Performing Visions of Governmentality: Care and Capital in 100% Vancouver

Abstract

100% Vancouver was created by Rimini Protokoll and produced in 2011 by Theatre Replacement as part of the PuSh Festival. One hundred Vancouver residents performed a statistical portrait of the city based on Canada's 2006 mandatory long-form census. In this article, I set out to understand how a show that felt so local is part of a global project and a transposable dramaturgy that is designed to be tented anywhere. I explore this seeming paradox in 100% Vancouver because it self-consciously shared the stage with a corporate sponsor connected to the globalizing force of finance capitalism. I propose that this transparent redistribution of artistic capital to corporations that deal in finance capital is not a capitulation to the market. Rather, it is a social relationship with the market. 100% Vancouver demonstrates how contemporary citizen-led performance is a battleground for declining and dominant visions of governmentality that range from welfare government to finance capitalism.