After seeing Jerome Bel’s piece with the Disabled Theater, I had a lot of difficulty in constructing my opinion based on the piece. While my instinct told me that what I had just seen was great, there was something in the back of my head that just didn’t feel right enjoying the performance that I had just seen. I had no idea what to expect going into the performance and towards the beginning I didn’t think the performers were going to do more than just stand idly and some nervously onstage. However as the show progressed, these people that often times get ignored and out casted in society became alive and it was one of the most unique performances I’ve ever seen. To be able to watch them just be happy in dancing and doing what they liked to do as actors and actresses, entertaining, made me take into consideration everything that I do and all of the little things in my life that I let affect me. If those 10 people who have had a rougher life than I could ever imagine could go up on a stage and be so carefree, laugh without worry and just be themselves was amazing. I’m almost ashamed to say that I, a healthy person with a stereotypically normal functioning mind and body, have insecurities and might not have been able to do what they did on that stage with whatever conditions they had.
They were very entertaining and I loved the show up until the part where one of the men explained how his mother felt about the performance. He said that she felt it was a freak show and compared them to a circus act. It was this statement that made me realize in a way that these people may have been being exploited. Yes, if I went up on a stage, a person with no disabilities, and did what they did it still would’ve been funny at times but I’m not 100 percent sure that the audience didn’t laugh a little bit harder subconsciously because they did have different disorders. I’m still very undecided as to how I feel about this performance however, my first thought is to say that if the performers were happy then it shouldn’t matter how anyone else receives it. Just like we previously studied in more visual styles of art like paintings and sculptures, art is a form of self-expression and isn’t necessarily for the enjoyment of the viewer or audience rather than for the enjoyment and release of the artist or in this case artists.
Even though I do have my concerns I think Jerome Bel doesn’t have responsibility over the performances and while he did create a controversial work I don’t think he purposefully exploited the performers. I think subconsciously people who are viewing this performance automatically feel guilty for doing the first thing you are taught not to do when faced with people with disorders like down syndrome: stare and laugh. Because of this fact it’s easy to feel like Jerome Bel is exploiting them but we have to realize that they are people who make choices and their choice was to do what they love and perform. Maybe as people we’ve progressed in that we don’t make fun of people with disorders but maybe we’ve begun to treat them in such a special way that they’ve ceased to remain as people in our minds. Its hard to accept things and people that you don’t understand but I think this show was a great way to enter into their minds and have them enter our hearts in order become more real and less of a scary thought that you can just push into the corners of your mind.
-Yasmin
