Selma Banich, Deana Gobac, Nataša Govedić, Iva Nerina Sibila, Roberta Milevoj (Hrvaška)
ČUDOVITA, ČUDOVITA, ČUDOVITA KATASTROFA
plesni performans * a dance-theatre performance
A Lovely, lovely, lovely Catastrophe / Dance performance, 2012 / 90’
Koncept, koreografija, izvedba in produkcija* Concept, choreography, performance and production: Selma Banich, Deana Gobac, Nataša Govedić, Roberta Milevoj, Iva Nerina Sibila (Inštitut za katastrofo in kaos)
Pomoč pri izbiri glasbe in zvoka * Sound and music advisor: Nenad Hrgetić
Prevod in podnapisi *Translation and subtitles: Aleksandra Mišak
Produkcija in organizacija * Production and organization: Mesto žensk
INFO: www.cityofwomen.org
Dovolj minimalnih pogojev: svet ni globalna bolnišnica– delavnica
Ponedeljek, 7. oktober, 11.00 – 17.00 / Plesni Teater Ljubljana
Torek, 8. oktober, 11.00 – 17.00 / Plesni Teater Ljubljana
Inštitut za katastrofo in kaos (skupina ženskih umetnic znotraj polja performansa in performativnih študij) bo kot del projekta Čudovita, čudovita, čudovita katastrofa organiziral delavnico za 15–20 lokalnih ženskih umetnic, ki bodo s svojimi prispevki v obliki glasbenega, vizualnega, ustnega, t. j. osebnega izraza skupaj z umetnicami omenjenega Inštituta razvijale vsebino in poglabljale raziskovanje sodelujočih umetnic.
O predstavi
»Zdržati minimum ali zahtevati maksimum?«
Še preden smo stopile v plesno dvorano kot avtorice morebitne predstave Čudovita, čudovita, čudovita katastrofa, je nas pet žensk (Selma Banich, Deana Gobac, Nataša Govedić, Roberta Milevoj, Iva Nerina Sibila), vse z zelo različnih področij umetniškega ustvarjanja, predvsem zanimalo, v natanko kakšne okvire vstopamo. Imamo »ključe mesta«, v katerem nastopamo? Komu natančno pripadajo ti ključi institucij? Zakaj imamo vaje lahko samo v zasebnem Plesnem centru Tala, ki se preživlja z organizacijo plesnih tečajev in delavnic, in ne v prostorih, ki jih mestna oblast deklarativno financira, da bi se v njih odvijale umetniške raziskave, resnici na ljubo pa je njihova prioriteta komercialna, pogosto festivalska usmerjenost avtorskega projekta? Naj potemtakem igramo na ulici (ustanovimo Plesni center Zebra), v javni knjižnici, v trgovskem središču, na krajih, ki še vedno veljajo za »skupno dobro«, ali bi se morale držati hierarhične razlage javnih institucij, po kateri pripada ključ mestnega prostora izključno oblasti, nikakor pa ne državljanom?
