V sklopu Cofestivala / As part of Cofestival
Nika Arhar, Jasmina Založnik (ur.): Bodies of Dance: Aspects of Dance as Cultural,
Political, and Art Work in Yugoslavia and After (2024)
predstavitev knjige / book presentation
Plesni Teater Ljubljana, preddverje / Dance Theatre Ljubljana lobby
Trajanje / Duration: 30 min
The book Bodies of Dance: Aspects of Dance as Cultural, Political, and Art Work in Yugoslavia and After (Station service for contemporary dance, Nomad Dance Academy Slovenia, Lokomotiva – Centre for New Initiatives in Arts and Culture, 2024), created within the EU project (Non)Aligned Movements, is the result of the Nomad Dance Academy’s collective work, researching different contemporary dance practices in Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, and North Macedonia since the beginning of the 20th century. With that work, the Nomad Dance Academy network and its local organizations are striving to provide the conditions for the historicizations of regional contemporary dance on the basis of different historical documents. Bodies of Dance, with its historical-theoretical position, provides the political, cultural, and artistic framing in which dance practices in Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, and North Macedonia emerged on various occasions. The first chapter, “Plurality of Bodies and Their Voices,” traces the perspective of the Other as a symptom of the patriarchy and its order. Such a perspective addresses the marginalized position of dance and points out its struggle toward shifts and changes of the existing order. It outlines otherness beyond aesthetic tendencies and searches for the instruments and logic of embodying, where dance moves toward life, while emphasizing the everyday, strategies of extending the body beyond form, work with various social groups, as well as thinking of feminism and opening perspectives of queer choreography. In the second chapter, “Dance Formations” − referencing Raymond Williams’s term “formations” as the configurations of organizing and self-organizing communities in the arts and culture − the authors adapt the term to the dance landscape in the region to show diverse forms of organizations, schools, spaces, initiatives, and festivals, their ever-changing configurations and reinventions, also with the urgency to practice solidarity within and beyond the scene. The third chapter, “Reshaping Spaces of Art and Culture,” focuses on dance, choreography, and the body as mediators of change and examines dance in and through other artistic mediums, as well as its presence in public spaces as an important endeavour within the public sphere. Additionally, the book introduces the complexities surrounding the processes of dance archiving and historicization in the region and presents the context of the former Yugoslavia and its major innovative structural elements, which are still vivid in the actual working modes and organizational models. Therefore, the book is a living document of the efforts of numerous individuals and groups who built our dance histories up to the present. It is also a reflection of a complex and lengthy process to share our knowledge and dig into local specificities, with articulation of potent features that have been addressed by or appear in and through dance practice(s) and the necessity of presenting a selection of examples and materials.
The book Bodies of Dance was created as an accompanying publication to the exhibition Dancing, Resisting, (Un)Working – Aspects of Dance as Cultural, Political, and Art Work in Yugoslavia and After, which was opened by the Nomad Dance Academy network in November 2024 at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb and in March this year at the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova in Ljubljana. The texts in the book were written by the research group: Slavcho Dimitrov, Milica Ivić, Tea Kantoci, Igor Koruga, Biljana Tanurovska-Kjulavkovski, Rok Vevar, and Jasmina Založnik, as well as guest writer Gal Kirn.
Among those participating in the discussion will be: Nika Arhar, Jasmina Založnik, Rok Vevar and Slavcho Dimitrov.
