What Kind of Bodies Will Come Together in Passage 468?

The aim of this article is to investigate the question, whether the performance of Passage 468 (2019), as interpreted through the theory of agential realism by Karen Barad and the concept of sensory field by Petri Tervo, could suggest a revised conception of the open body. First, the objective of the text is to review the literature concerning the conceptions of the open body by Bakhtin as part of the carnival culture, and the closed body by Elias as a result of the civilising process. Additionally, I make some remarks about how the open body is considered in theatre history. Secondly, I investigate the analysis of the performance by describing my experience as a spectator of being part of certain sensory fields that were opened up in Passage 468. I argue that the sensory field is akin to staggering away from the safety of identity which determines the way in which we perceive and categorize the different aspects of a performance as separate entities. Finally, I suggest that by translating the sensory field experience into written form as a part of performance analysis, it is possible to understand how different bodies are entangled in the phenomena of the body. As I propose, in this way it is possible to once again conceive of the body and approach it as open and collective.