In ali je treba nadaljevati z delom, vedno znova zdržati, računati predvsem na našo maratonsko vajenost na revščino in minimalne pogoje dela tudi takrat, ko vnaprej vemo, da bo tudi najbolj izzivalna in potencialno odlično sprejeta plesna predstava obsojena na produkcijsko zamiranje že po prvih nekaj izvedbah; preprosto zato, ker neodvisna scena na Hrvaškem še vedno ne zna doseči kakršnekoli repertoarne kontinuitete znotraj strankarske nomenklature mestne in državne oblasti, katere uradniki gledajo na umetnost tako kot na šport. Direktorje kulturne industrije zanimajo sponzorski potenciali posamezne prireditve, zanima jih čim bolje obiskan spektakel, nikakor pa ne raziskovalno, večplastno ali politično »nenormirano« delo. Kaj je v takem kontekstu (in kontekst je vedno polovica umetniškega dela) »naš prostor« in ali moramo skvotirati institucije, v katerih zijajo prazne dvorane, hkrati pa so nemogoča kakršnakoli pogajanja, ki bi jih odprla? Kako to, da je pet žensk z močnimi avtorskimi biografijami odvisnih od prijateljskih vezi z drugimi ženskami, ne pa od podpore institucionalne mreže? V tem je hkrati tudi resnični potencial izvedbe. Navajam izkušnjo Ive Nerine Sibile:
»Odločilen je format predstave. Ne morem več sprejemati gledaliških ali širših umetniških projektov, produciranih tako, da podpirajo politično in ekonomsko nasilje. To je problem, ker se tako izključuje določen segment umetniške proizvodnje, umetnost pa ne more stopicati za spremembami v družbi, temveč jih mora vleči naprej.«
Nasilje običajne identifikacije s ponujenimi modeli izvajanja je tako močno, da smo se malodane neprestano spraševale, ali je sploh mogoče izstopiti iz ideologije izvedbe, ki nas na toliko uigranih načinov sili, da se držimo »prepoznavnega« jezika. Če ima prav Geraldine Harris, ki v svoji študiji feminitet na sceni ne opozarja samo na krutost najpogosteje uporabljenih modelov teatralnosti, temveč tudi na krutost njihovega zanikovanja, je format predstave verjetno najpomembnejša odločitev, ki jo sprejmemo. Povzeto po G. Harris (Staging Femininities: Performance and Performativity, 1999, str. 78):
»Kot so poudarili številni kritiki (vključno s Feral), Brechtova teorija implicitno umešča tako performerja kot avtorja (Brechta) »zunaj«fikcije, v pozicijo »posvečenosti«, ob čemer predpostavlja obstoj stabilne pozicije subjekta, iz katerega potem citiramo lik in reprezentiramo »družbeno resničnost«. Občinstvo se identificira z avtorjem ali igralcem, ki sta postavljena kot poznavalca in objektivna opazovalca družbene resničnosti, pri čemer naj bi bile kontradikcije te resničnosti že razrešene.«
Ta jasen glas je v popolnem nasprotju z neprivilegirano, raziskovalno, akcijsko večslojno izkušnjo avtorske peterke, ki se je združila ob projektu Čudovite, čudovite, čudovite katastrofe. Sam pojem »katastrofe« lahko razumemo kot nekakšen nameren zlom premoči, »posvečenosti«, nadzora in reprezentacijske prepoznavnosti bodisi »družbene resničnosti« bodisi posameznih glasov in teles, ki jo kanalizirajo.
Novi sloj predstave je neprestano vključevanje novih ženskih glasov v izvedbo: zdi se, da je vsem nam, ne glede na to, ali smo šivilje, glasbenice, voznice tramvaja ali profesionalne šepetalke, skupna izkušnja »ponovnega preživetja prejšnjega (golega) preživetja«, pa tudi odpor do kontinuirane redukcije na ustvarjalni minimum, odpor do logike »zgolj še enega stiskanja zob« zaradi nakopičenih političnih katastrof, odpor proti »krčenju« ženske moči na prvo pomoč in oskrbovanje ranjencev.
Tej »globalni bolnišnici« smo se poskušale upreti z vsemi sredstvi, ki jih poznamo, in težiti k ustvarjanju resničnega Mesta žensk, Mesta solidarnosti, mesta poslušanja in spoštovanja medsebojnih strahov, strasti in različnosti. (Nataša Govedić)
Selma Banich je umetnica, aktivistka in srečna gospodinja, ki živi in dela v Zagrebu. Je soustanoviteljica in dolgoletna programska koordinatorka ekscene, nagrajene platforme, namenjene izobraževanju in raziskovanju scenskih umetnosti, ter avtorica in performerka v projektih zagrebške skupine OOUR. Selma Banich je tudi umetniška sodelavka in performerka v projektih reške gledališke skupine Trafik, članica Inštituta za katastrofo in kaos in performerka v projektih čikaške skupine Every House Has a Door. Ko ne dela v gledališču, živi preprosto življenje človeka, ki spoštuje naravo, človeštvo in Web 2.0.
