The video documentation of our collective performance "No Pain No Gain - Nietzsche Gym", which was done for the Philosophy On Stage #4-Festival
last November, is now online and can be watched in it's full length here:
Nachtlektüren: No Pain. No Gain // Kollektiv Philosophy Unbound from
Artist Philosophers on
Vimeo.
Abstract:
Was macht heroisch? – Zugleich seinem höchsten Leide und seiner höchsten Hoffnung entgegengehn.
- Nietzsche, Die fröhliche Wissenschaft
Subjekt ist, wer sich als Träger einer Serie von Übungen betätigt.
- Sloterdijk, Du musst dein Leben ändern
As a collective we propose a group action, that is not scripted, but
will emerge organically from shared visions and opposing opinions, to
portray a pluralism of discourse about our topic. We will build a
Nietzschean gym to exemplify and distort this very simple assertion:
that a common drive leads to varied contemporary techniques of
self-(un)building. We want to ask, if Nietzsche’s pursue of the
Übermensch can be traced all the way to the modern gym and be enacted
there. We want to insist on the repetitive aspect of training, that will
playfully allude to the asceticism in the sense of Nietzsche. We don’t
want to mock either of the practices, but displace them, give a feel of a
fertile misinterpretation in between athletes and philosophers –
echoing the surprisingly fertile misinterpretation that still reigns
between body and mind . We will lift weights against the spirit of
heaviness. We will fight the “größte Schwergewicht”. All performers –
about ten – will be on stage on their devices, further equipped with a
microphone that will amplify their body sounds (breath, heart beat) to
create a sense of rhythm, thrill and exhaustion. We are also considering
using additional microphones to amplify the noise of the training
machines. The musical component is important, but aims less at a
feel-good-Rocky-movie-effect than at a monotone and hypnotic sensation
of entropy. The performers will repeat, while training, a remix of
Nietzschean quotes and mediatized motivational formulas. These quotes
will be thought in conjunction with the movements suggested by the
machines. We are thinking in terms of parody, displacement and
experimentation. The critical aspect of the performance will arise from
the tension at play in between the practices and the discourse
registers. The voices will be entangled but the focus – both auditive
and visual – will be directed alternatively on one dominant voice that
will be played louder as one performer is illuminated by a spotlight.
The whole should capture the audience like a profane litany :
enthralling and irritating. No matter the size of the Halle G, the place
should smell like sweat in the end. The machines – some of them
traditional training props, some of them fantasized homemade variations –
will be left on the outskirts of the stage after the performance, so
the public gets the opportunity to test and twist their own mind-bodies,
giving in to their “Lust der Zerstörung” that is, as we Nietzscheans
know, “zugleich eine schaffende Lust.”
More material can be found on the "Mediathek" of Philosophy On Stage #4
