Antonin Artaud: New Critical Reflections

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Time: 11.00am - 6.00pm
Venue: Kingston University's, Town House Building / Library (Penrhyn Road Campus), in south-west London., Penrhyn Road campus, Penrhyn Road, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT1 2EE
Price: free

We are extremely pleased to present the programme and registration link  for our forthcoming conference event celebrating the life and work of the writer, poet, dissident surrealist and founder of the Theatre of Cruelty, Antonin Artaud.

Since 2018, the publishers Infinity Land Press and Diaphanes have been publishing translations of Artaud's final and previously unpublished works, and his letters from Ireland. These publications have been exposing Artaud to a new readership as well as extending and completing the most extraordinary and troubling corpus of work of the 20th century.

This international conference aims to bring together scholars of Artaud's work, of experimental and transgressive theatre, film, performance, music and literature, as well as showcasing the work of Artaud inspired filmmakers in a major two-day event.

The event will encompass two days of conference presentations from across many disciplines, which will exhibit new research about Artaud, his work and legacy. It will take place in Kingston University's RIBA Stirling award-winning Town House Building / Library (Penrhyn Road Campus), in south-west London.

We would like to thank The Visual and Material Cultures Research Centre at Kingston University for their support (both financial and otherwise) in staging this event.

 Conference Programme

11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Conference Registration

Welcome address (Matt Melia and Stephen Barber) - 12:00 pm-12:15pm

Keynote - Professor Richard Gough (University of South Wales) - 12:15-1:15pm

 "The Exquisite Pain of a Cruel Theatre: Artaud's Contaminating Legacy"

 Lunch (1.15-2.15)

Panel 1: Artaud: Culture, Image and Language (2.15-3.45pm)

Drawings of Antonin Artaud: An Enquiry Towards the Middle Voice (Hazel Hofman, Fresno City College);

A Machine that Breathes: Artaud and Drawing-Magic (Joey Ryken, Glasgow School of Art);

Artaud's Pharmacological Theatre (Melanie Reichart, Kiel University)

3.45-4pm Coffee / Tea

 4pm-4.30 Film: Isle of Illusion (2024, Giorgos Galanopolous)

 Panel 2: Artaud's Last Writings - 4:30-6pm

Revolution and ARTOdicy Artaud's Fiction of Theatre From the Last Writings (Georg Döcker, University of Roehampton)

Suffocating Meaning(Mischa Twitchin, Goldsmiths University)

'A Sinister Assassin': Artaud's Final Interviews, 28-29 Feb 1948 (Stephen Barber, Kingston University)

 Day 2: 31st July

 Coffee / Tea / Registration - 9-10am

 Keynote 2 - 10-11am: Professor Sarah Wilson (Courtauld Institute of art)

 Ferdière between Artaud and Isou'

 Coffee / Tea - 11-11.15am

 Film: 'Being and its Foetuses (Richard Hawkins) 11.15-11.45am

 Panel 3: Artaud, Mexico and the Balinese Theatre 11.45-1.15

On Magmatism: Artaud, Bergson, Simondon (Joel White, Dundee University);

Perpetual Exaltation: Artaud's Journey to Mexico (Stuart Kendall);

Artaud with Eisenstein: Hieroglyphic Writing and Montage (Paul Koloseus, Goethe Universität);

Sound Intervention - RADIO TARAHUMARA -TUTUGURI(TOWNHOUSE MIX) (Richard Crow)

 Lunch: 1.15-2.15

 Film: The Artaud Dyptych (Ioli Andreadi and Aris Asproulis) 2.15-2.45

 Panel 4: Artaud, Subversion and Transgression - 2.45- 4.15

Le sang des poètes: Artaud and R.W. Fassbinder (Caroline Langhorst, De Montfort University);

Empathy in Cruelty: Re-Thinking Kim Ki-Duk's films through Antonin Artaud (Eugene Kim, Kingston University)

 Artaud and Post-Punk (Matt Melia, Kingston University)

Coffee/tea - 4.15-4.30pm

 Panel 5: Contemporising Artaud - 4.30- 6pm

The Theatre of Plague (Piotr Bockowski);

Teaching Artaud (Stephen Pritchard, Oxford University);

Psychology and Its Double: Contemporary Women Writers Respond to Artaud (Julia Rose Lewis, Indiana University, Northwest).

Conference ends - final words. 6pm-6.15pm

Evening event  (Venue TBC) – Performed readings of contemporary Artaud Translations

For further information about this event:

Contact: Matt Melia and Professor Stephen Barber, Kingston University
Email: M.Melia@kingston.ac.uk