Hostname: page-component-857557d7f7-zv5th Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-12-06T17:27:13.681Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A Paradigm of a Postsubjective “Theatrical Mind”

Wu Tsang and Moved by the Motion’s Sudden Rise

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2025

Abstract

The postsubjective theatre of Sudden Rise (2019) by Wu Tsang and the collective Moved by the Motion denies human agency, suggesting instead a posthuman world, and brings the theatrical paradox of action and subjectivity to light. Sudden Rise’s hyperaffective timelessness heralds a posthuman world, both in reality and in theatre. Characterized by collectivity, entanglement, and synesthesia, the working mode of Tsang’s team of artists frames and codetermines the theatrical experience.

Information

Type
Article
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of New York University Tisch School of the Arts

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

References

Aristotle. (1957) 1988. Aristotelis Metaphysica. Ed. Jaeger, W.. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Aristotle. 2023. Poetik. Ed. Hose, Martin. Walter de Gruyter GmbH.Google Scholar
Bentley, Eric. 1967. The Life of the Drama. Atheneum.Google Scholar
Bergholtz, Frédérique, and Gibb, Susan. 2016. “Introduction.” In Who Touched Me? by Fred Moten and Wu Tsang. If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want to Be Part of Your Revolution. www.are.na/block/6770568 Google Scholar
Butler, Judith. 2009. Frames of War: When Is Life Grievable? Verso.Google Scholar
da Silva, Denise Ferreira. 2016. “On Difference Without Separability.” In “Incerteza Viva,” 32nd São Paulo Art Biennial catalog, 5765.Google Scholar
EAI (Electronic Arts Intermix). n.d. “Girl Talk.” Accessed 7 May 2024. www.eai.org/titles/girl-talk Google Scholar
EASTAP (European Association for the Study of Theatre and Performance). 2022. Theatrical Mind: Authorship, Staging and Beyond. Booklet of the 5th EASTAP Conference, Milan.Google Scholar
Frege, Gottlob. 1892. “Über Sinn und Bedeutung.” Zeitschrift für Philosophie und philosophische Kritik 100, 1:2550.Google Scholar
HAU (Hebbel am Ufer). 2019. “Moved by the Motion (Wu Tsang & boychild, Patrick Belaga, Josh Johnson, Asma Maroof). Sudden Rise.” www.hebbel-am-ufer.de/programm/pdetail/moved-by-the-motion-sudden-rise Google Scholar
Hegemann, Carl. (1978) 2017. “Identität und Selbst-Zerstörung. Grundlagen einer historischen Kritik moderner Lebensbedingungen bei Fichte und Marx.” In Identität und Selbst-Zerstörung, ed. Hegemann, Carl, 19212. Alexander Verlag.Google Scholar
Hegemann, Carl. (2012) 2017. “Das Drama der Subjektkonstitution.” In Identität und Selbst-Zerstörung, ed. Hegemann, Carl, 213–30. Alexander Verlag.Google Scholar
Hegemann, Carl. (2012) 2021. “Die Volksbühne der Republik. Theater als Selbstwiderspruch” [The Volksbühne (People’s Theatre) of the Republic. Theatre as self-contradiction]. In Dramaturgie des Daseins: Everyday Live, 222–25. Alexander Verlag.Google Scholar
Huber, Leonie. 2019. “Zwischen No und Non-Violent. Wu Tsang im Gropius Bau.” gallerytalk.net, 2 December. www.gallerytalk.net/wu-tsang-gropius-bau/ Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel. 1900–. Gesammelte Schriften. Akademie-Ausgabe, vol. XX. Ed. Königlich Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften. De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Kirby, John T. 1997. “Aristotle on Metaphor.” American Journal of Philology 118, 4 (Whole Number 472):517–54. doi.org/10.1353/ajp.1997.0056 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
