Intermedial performance as a public sphere

This chapter argues that intermedial performance has a particular potential to function as a public sphere. The claim hinges on Jürgen Habermas’s original definition of public sphere, which emphasises the interdependence between private and public realms. It also relies on the recognition of a mediatized nature of contemporary life. Intermedial performance is understood in the chapter as a type of live artistic practice that explores the performative nature of identities and that self-reflexively incorporates new media. As such it can effectively negotiate between private and public realms in a mediatized culture and society. The chapter uses Dries Verhoeven’s No Man’s Land (first conceived in 2008) as a case study.