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

Maja M. Workman: VIRTUAL TRUTH

Photo: Boštjan Eder
The woman depicted in the performance is relatively free and educated, but at the same time also limited within her undefined search for the meaning of her own existence. The expectations and aggressions she has to deal with on a daily basis may indeed be triggered by the environment, but she is nevertheless herself responsible for providing an answer of some sort, which is why the pressure never drops. (more…)

Mateja Bučar: PROCESIRANJE … POINT-LESS

Geometrical point is a name for an invisible or visible object … One point less or Point-less stands for an intense research of movement with real and “imaginary” points – ellipses. Ellipses lure into the beauty and exciting madness of their inner relations. Every ellipse is composed of two individual inner focuses on one hand and the constancy of relations and opposites arising between them on the other. An appealing definition for many realities and for several point-less coordinates that determine us. (more…)

18th International Festival of Contemporary Arts – CITY OF WOMEN

Aging represents this year’s main festival theme. The topics are tackled by women artists of all generations, though with emphasis on artists of the middle and older generations, from all over the world and will range from intimate reflections on their attitude to their own bodies, its alleged defects and faults, to a broader social and critical dealing with the euphoric recourse to plastic surgery and the aggressive dictates of the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. (more…)

Anita Wach, Bojan Jablanovec: OOPS

“The historical project of the Enlightenment failed. Lights do not work at all.”

Oops is a solo dance performance enacted as a continuous “dialogue” between the dancer and the stage, which keeps questioning the meaning of the performer’s and its own existence. The stage takes on the role of a “dramatis personae”, addressing the audience and the dancer by way of a projected text: “I’m having trouble with the lights. I know I should turn them on any moment now. But I am afraid that this could be a mistake.” (more…)

Betontanc & Umka.lv: SHOW YOUR FACE!

A virtuosic performance of puppetry, theatre, dance, and live music that examines the effects of courage (or lack thereof) throughout the 20th century is coming to Stara mestna elektrarna – Elektro Ljubljana after almost two years. (more…)

Via Negativa: JUST THE BEGINNING (Irresolvable #3)

Performance Just the Beginning is Irresolvable #3 (third performance of a series Irresolvable), which reveals how happy we are to live in a democracy.

Premiere on the day of the presidential elections
Sunday 11th November 2012 at 8 pm

Dear Mr. President,
we do not ask who you are; we are happy that you are, what you are. The President! You’re ours and we’re yours. Without hesitation. Without a doubt. On the live and dead. (more…)

Branko Potočan: FATHERS AND SONS

“Daddy, is it true that fathers always know more than sons?” “Always, sonny!”

I am simply myself, an independent personality thinking with my own head and feeling with my own heart. I am who I am. My closest mean the world to me. They are my meaning of life. (Branko Potočan)
(more…)

Festival DRUGAJANJE

Drugajanje’s second decade of existence will therefore mark a programme that stretches between the engaged on the one hand, and the optimistic on the other. But most importantly, this year’s programme does not shy away from being polemical – not when it comes to tackling the holy grail of the modern era, personal happiness, or screening the notorious film about names, and everyone named Janez Janša … (more…)

Beton Ltd.: I SAY WHAT I AM TOLD TO SAY

The perfomance I Say What I Am Told To Say is tackling the interpretation of Samuel Beckett’s work in an original way. Beckett, intimate in presenting his own stream of thoughts and yielding himself to the events from the outside world, is a starting point for the authors and performers: Primož Bezjak, Daša Doberšek, Branko Jordan and Katarina Stegnar, united in the collective Beton Ltd. (more…)