Drugajanje & Nagib School of Criticism

November 2016 til May 2017

8 performance as a part of Drugajanje festival and 3rd season of  “Nagib na oder” in Maribor and Ljubljana

Starting at: 21 November at the Festival Drugajanje
Participation is free of charge (we also cover the expenses of tickets and transportation for performances not taking place in Maribor).

Vacant spots: 8
Applications and info: info@nagib.si
Open to applicants until: 17 November 2016

Nagib, the season of contemporary performing arts in the Narodni Dom cultural centre, and Festival Drugajanje in cooperation with Second Gymnasium Maribor, announce a call for applications to their joint School of Criticism. We welcome the participation of youth interested in the analysis, valuation, critical “reading” and reflection of contemporary stage arts. The programme will be organized as a season ticket featuring performances from Festival Drugajanje and Nagib, as well as  selected events in Ljubljana. Participating mentors will act as conversation partners for the young critics in their reflections on perceived reality, as well as mentoring them in the skills of critical evaluation. Their meetings will take place in different formats (radio shows, talks with artists, writing pieces for blogs or websites of cooperating organizations …).
The School of Criticism’s mentors are seasoned editors, critics and theoreticians working across a range of reference media: Kaja Kraner, Alja Lobnik, Katja Kosi, Maja Megla, Rok Vevar, Nenad Jelesijević … In agreement with the participants, we are open to inviting additional mentors or guests.

Vahe Budumyan, Vilmos Koter, Tanja Radež, Giorgi Khasaia: Caucasus-Balkans: MARIBOR

Photo: Vilmoš Koter

Thursday, 24 November 2015 at 7pm
Trg Svobode square (by the Kojak statue)

The street collective Kavkaz Balkan sprang from the project Kavkaz Balkan Express, a platform for inspiration, contemplation and participation within the cultural sector of South Caucasus and the Balkans. Both these regions face challenges conditioned by a particular cultural-historic framework and their transition from old school socialism into hybrid democracy and market economy. The latter is cause for constant confusion and disappointment in the social context, and a breeding grounds for ethical conflicts.

The project unites four visual artists: Vahe Budumyan from Armenia, Vilmos Koter from Romania, Tanja Radež from Slovenia and Giorgi Khasaia from Georgia. Together, they’ve already stayed in residence in Georgia, Armenia, Romania and also Ljubljana; Maribor is now their current artistic HQ. The group have developed various techniques of urban intervention, based on their shared experience of co-existing and their individual artistic expressions. Thus, having spent their time in Maribor, they will prepare a series of spatial interventions specific to the issues they identify.

Deborah Pearson: HISTORY, HISTORY, HISTORY (GB, Canada)

Photo: archive Deborah Pearson

Wednesday, 23 November 2016 at 7pm
Second Gymnasium amphitheatre

Free entrance.

The performance is in English.

On 23 October 1956, revolution broke out in Hungary with student demonstrations, as a spontaneous rise against the communist government and Soviet hegemony. Many perished during the following insurrection, over 200,000 emigrated, among them the grandfather of Deborah Pearson; an actor appearing in a film comedy / political satire about the Hungarian national football team which was incidentally to be premiered on that very day … the day Soviet tanks rolled into Budapest.

History History History is a nuanced, comical yet painful tale in which global momentum collides with personal history. Pearson builds upon the film farce featuring a simple pen peddler who is, due to a series of outlandish coincidences, mistaken for the football superstar Ferenc Puskáš, to a degree so extreme he is contracted to play for a South American dictator (tycoon). There’s more to the funny piece than meets the eye, though. Through a brilliant interplay of reality and illusion, Pearson illuminates the subversive piece as a “commentator” exploring its satirizing of the tyranny of dictatorship, the struggles of a diaspora descendent weighed down by history, the spirit of the times, by familial tragedy and linguistic embarrassment. A Hungarian football comedy from 1956 subliminally weaving the story of a writer who loses his name, an actor who loses his voice, a nation that loses its revolution.

The performance is followed by a talk with the author.

