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'Resistance' at Taunton's Brewhouse

Liz Crow | 01.02.2011 15:22

Artist-activist's moving image installation comes to The Brewhouse Arts Centre
ROARING GIRL PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS
RESISTANCE: WHICH WAY THE FUTURE?
An award winning, provocative and hauntingly beautiful film installation
that explores a Holocaust hidden history and its relevance now

Sunday 26 February – Sunday 9 Spril
Brewhouse Theatre & Arts Centre, Coal Orchard, Taunton TA1 1JL

With captions, British sign language and audio description
Free entry
Resistance: which way the future? is a dual-screen interactive installation, comprising drama and documentary films and an immersive audio-video experience. It takes as its starting point the Nazi programme of mass-murder targeting disabled people and asks what this history means for all of us today. A timely and hopeful work, Resistance explores the marginalisation of a group of people and asks what can be done to make a better future.

A preview video of the work is at http://www.roaring-girl.com/productions/resistance-on-t...atch/.

Recently returned from its run at Washington DC’s Kennedy Center, one visitor wrote: “One of the most powerful things I have ever experienced. I was so amazed by it, I went back to see it two more times. Each time I saw more and took more away from the experience. A month later it is still with me.” Susan Fitzmaurice

The opening drama follows the story of Elise, a patient who sweeps the institution she lives in. She doesn’t speak but watches everything. She watches buses full of patients leave and return empty. When it’s her turn, she knows what’s in store. Based on real events, this is the story of one woman’s resistance in the only way she could.

Resistance launched in Liverpool, UK, in November 2009 as part of DaDaFest. The installation won the prestigious ‘Best Exhibition Award’ from Liverpool Daily Post, and was described as one of the most powerful elements of the festival.

One visitor wrote of her experience of Resistance: "It is not often that words fail me, but I can't begin to describe the impact this devastatingly-powerful installation had on me. This is tremendously important work, brilliantly and concisely realised into a package which will haunt me for a long, long time." Sarah Bush

Over a decade in the making, Resistance is the latest project from award-winning writer-director Liz Crow, whose previous work has been shown at Tate Modern and the Smithsonian Institution and who made a controversial appearance on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square as part of sculptor Antony Gormley’s One & Other project.

As graves containing the remains of 220 suspected victims of the Nazi ‘euthanasia’ programme are discovered at an Austrian psychiatric hospital, Liz Crow said: “This is an episode of history that is virtually hidden, yet the values that underpinned it still echo through disabled people’s lives today. It is a timely piece of work and I hope that people will be both moved and empowered by it. I want people to come away feeling inspired to get involved, be effective and find the courage to be a part of change. Resistance is about a sense of possibility.”

Today, when rising hate crime, increased pre-natal screening and abortion, and a race to assisted suicide challenge the worth of disabled people’s lives and even their right to exist, Resistance confronts a dark chapter of human history and invites the audience to reflect on the values of the past and how they can help to shape a society that delights in diversity.

Running alongside the installation, Liz Crow will give an historical talk about the Nazi programme of murder of disabled people, exploring its origins and setting it in the context of the larger holocaust. The talks will be at The Brewhouse on 18 March at 7pm. Tickets £4.00. Advance booking essential through Brewhouse box office.

Liz Crow
- Original article on IMC Bristol: http://bristol.indymedia.org/article/703140