Knjiga Bodies of Dance: Aspects of Dance as Cultural, Political, and Art Work in Yugoslavia and After (Station service for contemporary dance, Nomad Dance Academy Slovenia, Lokomotiva – Centre for New Initiatives in Arts and Culture, 2024) je rezultat kolektivnega dela balkanske sodobnoplesne mreže Nomad Dance Academy (NDA) pri raziskovanju sodobnoplesnih praks dvajsetega stoletja v Sloveniji, Srbiji, Severni Makedoniji in na Hrvaškem. S tem delom si mreža NDA, skupaj z vključenimi lokalnimi organizacijami iz omenjenih držav, prizadeva zagotoviti pogoje za sklenjeno zgodovinjenje regionalnih dejavnosti na področju sodobnega plesa z rabo zgodovinske dokumentacije. Bodies of Dance s svojim zgodovinsko-teoretskim pristopom ponuja politični, kulturni in umetnostni okvir, v katerem so se plesne prakse izoblikovale v Sloveniji, na Hrvaškem, v Srbiji in Severni Makedoniji. Prvo poglavje, »Pluralnost teles in njihovih glasov«, sledi perspektivi Drugega kot simptomu patriarhata in njegovega družbenega reda. S to perspektivo obravnava marginalizirani položaj plesa in opozarja na njegov boj za spremembe in preoblikovanje obstoječega reda. Izrisuje drugačnost onkraj estetskih tendenc ter išče instrumentarij in logiko utelešenja, pri kateri se ples pomika proti življenju, hkrati pa poudarja vsakdanjost, strategije razširjanja telesa onkraj forme, delo z različnimi družbenimi skupinami, razmišljanje o feminizmu in odpiranje perspektiv kvirovske koreografije. V drugem poglavju, »Plesne formacije« – ki se sklicuje na izraz Raymonda Williamsa »formacija« kot konfiguracija organiziranih in samoorganiziranih skupnosti v umetnosti in kulturi –, avtorji predstavijo raznoliko regionalno plesno krajino, organizacijske oblike, šole, prostore, pobude in festivale, njihove venomer preobražajoče se konfiguracije in nove iznajdbe, ob tem pa opozorijo tudi na ključno vlogo solidarnosti tako v okviru kot tudi izven same scene. Tretje poglavje, »Preoblikovanje prostorov umetnosti in kulture«, se posveča plesu, koreografiji in telesu kot posrednikom sprememb ter preučuje ples v drugih medijih in skoznje, pa tudi njegovo prisotnost v javnem prostoru kot pomembno prizadevanje v javni sferi. Poleg tega knjiga predstavlja zapletene procese arhiviranja in historizacije plesa v regiji ter kontekst nekdanje Jugoslavije in njene glavne inovativne strukturne elemente, ki so se vse do danes delno ohranili v dejanskih načinih dela in organizacijskih modelih. S tem je knjiga dokument, ki prikazuje prizadevanja številnih posameznikov in skupin, ki so oblikovali našo plesno zgodovino do danes. Je tudi odraz zapletenega in dolgotrajnega procesa izmenjave znanja in raziskovanja lokalnih posebnosti, s poudarkom na pomembnih značilnostih, ki so bile obravnavane ali se pojavljajo v plesni praksi, ter na nujnosti predstavitve izbranih primerov in gradiva.
Knjiga Bodies of Dance je nastala v okviru projekta (Non)Aligned Movements in kot spremljevalna publikacija razstave Ples, odpor, (neiz)delovanje – vidiki plesa kot kulturnega, političnega in umetniškega dela v obdobju Jugoslavije in potem, ki jo je mreža NDA novembra 2024 odprla v Muzeju sodobne umetnosti v Zagrebu in marca letos v Muzeju sodobne umetnosti Metelkova v Ljubljani. Besedila v knjigi so delo raziskovalne skupine: Slavčo Dimitrov, Milica Ivić, Tea Kantoci, Igor Koruga, Biljana Tanurovska-Kjulavkovski, Rok Vevar in Jasmina Založnik, ter gostujočega pisca Gala Kirna.
Na pogovoru bodo sodelovali: Nika Arhar, Jasmina Založnik (urednici), Rok Vevar, Slavčo Dimitrov (sodelavci in pisci prispevkov)
* Pogovor bo potekal v angleškem jeziku. / The discussion will be held in English.
Organizacija / Organised by: Kino Šiška in NDA Slovenija v sodelovanju s PTL / Kino Šiška and NDA Slovenia in collaboration with Dance Theatre Ljubljana
VSTOP PROST / FREE ENTRY
S podporo / Supported by:
