Show will go on (Crit version)

‘Show will go on’

Karol Michalec

2011

We’ve all been invited into shows, performances and spectacles. The atmosphere of discovering something new, being subjected to someone’s artful message, witnessing one of the oldest art forms, so profound that the cradle of civilisation - ancient Greece - celebrated it every year and gave it divine meaning.

What about one show we witness involuntarily every day, from the beginning of the same civilisation, being bombarded with the cruel imaginary and news of more actors of this dance macabre falling of the stage with no applause. 

We are lucky. We got the prime padded seat tickets to the show in which our soldiers play the crucial main role. The Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya. Hundreds of United Nations Missions. Carnival of freedom, songs of brotherhood and acts of bravery along with the death, misery and sufferings of occupied nations. We can watch the cabaret of money and blood being spilt from one hands to another, sitting in rows of commentators, each with an opinion, not many willing to do something about it.

The spectacle is safe from that distance. From that distance the props falling of the stage won’t hurt the viewer, the lights won’t blind, the orchestra will play just at the right volume. Audience of a nation watch the brothers in arms.

Once you’ve sat down you’ll realise something about the framed picture. It’s calm; it’s soft, provokingly contrasting the real image of war. It’s a ghostly cotton-like image of toy soldiers, objects we’re so familiar with from childhood. Disgusting prove of war being the core of human nature. Hanging of the wall in a light and beautiful act of overlooking the gathered it quietly allows you to sit down, and listen to its story. There’s no blood, no tanks, missiles, patrols, petrol. Only by getting really close to the arena should you notice the actor’s stress, sweat, faults in their costume, missing decorations. Only from up-close, perhaps of the stage, one can immerse and understand what it takes to perform an act of such weight. On top of it all, this entire story has neither beginning nor end.

The existence of the spectacle is as frightening as it is factual. What’s truly scary is that this show will go on regardless of the audience’s presence.