Nataša Govedić doktorirala iz teatrologije na Filozofski fakulteti v Zagrebu. Od leta 1995 dela kot samostojna znanstvenica, kritičarka in predavateljica teatrologije na Centru za ženske študije, Centru za mirovne študije, Akademiji za dramsko umetnost, Pedagoški fakulteti in Filozofski fakulteti v Zagrebu. Je soustanoviteljica in urednica vrste časopisov (med katerimi velja posebej omeniti Zarez), glavna urednica feminističnega časopisa Treća in redna gledališka kritičarka reškega Novega lista. Objavila je devet knjig s področja teatrologije in scenskih umetnosti, kot dramaturginja, kreativna sodelavka ali soavtorica pa je sodelovala pri scenskih projektih z Vilimom Matulo, Branko Trlin, Darkom Japljem, Silvio Marchig in Jasno Vinovrški.
Deana Gobac se je izobraževala na Šoli za klasični balet v Zagrebu, kjer je diplomirala leta 1988. Od 1987 je bila članica baletnega ansambla Hrvaškega narodnega gledališča v Zagrebu, v letih 1995 do 2005 je imela status solistke. Nastopala v celotnem repertoarju in s svojimi vlogami gostovala po Evropi in v ZDA. Deana Gobac danes nastopa v neodvisnih produkcijah Nataše Lušetić, Jasne Frankić, Željka Zorice, Ive Višak. Od leta 2007 je samostojna umetnica in sodeluje s skupino Croatia, v neodvisnih produkcijah in gostuje v Hrvaškem narodnem gledališču.
Iva Nerina Sibila je hrvaška plesna umetnica in kritičarka. Izobraževala se je na Northern School for Contemporary Dance v Leedsu, kjer je leta 1995 tudi diplomirala. Po vrnitvi v Zagreb je aktivna plesalka, performerka, koreografinja, učiteljica in organizatorka. Ker jo zanimata tako plesna kritika kot feminizem, objavlja kritike, eseje in publikacije o različnih temah s področja plesne umetnosti in plesnega poklica. Kot plesalka je trenutno aktivna v različnih projektih (Integrated Movement Research Collective, Inštitut za katastrofo in kaos), poleg tega pa je urednica revije Kretanja, kolumnistka spletnega portala Plesnascena.hr ter kritičarka evropske revije Tanz.
Roberta Milevoj se je po zaključeni srednji šoli poklicno izobraževala na Hrvaškem in po Evropi, kjer je sodelovala v številnih mednarodnih programih in na delavnicah. Od leta 1998 je performerka in plesalka v predstavah številnih uveljavljenih plesnih ansamblov in neodvisnih skupin ter sodeluje z vrsto koreografov in režiserjev. Leta 2005 je začela z avtorskim delom in v tem času podpisala več samostojnih in kolaborativnih predstav, med drugim TRIO (2005), materijal248 (2009), Roberta, Roberta (2011), Rachel&Sonny (2012). Je dobitnica nagrade Hrvaških dramskih umetnikov za najboljšo žensko vlogo v predstavi Nastup (2010) in Produkcijske nagrade 28. Tedna sodobnega plesa za predstavo Roberta, Roberta (2011). Dela tudi kot učiteljica sodobnega plesa. Trenutno živi in dela na relaciji med Puljem in Zagrebom.
