Presentations

Recent and Representative

Dead White Zombies: Performance as Lived Event

Janáček Academy of Performing Arts, Brno, Czech Republic.

Performance Lecture / November 2021

SUMMARY by Šimon Peták

Thomas Riccio gave a partially improvised, energetic, and insightful sixty-minute-long lecture in which he drew on his rich experience with living among – and creating art with – various indigenous groups. In the second part of his speech, Riccio presented the work of his group Dead White Zombies (the name expresses an attitude towards the “culture of the white man”, which – although already dead – keeps wandering the world). He specifically referred to the project Holy Bone, which is an immersive performance for small groups of spectators composed as a ritualistic journey. In his speech, he touched upon topics like:

*myths and their reception inside and outside the communities that tell them;

*transitions between the human state and the animal state;

*the role of spirits in both lived and artistic reality of indigenous people;

*possible uses of trance in the field of performing arts.

Riccio also shared his view of the creative process as developing an organism that, at some point, starts shaping itself. In the following discussion, he further elaborated on the given topics and opened new ones based on questions from the audience.