Abstract
Abstract When in early 2015 it was announced that long-time director of Volksbühne Frank Castorf would be succeeded by the curator and director of Tate Modern Chris Dercon, theatre circles across Germany were infuriated. The general opinion was that this decision would lead to a radical deviation from the production model and the politics of Berlin’s famous left-oriented theatre. In the autumn of 2017, after the artistic group Staub zu Glitzer squatted the building declaring a collective directorship and turning the Volksbühne into a performative-discursive stage for discussions on social inequalities and gentrification, the situation was further antagonized. However, the occupation lasted only a couple of days as the squatters were soon evicted by police. In an essay ‘Towards the liberation of theatre’ written in the early 60s, Darko Suvin derives the thesis of socialization as that which is ‘truly revolutionary’. Suvin’s intention was to formulate a production model which ‘would be socialist in its structure and tendencies’ and aligned with the ideology of self-management. Using this concept, my text aims to test its epistemic potentiality to reflect on the squatting of Volksbühne. Is it plausible to invoke socialization in an attempt to articulate a discourse critical of commodification and precarisation? Can the occupation of the building on Rosa Luxemburg Square be regarded as a contemporary example of self-management?
Published Version
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