Performing Political Acts : Performance Art in Northern Ireland: Ritual, Catharsis and Transformation

Through recall and documentation examples of  performance art in Belfast during the late nineteen seventies are used to explore cultural and political conditioning that contributed to personal trauma in an environment of civil conflict. 

Performance and experimental art created as a consequence of 'the troubles' in Northern Ireland is explored through personal commentary. 

The paper considers how and why radical art was made in an environment of political conflict taking place in a developed western society, such as Northern Ireland, and if remembering this art, produced through performance, contributes to conflict transformation.

A version of this paper also appears as a book chapter:

Stitt, A. (2015) 'Performing Political Acts: Performance Art in Northern Ireland: Ritual, Catharsis and Transformation', In: Phillips, A. ed., Performance Art in Ireland: A History, Intellect, Bristol, LADA London. ISBN  9781783204281