Politics of Seating
Choreography and Direction for UdK Fashion Show Winter 22/23
Febuary 2023 Institute of Experimental Fashion
and Textile Design, UdK, Berlin
Stage design and seating arrangement for runway shows inevitably impose what Kondo calls the politics of seating. As desirable seats close to the stage are allocated with consideration, the importance of the front row exceeds its functional advantage and becomes a signifier of status. The question arises if stage and space can be imagined in ways that level and amplify the experience for the audience overall, eroding the spatial hierarchies that produce the politics of seating. [fulltext under revision]