Vagabondage Nocturne, 2008 © Anderwald + Grond photo
© Anderwald + Grond
Lecture Performance by Robert Prosser at Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna.
– See also Dizzy on Stage. Trance in Anthroplogy and Practice.
The initial idea to make a portrait of Charles Blondin, the famed tightrope walker and ropedancer of the 19th century, developed into a reflection of and fascination of the abyss and the abyssal.
A world where all people can enjoy human rights remains an unrealized vision for many. However, we do not need to wait for others to grant us these rights. Instead, we can cultivate personal relationships with our rights and liberties by actively engaging with them through art-based practices.
It’s always the same: the point is that on the one hand we are in danger of burning up, of evaporating, of going too fast, of dissolving, and on the other hand we are in danger of freezing, rigidifying, of becoming mummified and unable to move. Dizziness contains within it both extremes.
Museums have undergone significant changes in the last decades as many have shifted their focus from institutions representing the past to functioning as platforms for transformation and as sites for civic engagement.
Vertigo in the City brings together an eclectic mix of scholars, clinicians, practitioners and artists to share perspectives on vertigo. The multidisciplinary conversations explore how sensations of dizziness and disorientation are diagnosed, analysed, evoked, induced, critiqued and represented, with a particular focus on the built environment.
Can dizziness be a resource? What remains after unsettledness and disorientation? And how can we see communities find their balance in uncertain situations? Particularly now, in times of ubiquitous invocations of global crisis, these questions of collective balancing and balancing collectives are more relevant than ever.
