“All the world’s a stage/ And all the men and women merely players” wrote William Shakespeare in As You Like It. The words, not the meaning, would have been quite agreeable to Bertold Brecht, whose didactic plays were more concerned with the pedagogical participation (rather than the pleasure) of audiences. For Brecht, the sensational reading of theatre was most deplorable. His aim was to collectivize audiences and to break down the divide between players and passive observers. He attempted to achieve this through the implementation of several devices elucidated by Walter Benjamin as, and appearing here incomplete: The Plot, The Untragic Hero and The Interruption. Each of these devices, in some way calls on audiences to critically interpret the events on stage. It is this spirit of social change that lends itself to the works of contemporary Public Intervention artists such as Alfredo Jaar.
In the Brechtian theatre, plot emphasizes moments that thwart any sensational reading from within the observer. For Brecht, the pleasure of the text was not the crucial aspect of theatre, but the critical moment when players interact in ways that force audience members to consider actions on stage. Benjamin writes “suspense belongs less to the outcome than to individual events” (148-149). Nothing could be truer for audiences interacting with Public Intervention pieces that quite literally operate on the level of the individual viewer/participant who, in one moment, interacts with a piece.
Public Intervention artist, Alfredo Jaar says “There is a huge gap between reality and its possible representations, and that gap is impossible to close. So, as artists we have to try different strategies of representation” (PBS). That gap is typically artificially filled with sensational readings that create passive, non-participatory viewers, as has been experienced in countless museums throughout modern history. However, Jaar’s installation entitled “The Silence of Nduwayezu”, for example, is an attempt to represent a tragic event of Rwandan genocide that calls on viewers to interact physically and critically, imposing the question ‘why?’. As the observer approaches the piece, they notice a magnificent pile of, what appears to be, film slides. The slides totaling one million represent those murdered in the Rwandan atrocities. As the observer draws even nearer, he is tempted to analyze the slide by a magnifying glass near the pile. The observer then understands that each slide captures the eyes of Gutete, a young Rwandan boy who witnessed the murder of his parents by machete (Jaar). The approach has more in common with Brechtian theatre than the tragic theatre opposed by Brecht. It appeals to the viewers who “’do not think without reason’” (Benjamin 148). “The Silence of Nduwayezu” adequately fills the gap between reality and representation while imposing critical questions among individual viewers.
At the same time, the deviceful use of Gutete’s eyes as Untragic Hero is central to “The Silence of Nduwaeyzu”. The eyes that bare witness to such an atrocity are central to the piece because the artist wishes to admirer the experience itself. Gutete is the Thinker. In one moment he is left to ponder, and through his eyes the viewer can come to understand the reality of his thoughts. The act is vacant of any sensational response and, by doing so, makes thinkers of all viewers. Jaar’s approach is, at once similar to Brecht in its dialectics and push to make thinkers of viewers.
The essence of Brechtian theatre is conceptualized through the idea that viewers must be purged of any cathartic emotion brought on by the tragic hero in order to allow for true, dialectic and participatory interaction to occur within one reading. “The art of the epic theater consists in producing astonishment rather than empathy. To put it succinctly: instead of identifying with the characters, the audience should be educated to be astonished at the circumstances under which they function” (Benjamin 150). “Let There Be Light”, another of Jaar’s pieces prompts viewers ‘to discover the conditions of life’ as experienced through a contemporary mediated world (Benjamin 150). The significance of which is pertinent in so far that inhabitants of a mediated world (or any world for that matter) may find it difficult to objectively see the conditions in which their lives are dictated. In the words of Marshall McLuhan, “We don’t know who discovered the water, but we know it wasn’t the fish” (thinkexist). In Jaar’s “Let There Be Light” several articles that give context to the piece confront the viewer at the onset. The idea is that society is inundated with images, yet these images never close the gap between reality and the representation of the reality that it encapsulates. After viewers interact with the text, in all its void of any visual representation, they are interrupted by the experience with a bright light lasting several sections (Jaar). The light outlines the faces of those affected by the subject of the text. In one moment the Jaar is able to question and interact with media’s role in order to crystallize the text’s meaning. In this way, Jaar succinctly utilizes the devices laid down by Brechtian theatre, effectively interrupting the viewer while closing the gap between reality and representation.
Works Cited
Benjamin, Walter. Illuminations. New York: Harcourt, 1968. Print.
Jaar, Alfredo. Art, Intervention and Film. New School University. Arnhold Hall. New York, NY. Oct. 2010.
Marshall McLuhan Quotes. Think Exist. Com, 2009. 26 Oct. 2010.
PBS Video. PBS: Public Broadcasting Service, 2009. 26 Oct. 2010.
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