26. 10. 2009.

A discussion and debate on Freedom and Utopia

On 22 October 2009, the Hotel Bosnia was the venue of debate/discussion on the topic of Freedom and utopia, moderated by Asja Krsmanović, and guest moderated by Sulejman Bosto, a professor at the Department of Philosophy at Sarajevo's Faculty of Philosophy.

Bosto opened the discussion and addressed the discussants in a, as he stated, “non-academic manner of speaking“, and began with a definition of the concepts of utopia and freedom and their interpretation in context. Is the theatre a medium through which we can recognize, and even achieve a “utopian potential”? That was just one of the basic questions that Bosto posed. The contextualize a topic, to situate a concept of utopia that has in our social, cultural and political present lost the potential it once aspired to, means to deconstruct a great model of enlightenment that was once the basis of the great vision of Utopia. The age of enlightenment and the modern epoch “technologised” our world, which led to the twentieth century, a century of totalitarianism and great ideological, and thus also utopian projects. Therefore, any consideration of a vision of utopia also calls us to consider a postmodern state of mind, as well as discursive relations i.e. to think about the topos where all great utopias in fact become dystopian in nature. We are therefore “talking about humanity in a modern world, or, as some like to call it, a postmodern world, in which all the grand concepts of modernism have ceased to mean anything”. What Bosto reminded us of again is an awareness of the existence of a post-atomic, post-concentration camp, postwar reality, which is definitely the result of the grand enlightenment project of the techologization of the world and the “dogmatization of the mind”. The collapse and end of this epoch are also ideas analyzed by German philosopher Otto Markwatt, whom Bosto summarizes as follows: “the epoch has lost its sense; it is an epoch of acceleration, defined essentially by technological advancement. Everything that is done is done towards making the natural and human world more prone to manipulation, a technologization that leads to a release.”

On the other hand, the world is no less totalized – this totalitarianism continues, though sporadically, to be implemented in a dangerous form of neoliberalist and consumer ideology, or, expressing this in the context of our south Slavic societies, “the totalitarisation is directed at achieving a nationalist projection of reality and politics”, commented Bosto.

After these introductory remarks, the moderator linked the ideas presented with art, especially the art of theatre, at the insistence of moderator Asje Krsmanović. Such philosophical and social-political-cultural questions find an answer in art - in following a certain dogma, or reacting passionately to it. Through Brecht, Bosto drew an analogy about socially engaged theatre, and asked the discussants a very Brechtian question: “is theatre allowed to present us with an idyllic, soap-opera lifestyle, at the same time remaining valueless and creating an illusion that affirms socially conventional and acceptable values'', or does it ''at a given time have to react to violence and other social problems?”. It is in fact in a neo-liberal and consumer ideology that the values, that theatre must invoke, “stop being marketable”.

It is therefore imminent that the theatre once again becomes a forum to present Power and institutions with dispersive centres – it is from the discourse of Power that one can work with ideologization, politicization and a redistribution of power.

Asja Krsmanović used these comments to make an analogy with one of MESS’s plays this year, “Hell on Earth”. Bosto again voiced an interpretation of the play that is, in his words, different from what the cast and crew had in mind. This play, according to Bosto, makes a strong social critique, given the fact that its story does enfold on the outer edges of social power, where a very colourful and diverse world is ghettoized, and this is in fact “a smug strategy used by power to ghettoize the world”.

In the continuation of the discussion about freedom, the moderators were joined by some of the discussants, all activists of human rights NGOs, who voiced their own points of view, as well as experiences, of the topic of freedom. Apart from restating the theoretical assumptions of freedom, and the re-ideologization of freedom through centres of power, the participants commented on the topic of freedom and equality by practically applying (or not applying) questions about how freedom and equality are expressed in our own postwar and post-utopian societies. Are human right declarations being implemented, and how, and are there available mechanisms for their implementation? How possible is the freedom of the individual, and how has it been re-associated with the concept of utopia? In this respect, some discussants felt that “utopia today can only survive as an individual instance, since, in the collective identity, it died a long time ago”. Others feel that “equality deprives us of individual freedom.” But what do we do with the equality that is uniform and single-sided, the equality created by totalitarian ideology? In this respect, “the equality that signifies an anthropological and cultural campaigning for equality in the sphere of dignity”, is also the answer to the implications that are embodied by the concept of equality, concluded Bosto. 

But, what can be expected of theatre after thus discussion on freedom and utopia? How can a theatre incite us to find answers to current questions on the social and cultural scene, and where in theatre do we look for these answers? To achieve a freedom in theatre, one must first recognize the freedom of the Other.

However, theatre does offer a utopia of a better future, since “art creates a type of sensitivity”, and this is the answer that comes close to the one we had wanted to get with this discussion on theatre.

Moderator Sulejman Bosto, who had led most of the discussion, in his closing remark about art, theatre, freedom and utopia, paraphrased the words of an (anonymous) philosopher who says “though dreams never come true, we find our satisfaction in the fact that they exist”. (J.K.)