Theatre studies
Séverine Ruset, Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Litt&Arts, 38000 Grenoble, France
As a teacher-researcher in the performing arts, I work on contemporary scenic creation in France and England. In my research, I associate the study of performances to the study of their contexts of production, with particular attention to the internal organizational modes that underpin their creation.
In the performance arts field, site-specific creations present two distinctive characteristics, the first being that they encounter their public in sites that are not dedicated to performance practices. The second is that they do not treat these sites – whether they be indoor or outdoor, rural or urban, public or private – as simple receptacles of the work, but rather that they take them into account during the conception and/or interpretation processes. In its strictest sense, in situ corresponds with what English speakers refer to as site-specific: the result is indissociable from the context of its production and cannot be reproduced elsewhere. The term, however, also describes approaches compatible with the logic of touring. Sometimes described in English as site-sympathetic, they are not inextricably linked to the sites in which they first take form, but they no less testify to a strong sensitivity towards the sites that they are invested in, in varying degrees and forms.
One part of my current research is interested in the recently increased presence of these propositions within the programming of French performance art institutions. Urged on by public politics’ insisting these institutions invest in their territorial support and connect closer to their inhabitants, this tendency will most likely increase as a result of the Covid-19 sanitary crisis which encourages off site measures conducive to social distancing. If this trend inter alia stimulates creations rigorously attached to their original sites, it should be noted that public institutions frequently deploy these strictly site-specific creations at the margins of their artistic seasons, within the framework of their cultural community programs where they are valued almost exclusively for their social function. However, a shift is taking place in some art institutions, that highlight not only the social but the artistic value of these creations, making space for them at the center of their artistic programmes. This is the case, for example of the CCN2 – the Grenoble Centre Chorégraphique National – and of Le Pacifique Centre de Développement Chorégraphique National, which grant a decisive role to situated creations and other processes grounded in the ‘field’. It is to the work of these institutions that Gretchen Schiller and I dedicated the project “Listening to the Terrain: Shared choreographic practices.”
This begs the question, among others, of how the noticeable positioning of these institutions in favor of the site-specific fits in with the demand for outreach, but also for the development of partners at the national or even international level, that establishments certified by the Ministry of Culture are subjected to. It is nevertheless important to stress that the site-specific is not inherently incompatible with interterritorial dynamics, nor more generally with the opening up of the notion of beyond or “there”. This is the case with the project …en Jumelle by choreographer Laurent Pichaud, who proposes situated artistic experiences in relation to the question of town-twinning. Currently developed in Grenoble in association with the CCN2, but destined to be invested in various communities where it will be presented each time in a unique, singular fashion, the central challenge of the project is that of bringing the ‘here and now’ evoked by site specific practice into harmony with the ‘there and then’ of twinned cities and landscapes. … en Jumelle brings together creations that are inextricably tied to the sites with which the choreographer composes and faraway journeys, as much imaginary as physical.
Cite this item: Séverine Ruset, “In situ/Site specific”, translated by Lauren Fabrizio, Performascope: Interdisciplinary Lexicon of Performance and Research-Creation, Grenoble: Université Grenoble Alpes, 2021, [online]: http://performascope.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr/en/detail/177837
