The Audience Council

Photo: Matevž Peršin

Public discussions in collaboration with Bunker, Maska, Via Negativa and Association for Contemporary Dance of Slovenia.

The Audience Council seeks to connect Ljubljana’s independent performing arts scene in the most basic common denominator that constitutes our endeavor into a meaningful activity, namely the spectator. At each Council we will discuss on current performances on the Ljubljana independent scene with the aim to form the space for reflection, discussion and dialogue on what we watched, how we watched and what we saw. The Council thus strives to propel a vibrant exchange of exclusively spectator’s experience, opinions, reflections and expectations. It’s not about whether these performances are brilliant masterpieces or whether they’re average, it’s not about grades and classifications, it’s not about the overlooked or about the notorious performances, it’s about opening up a space that allows for a difference to emerge, the difference between what we were watching and what we saw. In short, it’s about the spectator’s representation about a performance.

It is our belief that Ljubljana is an exceptionally fertile and productive epicenter of contemporary performing practices, extending well beyond average in their expression. And despite a relatively high number of groups and individuals, whose original and effective creative procedures have gained wide recognition across European stages, Ljubljana’s independent scene still hasn’t succeeded in bringing its artistic expression together to become articulated on a higher creative level. The Audience Council seeks to trigger, establish and maintain the links between various stage practices that gravitate towards the field of contemporary independent performing arts and thus gradually form a stage discourse that once in the future may be recognized as “independent Ljubljana scene”.

The Audience Council #1, 5th July 2013
Speakers: Bojan Jablanovec, Katarina Stegnar, Grega Zorc, Vito Weis (Via Negativa), Teja Reba, Loup Abramovici (Association for Contemporary Dance of Slovenia), Simon Belak, Zala Sajko, Jurij Smrke (G-Fart), Janez Janša, Nika Arhar, Pia Brezavšček, Katja Čičigoj, Martina Ruhsam (Maska), Samo Selimović (Bunker)

The Audience Council #2, 15th June 2014
Speakers: Marko Bratuš, Simon Belak, Katarina Stegnar, Lana Zdravković & Nenad Jelesijević, Jedrt Jež Furlan

The Audience Council #3, 22nd June 2015
Moderators: Bojan Jablanovec, Janez Janša, Teja Reba, Tamara Bračič Vidmar

The Audience Council #4,  September 2015 – June 2016
The 4th season of the Audience Council is conceptualized as a series of debates in differenc spaces of Ljubljana’s non-governmental artistic scene. There willl be 10 after-performance discussions intended for the audience members to share their experiences, expectations, reflections after the performance just seen.
Moderator: Jedrt Jež Furlan

Photos

Photo: Matevž Peršin