The subversive potential of artivistic performative urban interventions – carnivals in addressing climate politics

This presentation will outline the first experiences resulting from the Erasmus+ project Active Citizenship through Theatre for Urban Politics: ACT UP! In collaboration with theatre professionals, the project engages students in theatre-based learning, developing performances of the politics of sustainability in the urban setting, designed to address the crisis of (knowledge) representation in responding to the climate emergency. Mekdjian (2018) discusses urban artivist performances – carnivals as subversive practices in everyday urban life. They “introduce (…) a different dimension into the urban space” and “thus change the established order of things and expand our horizons beyond the existing range of possibilities.” (Suchet & Mekdjian, 2016, p. 234). Thus, the urban becomes the key arena for a ‘politics of representation’ on which contestation is played out and who or what is made visible or seen is being negotiated. “The creative dimension of political participation refers to original, unexpected, and disruptive formats of mobilization, expression and claim, which contrast with the rigid and predetermined nature of institutional politics.” (Guerra et al., 2020). Artivist expressions - such as the carnival - critiquing the establishment and the status quo, subverting prevailing standards and values (Guerra et al., 2020; Martins et al., 2023), generating events that defy the structure of conventional communication (Guerra et al., 2020). ACT UP! focusses on how the street performances developed in the project contribute to new forms of (embodied) knowledge production and communication for both students and accidental audiences, bringing new perspectives and ways of knowing into urban (climate) politics.