macfound. 2018. “Filmmaker and Performance Artist Wu Tsang | MacArthur Fellow.” YouTube, 4 October. www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uXf9X5-41E Google Scholar
Menke, Christoph. 2018a. “Das Spiel des Theaters und die Veränderung der Welt.” In Theaterals Kritik. Theorie, Geschichte und Praktiken der Ent-Unterwerfung, ed. Olivia Ebert, Eva Holling, Nikolaus Müller-Schöll, Philipp Schulte, Bernhard Siebert, and Gerald Siegmund, 3748. transcript.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Menke, Christoph. 2018b. Am Tag der Krise. Kolumnen. August Verlag.Google Scholar
Moten, Fred, and Tsang, Wu. 2016. Who Touched Me? If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want to Be Part of Your Revolution. www.are.na/block/6770568 Google Scholar
Moten, Fred, and Tsang, Wu. 2018. “Sudden Rise at a Given Tune.” South Atlantic Quarterly 117, 3:649–52. doi.org/10.1215/00382876-6942207 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richman, Jordan. 2022. “Moved by the Motion: A Portrait of a Roving Band, in Five Acts.” 032c Magazine, 26 January. 032c.com/magazine/moved-by-the-motion Google Scholar
Ricoeur, Paul. 1975. La métaphore vive. Edition du Seuil.Google Scholar
Ricoeur, Paul. (1975) 1986. Die lebendige Metapher. Trans. Rochlitz, Rainer. Fink, Wilhelm.Google Scholar
Ricoeur, Paul. (1975) 2003. The Rule of Metaphor: The Creation of Meaning in Language. Trans. Robert Czerny with Kathleen McLaughlin and John Costello, SJ. Routledge.Google Scholar
Roselt, Jens. 1999. Die Ironie des Theaters. Passagen.Google Scholar
Schechner, Richard. 1988. Performance Theory. Routledge.Google Scholar
Schmutz, Christina. 2025. “ Sudden Rise: A Posthuman Performance.” TDR 69, 4 (T268):6579.Google Scholar
Schmutz, Christina, and Wagner-Lippok, Frithwin. 2023. Veure-hi amb el cos. Perspectives fenomenològiques de l’anàlisi i la pràctica de les realitzacions teatrals (Looking with the body—phenomenological perspectives in analysis and practice of theatre performances). Corporativa i Promoció Institucional de la Diputació de Barcelona.Google Scholar
Tatari, Marita. 2009. “Die Doppelbindung ästhetischer Erfahrung als δρãν.” Internationales Jahrbuch für Hermeneutik 8:267–88.Google Scholar
Taviani, Ferdinando. 1988. “Tre note.” In Teatro e Storia: orientamenti per una rifondazione degli studi teatrali 3, 1:321. www.teatroestoria.it/pdf/4/Ferdinando_Taviani_59.pdf Google Scholar
Tsang, Wu. 2019. Into a Space of Love. Frieze, 26 July. www.frieze.com/video/wu-tsang-space-love Google Scholar
Ungheanu, Mihail. 2008. “Metapher und Verstehen: Untersuchungen zu Paul Ricoeurs Metapherth [Metaphor and Comprehension: About Paul Ricoeur’s Metaphortheory].” PhD diss., Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt.Google Scholar
Wagner-Lippok, Frithwin. 2024. Affektive Räume der Aufführung bei Jürgen Kruse und Bruno Beltrão. Georg Olms.Google Scholar
Waldenfels, Bernhard. 1971. Das Zwischenreich des Dialogs. Sozialphilosophische Untersuchungen im Anschluss an Edmund Husserl. Martinus Nijhoff.Google Scholar
Waldenfels, Bernhard. 2002. Bruchlinien der Erfahrung: Phänomenologie – Psychoanalyse – Phänomenotechnik. Suhrkamp.Google Scholar
Waldenfels, Bernhard. 2015. Sozialität und Alterität. Modi sozialer Erfahrung. Suhrkamp.Google Scholar

TDRreading

Schmutz, Christina. 2025. “ Sudden Rise: A Posthuman Performance.” TDR 69, 4 (T268):6579.Google Scholar