features three strands: 1) invited specialist keynotes, panels and workshops; 2) panel presentations; 3) a Peltz Gallery/Birkbeck Centre for Contemporary Theatre new digital artwork commission. 

 

Day 1: Schedule 

9.45-10.00        Welcome 

10.00-11.30      Performing (in) the Pandemic: Michael Buffong, Rachel Mars, Conor Mitchell (invited artist panel)

Break

11.45-13.00      Practices of Care and Remembrance: Dr Paquita de Zulueta, Dr Gabriella Calchi Novati, Jo Clifford & Lesley Orr

Lunch

14.00 - 15.30    Performing Cultural and Community Care: Dr Holly-Gale Millette, George Gumisiriza, Dr Olga Danylyuk,  Dr Emma Cox

Break

15.45-16.45      Keynote 1: Prof Sarah Wagner

Break                                

17.00:               Launch: Birkbeck Centre for Contemporary Theatre/Peltz commission, Yanik Reido and Bruno Vilhar 

 

 

Support Services

If you find any of the material explored in this symposium upsetting, and would like to speak to someone qualified to listen, we encourage you to consider contacting some of the support services recommended by Mind. 

 

 

 

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