Yes, I’m an activist and perhaps I’m an activist first. I don’t know, I’m always arguing with myself between devoting my time to the activism versus the art, so I combine them, but I think activists have always turned to the arts and artists have always been activists, so it‘s nothing new to be trying to do this. I do think amongst great swathes of activists, however, there’s this suspicion of art as an optional extra, a kind of luxury item for once we‘ve sorted out the core issues, or that it’s an indulgence, that it doesn’t get to the core of the issue. But for me the reason it’s so powerful is that ultimately, as activists, we’re trying to connect with people and that’s what art does. (Liz Crow in an interview from 2016)

We are very delighted to welcome Liz Crow as the next guest in our lecture series „Dramaturgical Encounters“! Liz Crow, a Bristol-based artist-activist, is specialized in film, sound, word and live performance. Her work is based on her lived experience with disability – that is the experience of participation constraints, oppression and exclusion imposed by various social barriers. Liz Crow will give an introduction to some of her projects, to the way they are politically and discursively situated, to the protest they articulate, to the need for disabled rights and social justice they insist in, and to their inherent believe in the transformative power of creative work.

The lecture will be followed by a talk between Liz Crow and Noa Winter. Noa Winter works as a curator and dramaturge and is the coordinator for the project „Making a Difference“, which supports Berlin-based dance artists with disabilities. She is also doing a PhD on self-determined working methods of disabled artists and aesthetics of access. Taking Liz’s performance „Bedding Out“ (2012) as their starting point they will entertain a conversation around the politics of lying down (in public versus in private spaces).