90 minutes

Author: Deborah Pearson
Dramaturgy: Daniel Kitson
Artistic advisors: Tania El Khoury and Laura Danneqin
The project was developed with the assistance of the National Theatre Studio
Production: A House on Fire in partnership with Theatre Garonne (Toulouse, FR) and BIT Teatergarasjen (Bergen, Norway)

Beton Ltd.: ICH KANN NICHT ANDERS

Photo: Nada Žgank

Tuesday, 22 November 2016 at 6pm and 9pm
Narodni Dom cultural centre, Maribor

The performance is in Slovene with English surtitles.

The creative poetics of group Beton Ltd. (Katarina Stegnar, Branko Jordan, Primož Bezjak) is marked by a search for personal interventions into global issues – their position is often one of performers –, the exploration of new, hybrid performing arts formats and mastery over a range of techniques. Ich kann nicht anders is their fifth performance, whose counterpoint between complete intimacy and echoes of global events plays reminiscence to the thesis of Srećko Horvat that a true revolution is always a revolution of everything, the complete range of social relationships, even those most intimate.

The world all around is overwhelmed with happening, saturated with change. If a single constant can be identified, it is uncertainty. We sense new currents yet their trajectory remains obscure. One possible strategy to combat the deafening noise of the world is a retreat into the inner sanctum. Not surrender, but the defense of one’s own intimate realm from the outside bedlam. A repositioning into intimacy, where freedom is possible and utopia is – now.

75 minutes

Concept and direction: Beton Ltd.
Performers: Katarina Stegnar, Branko Jordan, Primož Bezjak
Music: Dead Tongues
Set design: sonda4, Toni Soprano
Costume: Mateja Benedetti
Sound design: Jure Vlahovič
Dramaturgy assistant: Urška Brodar
Head technician: Andrej Petrovčič
Technician: Martin Lovšin
Executive producer: Maja Vižin
Production: Bunker, Ljubljana

 The performance Ich kann nicht anders will be presented within the framework of the performing arts programme “Nagib na oder” 2016/2017. (www.nagib.si)

Mark Požlep: STRANGER THEN PARADISE (Slovenia)

Photo: Glej, The Theatre
21st November at 7pm
Second Gymnasium amphitheatre

Free entrance.

Two years ago, the chiefly visual artist Mark Požlep embarked on what might, at first glance, seem like a rather quaint tour: alongside pianist Igor Feketija they visited a number of retirement homes across the countries of former Yugoslavia. There, they performed for the elderly a set of Yugoslavian music hits from the fifties and sixties of the past century.

Mark first presented Stranger than Paradise in gallery form, for which he received the OHO Group Award in 2016, and is now adapting the project for theatre.

Stranger than Paradise is a documentary performance, something between a concert, a travelogue and a friendly gathering. It speaks of aging, of common and separate fates, of the reestablishment of broken relationships and shattered communities. It speaks of a generation that lived out nearly their entire lives in the former common socialist state, and of one that only experienced it in its greenest youth. It speaks of man and his eternal longing for change, his incredible capacity for creation and destruction. It speaks of Marko as a person, and each one of us as a human being. Stranger than Paradise

The performance is followed by a talk with the authors.

The performance is in Slovene with English surtitles.

65 minutes

Concept: Mark Požlep
Performers: Mark Požlep, Igor Feketija
Dramaturgy and videography: Jure Novak
Set design: Meta Grgurevič
Costume: Dajana Ljubičić
Lighting design, head technician: Grega Mohorčič
Executive production: Barbara Poček
Production: Glej, The Theatre 

Maria Lucia Cruz Correia: COMMON DREAMS (PT, BE) – prolongued!

Photo: Nada Žgank

UPCOMING: Saturday, September 3rd  and Sunday, September 4th, 16.00 – 18.00 (every 30 min); Tuesday, September 6th till Friday,  September 9th , od 16.00- 19.00 (every 30 min)

Saturday,  August 20th, 3.00pm – 19.30pm(every 30 min)
Sunday, August 21st , 3.00pm – 19.30pm (every 30 min)
Pedaling on the river Ljubljanica (more…)

Imagine 2020 (2.0) – ART, ECOLOGY AND POSSIBLE FUTURES SUMMER LAB #1: TOXIC TOUR

Photo: Tanja Radež

Locations: University Botanic Gardens Ljubljana, Ljubljana Marsh Nature Park, Planina Cave

