What I find really interesting about the Volxtheatre and EKH is this Focaultian idea of Parrhesia. The idea of a balance of personal/self criticism existing at the same level as political/institutional criticism, creating a new broadened self-regulating criticism that still “maintains flow between movement and institution”. Obvious similarities also exist with Laibach in their performances and also in relation to their specific focus on the structuralization of political and authoritarian institutions. Theories of Situationism and site specific public art also resonates through their work, particularly with their ‘situative interventions’ concerning European border policies in 1996.
The choice of theatre out of its bourgeoisie context was with the intention of choosing an art form that most accurately depicts 'real life'. Taking on the role of ‘art machine’ and simultaneously ‘revolutionary machine’ they use theatre for political and cultural protest. The symbolic metaphor of their theatre with all its outrageous characters and contrasting hierarchies and conflicts can be read as a satiric depiction of the way they perceive the state of their society (or all western society in a way?). In an interview with the volxtheatre they claim that life does not exist with the freedom that the government encourages its people to believe. Like the theatre itself we live under a façade of freedom whilst really all societal and cultural situations result from the limitations of the structures put in place by various dominant and manipulative power institutions.
Go to this link for an interview.
http://www.no-racism.net/nobordertour/index_uk.html
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