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Hello! I am Daniel and this is Olof.
We have a confession to make. We are glossophobiacs. Glossophobiacs are people who suffer from fear of speaking in public. One comfort of being a glossophobic is that one can look forward to the end of a speech as much as the audience. Another, is that one usually is not alone. Statistics show that 75 percent of the population suffers from glossophobia. In fact, no phobia is more common. There are more people who suffer from fear of speaking in public, than who suffer from fear of death.
The ancient Greeks did not have the concept of a subject. What they called subject—literally something that is thrown under a set of qualities, is what we today would call an object. With St. Augustine’s Confessions we start to see the emergence of an introspective subject that reaches its apex in the philosophical meditations of Descartes. This subject can most easily be illustrated by renaissance perspective, as a precise point from which the world is observed. And conversely, a precise point from which speech and praxis can emanate.
In capitals around Europe, one often finds a national theatre, a national opera, and a national art museum. These buildings often have some sort of ancient Greek look to them. Usually one finds them in central locations, close to government buildings, which also they, often are made in some kind of Greek style. Such institutions were typically established in the 1800s and their function was to produce a national identity. The nation as a subject, so to say.
When thinkers like Nietzsche, Marx, and Freud started to question the self sufficient subject, it was at a point of time when romantic enthusiasm about the idea of the nation state was at its highest. A national identity could thus be seen as an answer to the subject in crisis. And the highest level of fulfilment of the individual citizen was to die for one’s country in war. That kind of logic turned the 20th century into the most murderous in recorded history.
We are just a few years into the 21st century. How can we escape the brutal logic of the last one? What can we do? Racism should of course be resisted at all times. Preferably in the spirit of Graucho Marx, who said: “I would not join any club that would have someone like me for a member.” But it is also important to resist the idea of the quick fix, however strongly we feel the urge that “something needs to be done.” A culture of easy solutions constitutes the very problem.
At this point we would like to quote the United States Defence Secretary Donald Rumpsfeld: “As we know, there are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns. The ones we don’t know we don’t know.”
Knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns. This is what the activities at Beursschouwburg are all about. Beursschouwburg is a place for knowing the known as well as the unknown. It is a place that dares venture into unmapped conceptual territory. It is a place that fully affirms the role art can play, when we try to understand ourselves and each other. At Beursschouwburg culture is not the icing on the cake. It is the cake. And we at La Loko are very proud to be working with this place, Beursschouwburg.
Thank You.