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THE LAUGHTER THAT GETS CAUGHT IN YOUR THROAT was an urban intervention held at the 2015 Vienna Biennale. Using scripts based on texts by Herbert Marcuse, Joseph Beuys, Henri Bergson and others, this “laughter performance” involved five people reading to each other and a small crowd gathered by the path in Sigmund-Freud-Park. Hidden among this audience were members of the refugee choir Hor 29.Novembar, who at a given signal (bird noise), would laugh sarcastically. Choreographed by composer Tamara Friebel, the performers moved up and down in a procession and interacted with two metal bed frames that functioned as a moveable prop, wheeled in front of the Votive Church, where seventy asylum seekers had sought refuge in 2012 as a protest against conditions in their refugee camp in Traiskirchen.
THE LAUGHTER THAT GETS CAUGHT IN YOUR THROAT revived this moment of protest, reminding us of the draconian policy of Austria’s Minister of Interior Affairs, Johanna Mikl-Leitner, who sent many asylum seekers back to their home countries, including Syrians displaced by war. Political demonstrations usually happen in response to an issue in the present. But that issue often gets buried by other events, which collectively compete for media coverage. THE LAUGHTER THAT GETS CAUGHT IN YOUR THROAT (The Laughter ) reminds us that the consequences of present-day issues continue to play out after their media coverage stops. As a kind of “commemorative” protest, this intervention renews the political narratives that shaped the event, giving it new life by staging something that feels ontologically fresh, blurring the boundary between art and life, performer and audience, and audience and lingering passersby unsure of what they were witnessing but laughing along with the “laughing choir” anyway. Laughter can be genuine, and laughter can be mirthless, a nervous response to things we don’t understand. (Sean Ashton) The performance was based on stage directions by composer Tamara Friebel: the performers were each assigned a page of the script, from which they were to perform passages of text freely. At certain moments, Tamara Friebel intoned a bird’s twitter—as a signal for the deployment of the laughter choir. Script for The Laughter That Gets Caught in Your Throat by Barbara Holub. The script includes quotes from the following texts: Vilém Flusser, Von der Freiheit des Migranten, 1994; Interview with Johanna Mikl-Leitner, ZIB 2 (News on Austrian Television/ ORF), 20.4.2015; Herbert Marcuse, Repressive Toleranz, 1966. Das Lachen und das Komische, Zeitschrift für Literatur- und Theatersoziologie (magazine for Literature and Theater Sociology), March 2012; Henri Bergson, Das Lachen, 1900; Joseph Beuys, Aufruf zur Alternative, 1978. "Die Wirklichkeit ist anders. Die geheimen Codes der Heimaten sind nicht aus bewussten Regeln, sondern größtenteils aus unbewussten Gewohnheiten gesponnen. Um in eine Heimat einwandern zu können, muss der Heimatlose zuerst die Geheimcodes bewusst erlernen und dann wieder vergessen. Bei der Einwanderung entsteht zwischen den schönen Beheimateten und den hässlichen Heimatlosen ein polemischer Dialog." (Vilém Flusser, Von der Freiheit des Migranten, 1994). |
"The Laughter that Gets Caught in Your Throat" took place in the frame of the "Performing Public Art Festival" (curated by Peter Weibel and Gerald Bast; University of Applied Arts Vienna), Vienna Biennale 2015
Concept and script: Barbara Holub and Paul Rajakovics Composition, electronics, gramophone: Tamara Friebel Performers: Christiane Beinl, Xenia Gala, Akram al Halabi, Nancy Mensah-Offei, Johanna Orsini-Rosenberg Laughing choir: Hor 29. Novembar and the audience assistant: Marie-Christin Rissinger Video: Camera: Matthias Jahn, Reinhard Mayr, Ewa Stern Sound technician: Felix Zwerger Editing: Marie-Christin Rissinger We would like to thank SOS Mitmensch, Integrationshaus and Vinzi-Rast for the collaboration and support. Publication: "Performing Public Art", Gerald Bast, Peter Weibel, Herwig Steiner (eds.); De Gruyter, 2015 This performance is connected to "Du bakchich pour Lampedusa" (Sousse / TUN, 2014) and "Je suis arabe - ein Recht auf Poesie" (Salzburg Museum / A, 2015), which are presented in the exhibition "Performing Public Art Festival" at the AIL (www.ailab.at; until July 31, 2015). 
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