Guillermo Gomez Pena’s performance highlighted several key notions and provocations concerning mediality, theatricality and the gaze of spectatorship. Firstly the gun behaves as a visual mirror or visual metaphor for the nature of a camera. Like a gun, a camera ‘shoots’ which clearly has an inherent violence to it. The gun brings into light the ‘invisible media’ that directs our gaze. This is a self-reflective process that Pena is taking part in, realizing the violence of the medium that directs our spectatorship and gaze.
In terms of shared experience with audience and performer I would argue that this does take place, even though it is a recorded piece. Whilst the circumstances of the performance are altered, Pena would be repeating or imitating his prescribed set of actions even if we were in the same physical space as him. Derrida argues that imitation is re-mediation, so whatever space this is viewed in we are experience a process of re-mediation. It is this re-mediation, which Philip Auslander argues is a characteristic trait of Performance as a response to Peggy Phelan’s assertion that irreproducible ‘liveness’ is an ontological trait of performance, which he is working against. If we use Auslander’s performative understanding and Derrida’s re-mediation then it is possible to see the video work as containing key characteristics of performance.
Temaşa: (Turkish, from Arab origin according to Nisanyan Dictionary[i] and from Persian origin according to TDK Dictionary[ii])
(Definition according to Turkish Language Institution Online Dictionary, TDK –Translated to English by Nese C. Tosun)
1) To contemplate, to watch.
2) The thing to be watched, that is worth seeing.
3) Travel, “Seyir” (course, movement, motion, progress, contemplation)
4) Game, representation, play, theatre.
This word is also an equivalent of Greek word Theoria according to Turkish philosopher Nami Baser. The idea of ‘contemplation’ is central to both concepts. Furthermore, according to the definition of Wikipedia[iii], “Theoria is used to express the experience of life as ‘one who watches a play or activity’, the state of ‘being’ is defined as spectator.”
Yet, the meanings of game and representation implied by the word distances itself from the word Theoria. In Turkish, to express an event in the past that you have not witnessed personally, you would conjugate the verb in such a tense that would resonate the meaning “as if” (-miş gibi). It would also be used to define a present situation, to denote that it is, but not quite: When kids play, they would say “as if I were a doctor” while performing the doctor’s profession in a game.
Trying to come up with a Turkish equivalent of “Performance” has been a long journey for me. I would look for words, expressions that would have a history in the locality I live in as words like “performans, tiyatro, piyes” were turquified foreign words with no etymological memory but with meanings added throughout a recent history. I was searching for a sound that was more ‘local’ I guess. Problematic though, as I was refusing a recent past, in the search of a more genuine and local Turkish terminology to denote performance.
While preparing for this exercise, I have discovered the word temaşa that answered some of my concerns. It had multiple meanings, in a range that would both enable me to think in the sense of ‘performance’ as in perfournir>parfournir but also in a way that would signal to a contemplation that would be both practice and research. However that word is not in use in Turkish language except in historical documents and/or theatre encyclopedias. It does not exist in current online theatre and performance dictionaries. In the official Turkish Language Dictionary of TDK, there is a note that it is an old usage.
I believe that the absence of this word from current theater and performance vocabulary can be seen as a consequence of the secular republican elites’ idea of ‘purifying’ Turkish language by ‘cleaning’ it of its Arabic and Persian words to arrive at the Central Asian roots of the language. Of course, over the years most of the originally Central Asian but extremely old words would not satisfy the elite and instead words from Western/European languages would be borrowed. Hence the journey of our words such as tiyatro(theatre), piyes(pièce), performans(performance).
Unfortunately my history with this word is marked by its absence. I dont have a memory of it, only its discovery in a past that is not yet that distant. Its absence and my unaccomplished rediscovery of it –as I cant even find the language of origin- shows my attempt of ‘as if’. My own attempt to Theoria that was hoping to direct to my locality is marked by a Temasa in relation to my history.
BURRA
Burra Is a Telugu language word. A performance called burra katha derived from burra, which means Skull and Katha means story. Burra uses in several contexts in Telugu language.
