Das Theater der Unterdrückten. Zur Theorie eines befreienden Theaters nach Augusto Boal. Vortrag und Diskurs von und mit Bernd Ruping und Benjamin Häring

At the center of the exhibition Olho da Rua [Out Loud] is the film of the same name by Brazilian artist Jonathas de Andrade. For this film, de Andrade portrayed a temporary community of homeless people living in the city center of Recife. He invited them to take part in a series of exercises inspired by the Theater of the Oppressed, which was developed in the 1970s by the Brazilian theorist and activist Augusto Boal. Boal used the medium of theater to combat oppression and exclusion. The Theater of the Oppressed focuses on the political potential of the participants and on reshaping and changing their lives through active observation, collective brainstorming and unwritten expression.

The exhibition raises the question of what quality of publicity can still be created with art in times of spectacularization and singularization? What does it take for people to step out of their role as "spectators" and "appear" (Hannah Arendt) in order to take on the active stance of a "spect-actor" (Boal)?

In line with the Kunsthalle's aim of encouraging a committed engagement with public space and questions of art and the public sphere, Prof. Dr. Bernd Ruping (Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences) will take both the installation by de Andrade exhibited in the Stadthausgalerie Münster and Boal's proposals as an opportunity to reflect with interested Münster residents on the relevance and necessity of a stricter understanding of the public sphere. He will be joined by improvisation artist and interaction lecturer Benjamin Häring (Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences) to playfully put to the test what can be heard and seen in a dialogical lecture that evening.