Superamas

«Empire – Art & Politics». You might think the title refers to the much discussed political treatise by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, but this is not quite true. The performance opens with the recording of a film about theNapoleonic Wars. Napoleon himself appears but a few times, the piece continues  as “comedy of manners” of society life: it portrays the fancy guests of the reception at the French Embassy at the opening night of the film. Followed by a film about a filmcrew interviewing the Iranian filmmaker Samira Makhmalbaf in a hiding-out in Afghanistan.

After that, we are hauled back to the party-scene. In this way, the piece constantly reframes everything that is said about art and politics. An interview with two members of Superamas:

It seems no sensible remark can still be made about art and politics. The opening scenes make a  joke of Napo­leon’s policies, the way people talk art and politics at the reception is almost trivial. We want to give an image of the relation contemporary societies have with politics. In contrast to the era of Napoleon, politics are no longer a matter of debate and thus of communication be­tween citizens, but  of spectacle. Spectacle talks to ...