Participants of the Imagine 2020 Summer Lab will engage in a 3-day field trip, starting from the University Botanic Gardens Ljubljana to the Ljubljana Marsh Nature Park and the Planina Cave.
They will focus on the changing interrelations and co-relations imposed by the increasing pollution on the fragile equilibrium of Ljubljana’s marsh ecosystem, by observing and giving voice to its non-human dwellers whose languages we may only imagine – waters (rivers, sources, undercurrents), plants (invasive and indigenous species), animals (birds, frogs, wild pigs, mosquitoes) – and entities such as the geological period, micro-climate and specific geography of the locations. (more…)

FLYING ACADEMY

Flying Academy is an educational programme for young professionals in the field of contemporary performing arts. It is a learning caravan through three festivals, with meetings among peers and discussions moderated by three experienced moderators (Marta Keil, Iulia Popovici and Nevenka Koprivšek).

The Flying Academy was initiated by a Polish festival Konfrontacje Teatralne. Its programme was devised in collaboration with Bunker, Ljubljana and a Romanian organisation Colectiv A as a platform enabling participants a confrontation with numerous quality international art works, artists and various local artistic milieus.

The Flying Academy 2016 will host three meetings:
24th–29th August, International Festival Mladi Levi, Ljubljana, Slovenia (www.ljudmila.org/~bunker/eng/)
10th–15th October, Konfrontacje Teatralne Festival, Lublin, Poland (konfrontacje.pl/en/)
8th–12th November, Temps D’Images Festival, Cluj, Romania (tempsdimages.ro/index.php/en/)

Beton Ltd.: ICH KANN NICHT ANDERS

Photo: Toni Soprano

The first performance of the German cycle

“The bridge between being principled and practical is called survival. In theatre, we always use stories to be able to talk about the world, we play roles to be able to speak of human nature, and we pretend that a table is a table. But we were aiming for a reverse principle. Since we cannot speak with any certainty and artistic integrity of anything else than ourselves, our position, our principles and non-principles – all the rest are moralistic discourses or whining excuses and guilt washing – precisely the things that an artist should not possess can emerge between practicality and integrity: detachment, fascism, sexism, narcissism, misanthropy … It is these little perversions which show that we are not exempted, even if we pretend that we are.

In the end, we have to admit to ourselves that we can do no other. Ich kann nicht anders.

And this dual position is more than perverse.

My life is disgusting, I make myself sick, and yet I am so far from changing anything. And even though I am frightened by these sacred spaces, I am unresponsive and stiff as soon as I leave them. In the end, I am not worth anything.”

The authorial poetics of collective Beton Ltd. (Katarina Stegnar, Branko Jordan, Primož Bezjak) is characterized by a search for intimate entries into the global issues – their position is often personal – a search for new, hybrid forms of performing, and a mastery of performing techniques. Ich kann nicht anders is their fifth performance, where the counterpoint between the total intimacy and the echoes of the global events reminds us of a thesis by Croatian philosopher Srećko Horvat, that the real revolution is always a revolution of everything, all social interactions, even the most intimate ones.

The world around us is saturated with change, and if there is one constant, it is currently uncertainty. We anticipate changes, but it is not yet clear what they might be. One of the possible strategies to combat the deafening noise of the world is to retreat into one’s own world. Not to surrender, but to defend one’s own intimate territory against the outside world. A retreat into intimacy, where freedom is possible and where utopia is – now.

Credits

Conceived and directed by: Beton Ltd.
Performers: Primož Bezjak, Branko Jordan, Katarina Stegnar
Music: Dead Tongues
Space design: sonda4, Toni Soprano
Costume design: Mateja Benedetti
Sound design: Jure Vlahovič
Dramaturgical adviser: Urška Brodar
Graphic design: Saša Kladnik
Proofreading: Barbara Rogelj
Photography: Toni Soprano
Technical director: Andrej Petrovčič
Technical assistance: Martin Lovšin
Executive producer: Maja Vižin
Produced by: Bunker, Ljubljana
The performance was supported by: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, Municipality of Ljubljana
With help of: Elektro Ljubljana d.d.,  Slovensko mladinsko gledališče
Thanks to: GT22, Športno društvo Tabor, Aljoša Cetinski, Mini Teater, Uroš Kaurin

