HOW TO CELEBRATE DIFFERENCES? In conversation with Amelia Jones

Originally published as part of Performing Ethos: International Journal of Ethics in Theatre & Performance - Volume 15, Issue 1, 2025.

CHAPTERS

00:00:00 Introduction

00:02:28 What Unites Us

00:07:29 The Neoliberalization of Institutions

00:16:05 The Power of Community Networks

00:19:06 The Coalescence of Healing and Rage

00:25:58 The Integrity of Performance Art and Historical Awareness

00:35:47 The Synergy Between Theory and Practice

00:41:21 Resilience and the Spectacle of Resistance

00:48:16 Curating Lifeworks

HOW TO CELEBRATE DIFFERENCES? offers crucial insights during a time of global political extremes. Artist and writer Andrea Pagnes conjures with art historian and groundbreaking theorist Amelia Jones to address urgent issues surrounding relational identities in the age of neoliberalism and the rising tides of authoritarianism. Drawingf rom their lived experiences, they reveal that community networks serve as true power houses for change and that healing and rage can coexist. They advocate for the integrity of performance art and critical historical awareness, reflecting on the recurring patterns of injustice that artists and intellectuals worldwide are compelled to confront. They explore the circular, energetic contaminations of theory and practice in performance art and the untapped potential it holds for deeper understanding. They acknowledge the struggles of artists and activists who resist a world turned into a spectacle, illustrating how performance art and “life work” can nurture and share legacies. Amelia Jones is internationally renowned for her significant contributions and progressive ideas that advance the cause of equality for women, queers, and other underrepresented creative practitioners in the arts. As an art historian, theorist, critic, author, professor, curator, and accomplished writer, her research encompasses performance art, feminism, identity politics, and social activism. Following her curation of the exhibition on the life work of Ron Athey in 2021 at Participant Inc., New York, and the ICA in Los Angeles, Amelia is currently writing a book entitled Against Cultural Capitalism on artists’ creative strategies working against the grain of capital and co-organising the project System Failure with Ben Nicholson, which includes various conferences related to art and performance, connecting individuals across theWestern world for online discussions about the challenges we face as creative/political people. Among her numerous accolades are the Distinguished Feminist Award, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Guggenheim Fellowship.

Welcome to the "momentum" of March 21, 2025.