Shifts are collaborative platforms – places where organizations such as non-governmental associations, artistic companies, cultural projects, and academic research institutions from the region and the world can join and intervene in the performance of the conference.
We think of a shift as a slot in conference schedule that is reserved for non-conventional investigation into themes related to the topic of mis-performance. Shifts are designed to accomplish a higher level of interaction between the participants in the conference and especially between artistic and theoretical work. Rather than reduce artistic performances to side events, the Zagreb PSi conference intends to open a space and time for their equal inclusion in conference shifts.
From their inception, performance studies conferences invited and welcomed performative modes of conference presentation. The main problem with this approach was that these innovative presentations had to be inserted into conventional conference spaces and schedules. With the concept of shifts we aim to address this long-standing problem in performance studies conferences. However performative and inventive they may be, conference panels remain rooted in the notion of discursive presentation of ideas in the form of conference papers. By contrast, shifts take the notion of performance in the broad sense (aesthetic, cultural, durational, etc.) as their organizing principle. Therefore, performance informs both the form and content of each shift.
A shift can accommodate a wide range of formats, such as various kinds of performative presentations, round-table discussions on performances presented, workshops, interactive events, seminars, and even mini-symposia. Each shift will have its own curator or a group of curators or conveners.
There will be not more than three concurrent shifts, either in the late afternoon or in the evening/night slots. While a shift session is set to take three hours (5-8 and 9-12 pm), a particular shift may – depending on its concept and the conference schedule – take up more than one session in the course of one day or over several days. Upon the request of the curator(s), shifts may be open to the public.
Shifts will take place in the Zagreb Youth Theater and other venues around town.