Spinning extraterritorial yarns : notes towards pirate dramaturgy

Bonnano, Bruna (author), Zajec, Urška (resume translator)

Based on the framework that both piracy and dramaturgy have shaped and reshaped the collective imaginary, this contribution proposes the notion of “pirate dramaturgy” as an entangled mode of thinking-through-practising radical ecologies (and alternative world- making). Exploring the Exterritory Project (2009–ongoing) by artists Maayan Amir and Ruti Sela as both a material and immaterial site for rethinking the threads between ecology and performance while sailing through international waters of the Mediterranean Sea and the juridical voids they constitute, the article questions the urgency of reconceptualising modes of worlding beyond terrestrial-based frameworks. Drawing on blue humanities and anarchist studies, the article brings these fields together around the concept of extraterritoriality and proposes the concept of pirate dramaturgy as both an epistemic category and an operational tool – an engaged mode of looking at performances that navigate the margins of the legal– juridical as well as the edges of forms of representation. Through close analysis of Amir and Sela’s interventions in extraterritorial waters, the contribution examines how maritime zones of legal ambiguity become dramaturgical sites for alternative modes of thinking and performing ecological–political practices, while foregrounding the radical potential of extraterritoriality to engage with the oceanic turn in performance studies.

• Language: English
• Keywords: islands studies, performance studies, oceanic epistemologies, schoal, transpasifika
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: AGRFT - Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 01.01.2026
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: Str. 110-128
• Numbering: Letn. 14, št. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-188383
• UDC: 792.01:341.225.5:502
• ISSN on article: 1855-4539
• DOI: 10.51937/Amfiteater-2026-1/110-128
• COBISS.SI-ID: 288499971
• Publication date in RUL: 22.09.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Amfiteater : revija za teorijo scenskih umetnosti
• Publisher: Akademija za gledališče, radio, film in televizijo, Društvo gledaliških kritikov in teatrologov Slovenije, Akademija za gledališče, radio, film in televizijo, Društvo gledaliških kritikov in teatrologov Slovenije, Akademija za gledališče, radio, film in televizijo, Slovenski gledališki inštitut, Slovenski gledališki inštitut, = Slovenian Theatre Institute, Založba Univerze v Ljubljani, = University of Ljubljana Press
• ISSN: 1855-4539
• COBISS.SI-ID: 239685632

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
• Description: A Creative Commons license that bans commercial use and requires the user to release any modified works under this license.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Razpredanja o ekstrateritirialnosti

Abstract

Prispevek izhaja iz okvirja, da sta tako piratstvo kot dramaturgija prispevala k oblikovanju in preoblikovanju kolektivnega imaginarija, zato predlaga pojem »piratske dramaturgije« kot vmrežen način mišljenja s prakticiranjem radikalnih ekologij (in alternativnega ustvarjanja sveta). Raziskuje projekt Ex-territory Project (2009–) umetnic Maayan Amir in Ruti Sela kot materialno in nematerialno prizorišče za ponoven premislek o nitih med ekologijo in uprizarjanjem; pri tem pluje po mednarodnih vodah Sredozemskega morja in pravnih prazninah, ki jih te predstavljajo, ter pod vprašaj postavlja nujnost rekonceptualizacije našega svétenja (angl. worlding – op. prev.) onkraj kopenskih okvirov. Pri tem se opiram na modro humanistiko in anarhistične študije, ki jih povezujem prek koncepta ekstrateritorialnosti, ter predlagam pojem piratske dramaturgije kot angažirane obravnave predstav, ki krmarijo po robu pravno-sodnega ter po mejnih oblikah reprezentacije. S podrobno analizo intervencij, ki jih Amir in Sela izvajata v ekstrateritorialnih vodah, prispevek proučuje, kako pravno nejasna območja na morju postanejo dramaturška prizorišča za alternativne načine mišljenja in uprizarjanja ekološko-političnih praks. Pri tem poudarja radikalni potencial, ki ga ima ekstrateritorialnost za prispevek k modremu obratu (angl. blue turn – op. prev.) v uprizoritvenih študijih.

• Keywords: otoški študiji, uprizoritveni študiji, oceanske epistemologije, plitvina, transpasifika