In the second panel, “History, Memory, Participation. Audience Engagement and Arts Education” of the research atelier Our Common Futures director Mark Teh gave an introduction into his work as an artist and activist in Malaysia.
Following his principle of “art is not enough” he and his colleagues from the Five Arts Centre in Kuala Lumpur are working on interdisciplinary projects combining theater with education, activism and politics.
Preluding his presentation he described a powerful analogy which provoked me to look at performing arts from a new perspective:

“You can compare performing arts or arts in general to multi-point plugs: they are everywhere, they are all over in this room, too. […] And they are cheap, kind of disposable, but absolutely necessary because they allow and connect different appliances, technologies, applications, devices, gadgets. You plug in and get charged up, and you leave afterwards. These things are dispersing our electricity… This festival is actually functioning like this as well.”