Performances

Premiere: 
26th August 2016, 8.00 pm, Dvorana športnega društva Tabor, Ljubljana

Upcoming performances:

9th and 10th March 2019

Past performances: 
27th August, 29th August, 30th August 2016, 8.00 pm, Dvorana športnega društva Tabor, Ljubljana
24th September, 25th September 2016, 8.00 pm Dvorana športnega društva Tabor, Ljubljana
8th October, 9th October 2016, 8.00 pm, Dvorana športnega društva Tabor, Ljubljana
19th November and 20th November 2016, 8.00 pm, Dvorana športnega društva Tabor, Ljubljana
22nd November 2016 ad 6.00 pm and 9.00 pm, Narodni dom Maribor, Maribor
4th April 2017, The Week of Slovenian Drama, Kranj
13th and 14th May 2017 at 8.00 pm, Dvorana Športnega društva Tabor, Ljubljana
3rd and 4th June 2017 at 8.00 pm, in the frame of Flanders – Balkan Express Meeting, Dvorana Športnega društva Tabor, Ljubljana
17th September 2017, 8.00 pm, Dvorana športnega društva Tabor, Ljubljana
5th and 6th October 2017, Prague Crossroads International Theatre Festival, Czech Republic
10th and 11th October 2017, Festival Konfrontacje Teatralne Lublin, Poland
10th and 11th February 2018, 8.00 pm, Dvorana športnega društva Tabor, Ljubljana
6th March 2018, 8.00 p.m., Slovene National Theatre Nova Gorica, Slovenia
11th August 2018, 9.00 p.m., Kamfest, Kamnik, Slovenia
6th and 7th October at 9.00 p.m., Dvorana športnega društva Tabor, Ljubljana

Critics

Arhar N.: Ich kann nicht anders, Delo, 30. 8. 2016 (pdf 180KB) (translation: M. Jesenko)
Jelesijević N., In a vacuum of preserving bare life : Ich kann nicht anders, Radio Študent, 30.8.2016 (pdf 172 KB) (translation: M.Jesenko)

Video

Ich kann nicht anders Trailer from Bunker Ljubljana on Vimeo.

Photos

Photo: Nada Žgank

Robertina Šebjanič, Victoria Vesna & James K. Gimzewski: SUBAQUATIC SOUND SCAPE

Photo: Boštjan Lah

Friday, August 26th, 15.00–16.30
Foyer of the Old Power Station – Elektro Ljubljana 

In the entrance hall of Stara mestna elektrarna, Robertina Šebjanič will set up her Subaquatic Soundscape, an installation that immerses visitors in the underwater sounds of the ocean recoded by the artist using a hydrophone across different seas. With her project Robertina Šebjanič brushes aside the veil of anthropocentric certainty that cannot see (or hear) beyond its own world, presenting the wealth of sounds found below the surface of the sea, in many ways even richer than those heard above water.

At the conference Robertina will, together with Victoria Vesna and James K. Gimzewski, illuminate subjects addressed by the installation, such as the problems of noise and sound pollution affecting the seas and oceans, as well as other factors of pollution, from the nano-level of various toxins and plastic particles to the macro-level of global situations threatening the seas in the age of Anthropocene.

Robertina Šebjanič is an inter-media artist whose works address the relationships between art, science and technology. In recent years, she’s been focusing on living systems in particular. Her artistic exploratory processes result in audiovisual performances and sound art, as well as complex submersible configurations / installations.

Victoria Vesna is a professor at the UCLA and the director of the Art|Sci centre at the School of the Arts and California Nanosystems Institute (CNSI). For decades, she has been engaged in the field of marine ecosystems and the research of the impact of environmental change on our planet. She is also the co-founder of the website waterbodies.org.

James K. Gimzewski is a physicist who pioneered research on electrical contacts with single atoms and molecules and light emission using scanning tunneling microscopy. He is a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles; Faculty Director of the Nano & Pico Characterization Core Facility of the California NanoSystems Institute; Scientific Director of the Art|Sci Center and Principal Investigator and Satellites Co-Director of the WPI Center for Materials NanoArchitectonics (MANA) in Japan. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society.