An advocate of interculturality

Mexican theatre artist Beto Ruiz talks on his love for interculturality, freedom of artists and theatre
An advocate of interculturality

KOCHI: “Political systems have been deepening divisions in countries. Art, on the other hand, is melting boundaries, but governments do not want society to go as far. It is going to be a difficult few years for artists,” says Beto Ruiz, the head of acting at the Intercultural Theatre Institute in Singapore. The Mexican theatre artist was leading an acting workshop ‘The Path of Action’, in association with Never Ending Circle, at Riverbourne Centre in Tripunithura the other day.

According to Beto, humans are at a point where they are obsessive of their own identity. “Someone always wants to be better than the other,” he says. The balm to this ailment is ‘interculturality’. “Interculturality starts from the idea that there is no possibility for a society vertically. What one needs to understand is that every culture and race is going to be naturally different from the other. But this difference does not imply superiority or inferiority. It is the meeting point of cultures,” says Beto.

So does interculturality have a future? That is going to be a paradoxical development, he says. Let’s invoke war for an instance. “War has always been intercultural. You find various Portuguese aspects in India. That’s because parts of India was Portugal’s colony. And the reason why you find Portuguese influences in our culture is that they were once imposed in our lives a long time ago,” Beto says. In the current scenario, groups and individuals have to develop an understanding of the ways of each group. “Instead of drawing boundaries, mixing and collaborating are necessary to prevent and eradicate discrimination between cultures,” he says.

Along these lines, Beto has been an advocate of intercultural theatre. “Intercultural theatre is the process of exchanging different traditions and cultures across the world. In an eclectic sense, this is a form of permanent dialogue,” he says. The Intercultural Theatre Institute in Singapore, founded by noted playwright Kuo Pao Kun, focuses on this form of theatre. “In intercultural theatre, you are taught how to approach different perspectives and learn principles derived from traditional art forms such as koodiyattom, Noh theatre, Wayang wong and Beijing opera,” says Beto.

When Kuo Pao Kun founded the school, he was looking to create personal works that were not only products of the theatre industry, but an authentic response of an artist. “It’s to give the artists the tools to create their own artwork, even though it is not what you see commercially. No particular style is imposed. For this, the students are surrounded by different perspectives, some of them even contradictory in terms of technique. But the variety gives the possibility to choose,” says Beto.
 
Representation

At a time when equal representation is put in the spotlight, Beto thinks the questions regarding the same will not be solved anytime soon. “From a perspective of compensating a group that has been a minority, it is time to balance. But we need to be careful. We should be careful to not take the posture of the superior role or the higher status. Filters about who should be on stage should not arise,” he says. That said, he says, people should not feel the need to prove their own identity.

Regarding theatre, he says “You have the space to be culturally free.”And the picture of the entertainment industry? “It is largely rigid, controlled by the financial aspect. In the Oscars, over the past few years, a lot of Latin American artists and filmmakers were present. But I am suspicious whether it is an honest move or a just commercial strategy,” says Beto.

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