Burra means a skull in Telugu and there is a similar meaning like burralu which are palm tree dry products. People use this word in thelug as ( nee burra upayoginchu ) which means use u r brain properly (especially in the drama rehearsals) . In deepavali festival particularly in north part of Andhra Pradesh (telengana) villagers they themselves become two groups and break their heads each other which is burra pagalagottadam as a part of festivals, and if there is any quarrel (performance) in between neighbors they say nee burra pagalagodatha means I will break your skull.
In burra katha the shell resembles a human skull. It is made of baked clay or dried pumpkin, or of brass and copper. The instrument looks very similar to Veena and the performer can pull and press strings to get music.
The main story teller (called as Kathakudu) narrates the story. He plays Tambura and dances to music. He also wears a metal ring called as andelu on his right thumb, holds another ring in his other hand and adds more music by colliding them frequently. The co-performers plays gummeta(also called as dakki or budike), earthen drums with two heads. All three or only kathakadu will be wearing anklets (also called as gajjelu), which add even more music when they dance.
The right side performer (called as the hasyaka, means joker) acts as a joker and cracks satires and jokes. The left side performer (called as the rajakiya, means politician) acts as a person who knows worldly ways and talks about contemporary politics and social issues. (Who really need to use his burra).The main performer and co-performers are constantly addressing each other. The co-performers interrupts him with doubts, and they sometimes add emphasis to the main events in the story with short words similar to "Wow!" ,"aaha" and "That it it".
Whenever the main performer sings a song, he starts with "vinara veera kumara veera gadha vinara" followed by the co-performers singing "tandhana tane tandhana na", hence it is also called 'tandana katha'.
Burra katha was a pastime event in villages. It is seen even now during Dussehra or Sankranti festival seasons to describe events in epics like Ramayan and Mahabharat and also some of best and moral kingdom stories like kambojaraju katha, chinnamma katha, muggurumoratila katha etc.
Burra katha is a folk performance, now a day’s using for political and religion purpose instead of traditional stories. The word burra we use in our daily life but we don’t see it as performance way. But at the same time a performance is there with the same word. So it made me to think in a different context.
For me the Finnish word ’esittää’ is problematic because of the multiple shades this verb has. These different meanings and contexts of the word are interesting to examine for example in terms of the functions, purposes and what emerges when this word is used. Moreover, how to translate esittää to English? For performance scholars esittää often has the connotation ‘to perform, to act, to present’ whereas these are only one of the many meanings of the word.
The WSOY Finnish-English Dictionary defines ‘esittää’ as following:
1. (näyttää ) show, produce
2. (ilmaista) express
3. (mainita) give, state
4. (virallisesti) put forward, propose (formally)
5. (teatteri, museot- theatre, museums) present, (näytellä) perform, play
6. (kuvata) show, portray
7. (olla olevinaan) pose as, show off
The stem of the word is ‘esi’, it entails the meaning of ‘pre-‘and ‘fore-‘; something that is before or infront of one but also something that is anterior, earlier than something. It is a word that refers to an active process of production. In a theatre-performance context ‘esittää’ is playing, presenting and performing. However, it does not mean acting (‘näytellä’), in the sense of representing a character. Yet it does mean pretending and showing, as does the word ‘näytellä’. In everyday life one might say ‘sinä esität’ which has the connotation of ‘you are pretending’ (more often than not understood in a negative light) or as showing off, instead of performing in an arts context. Interesting case is also to think of the word in a formal legal context. If in English one says that the judge pronounces someone guilty or unguilty, in Finnish ‘esittää joku vangittavaksi’ is used to formally propose someone as guilty. The word ‘pronouncing’ has of course a performative function, as J.L.Austin’s examples articulate. What happens then when in this context ‘esittää’ is used? The word that affiliates itself with showing, proposing, suggesting, presenting and performing might sound less powerful than pronouncing, declaring someone convicted. This example shows how performance related words and actions exist in formal occasions of, for example, larger institutions and state. In this context the word also expresses a particular authority.
'Esittää' - the judge pronounce someone as guilty.
'Esittää' - a group of artists presenting their piece.
