2023-11-04 03:23:13
I am a judge in a playwriting competition. The call was made by the City Government and revolves around thematizing the forty years of uninterrupted democracy. Given that almost always those who participate in contests with these construction characteristics (theme and values) are the youngest creators in search of visibility and legitimation, there is a rather curious case and that is that the majority of them are under forty and have born in full democracy.
Democracy is then that invisible thing that has always been there.
Of course, none of them seem to be stupid (quite the opposite) or unaware of previous dictatorships (in the territory of theater, of the arts in general, there are few or no deniers) but it is evident that given the justification of the projects (which It is what we juries have to evaluate, with an invented and instinctive rule) you can almost see them squinting, straining their brows to focus on something that is so within reach of the obvious that it does not seem to deserve conflict.
The projects are all beautiful. I, who because of my own work sometimes live more isolated from the theater of other colleagues than the anonymous idle public, rejoice in the privilege of reading a number of works (which I like or not, more successful or less) that are ultimately a cross section made of an era, a dissection of the state of things. I know most of those who show up with their bulky folders under their arms. They are students, colleagues, debate partners, distant names, acquaintances of acquaintances. In many cases, I have not read that many of his previous works, so this work, in addition to being rewarding, is a tremendous stimulus and an adrenaline shock.
And with this cross section still hot in my hand (at this time we don’t know who will win the awards) I come to say the following.
That all representation supposes a displacement. That when the people vote – for example – for their governor to administer their common interests, the governor represents the people but, at the same time, displaces them. He puts himself in his place. Work in representation.
Words are also phonological representations of concepts. Words represent these concepts and also displace them. The word pain is in place of pain; I can say “it hurts” and it may not be entirely true. I can say “it doesn’t hurt” and be intimately in agony. Every representation has that: in addition to a capricious convention agreed upon in community (the word) it enjoys a very strong magical component, which is what allows the displacement to be denser than the representation.
What do all these projects of unwritten works, clicking on the screens of these very diverse contestants, have in common? That in all cases point to the failure of democracy and not to its advantages.
None of them proposes celebrating democratic achievements, but rather pointing out the unfulfilled promises, the debts of democracy, everything we lacked to be – let’s say – Sweden (a model country, now somewhat cornered by drug trafficking, that is to say). step and with scandal). Of course I’m not horrified by the mechanism because of the refusal: it’s theater! It is the art of thematizing –precisely– conflicts, paradoxes, contradictions. No one wanted to be so naive as to set up a small monument or enumerate the advantages of the democratic way of life. The scoundrels are seeing it surgically, sometimes with viciousness, sometimes with humor, almost always with a moving pity and a nostalgic tinge: democracy did not solve all our problems.
There are historical works that choose a founding episode to show that pure democracy and its noble values are almost impossible; There are others of a philosophical nature, which ironically regarding the half-empty glass and despise the full one; There are queer ones, which emphatically point out that certain divergences from the heteronormative model are excluded from any inclusion.
In short, if in every representation there is a displacement, what do these finalist works of a competition to problematize our first forty years of democracy represent? Works regarding life in democracy displace exactly that: democracy. They will surely represent (I hope they all come to fruition) the terror of totalitarianism.
What would this contest be like if it happened four long years from now?
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