INTERNATIONAL // FORUM
PHOTO Genevieve Grieves
University of Melbourne and Melbourne Festival presents
AFTER TRAGEDY, LISTENING
A ROUNDTABLE IN RESPONSE TO TONI MORRISON’S DESDEMONA
Chaired by PAUL RAE
with GENEVIEVE GRIEVES,
PETER SELLARS, MARCIA
LANGTON & OTHERS.
What comes after tragedy?
What social actions and creative
responses do such events demand
of us? How do we live with death—
and not just live, but flourish and
thrive?
Taking its cue from Toni Morrison’s
bold and subtle telling of the
other side of the Othello story, this
roundtable gathers a compelling
line–up of artists and thinkers
to debate and develop these
questions.
In art, tragedy reflects an enduring,
inescapable fascination with our
own mortality. In the media, it tags
event after event in a seemingly
endless parade of wretched
suffering.
10
FUNDED THANKS
TO PATRON DONATIONS
Tragedy can be overwhelmingly
powerful, or it can turn us into
helpless onlookers.
Neither reaction is sufficient—but
what comes next? Desdemona
provides one response by shifting
the emphasis of Othello from
hubris to history and from looking
to listening. A personal stake in
history arises, it suggests, from
the intimacies of tragic knowledge,
which enter the body as stealthily
as sound.
Join prominent artists, activists
and academics and the renowned
director of Desdemona, Peter
Sellars, to examine what other
strategies move us in these
directions and beyond. At issue
are the methods and means we
can use to track tragedies across
cultures and generations; how new
ideas and cultural forms enable us
to testify to the effects of tragedy
while escaping its clutches; and
what citizens can do in the present
to anticipate the human and
environmental tragedies of the
future.
SOUTHBANK THEATRE
THE SUMNER
SUN 18 OCTOBER 11AM — 1PM
FREE
Bookings at www.festival.melbourne
ARTISTS IN CONVERSATION
Peter Sellars // FREE
CLEMENGER AUDITORIUM, NGV
FRI 16 OCTOBER at 1PM
See page 27 for details.