Enough of Minimal Conditions: The world is not a global hospital – workshop
Monday, October 7th, 11am – 5pm / Dance Theatre Ljubljana
Tuesday, October 8th, 11am – 5pm / Dance Theatre Ljubljana
The Institute for Disaster and Chaos (a group of female artists in the field of performance and performance studies) will, as a part of A Lovely, Lovely, Lovely Catastrophe, organize a workshop for 15–20 local female artists who will, with their contributions in the form of musical, visual, verbal, i.e. personal, expressions, together with the artists from the above-mentioned institute, develop content and further deepen the research of the participating artists.
About the performance
“Either endure the minimum or demand the maximum?”
Even before we entered the dance hall as the authors of the potential performance A Lovely, Lovely, Lovely Catastrophe, the five of us women (Selma Banich, Deana Gobac, Nataša Govedić, Roberta Milevoj, Iva Nerina Sibila), who all come from very different spheres of artistic creation, were primarily interested in in the exact frameworks that we were getting ourselves into. Do we have the “keys to the city” in which we perform? Who do these institutions’ keys exactly belong to? Why can we rehearse in the private Tala Dance Centre financed through the organisation of dance classes and workshops and not in the facilities declaratively funded by the city authority to provide space for art research that, as a matter of fact, give priority to the commercial, often festival-oriented projects? Should we then dance in the street (to found Zebra Dance Centre), in the public library, in the shopping mall, at places still considered “commons”, or should we conform to the hierarchical interpretation of public institutions claiming that the keys to the city space belong only to the authority and by no means to citizens?
And should we keep on working, endure over and over again, count primarily on being accustomed to our neverending poverty and minimal work conditions even when we know in advance that the production of a potentially most challenging or acclaimed dance performance is going to die after a few performances – simply because the independent scene in Croatia still hasn’t managed to acquire any repertoire continuity within the “party” nomenclature of local and state authorities for whose officials art is pretty much the same as sport? Culture industry managers are only interested in the sponsorship potentials of an individual event, in a spectacle attracting a huge audience and nothing whatsoever in research, multilayer or politically “non-standard” work. In such a context (and context is always a half of an artwork), what is “our space”? And should we squat the institutions with empty halls given the impossibility to negotiate opening them up? How does it come to pass that five women with distinguished art biographies fully depend on friendship relations with other women and not on the support of any institutional network regarding rehearsals and performances? This is, at the same time, the true potential of the performance. This is the experience of Iva Nerina Sibila:
“The performance format is of crucial importance. I can no longer accept theatre or broader art projects produced in a way that supports political or economic violence. This is the problem, because a certain segment of art production is consequently excluded, and art cannot follow blindly changes in a society but rather must incite them.”
The violence of the usual identification with offered models of performance is so strong that we were nearly constantly asking ourselves whether it is even at all possible to step out of a performance ideology that in so many well-coordinated ways forces us to hold on to “recognizable” language. If Geraldine Harris – whose study of staging femininities draws attention not only to the cruelty of the most often used models of theatrical performance but also to the cruelty of challenging them – is right, the performance format is probably the most important decision we make. Harris (Staging Femininities: Performance and Performativity, 1999, p. 78):
“However, as many critics, including Feral, have pointed out, Brecht’s theory implicitly laces both the performer and the author (Brecht) ‘outside’ the fiction in a position of ‘mastery’, mplying the existence of a stable subject position from which to quote the character and ndeed from which to represent ‘social reality’. The audience is then presumed to identify with the author or actor, who are constructed as knowledgeable, objective observers of social reality for whom the contradictions have actually already been resolved.”
This confident voice is totally contrary to the non-privileged, research, action-wise multiple female experience of the authorial quintet that gathered around the A Lovely, Lovely, Lovely Catastrophe project. The very notion of a “catastrophe” can be interpreted as some sort of intentional break of domination, “adeptness”, control and representational visibility, either of the “social reality” or of the individual voices and bodies that channel it.
The new layer of the performance is the constant incorporation of new female voices: all of us, be it dressmakers, musicians, tram drivers or professional prompters, seem to share the experience of “yet another survival of a previous (bare) survival” but also the opposition against this continuous reduction to a creative minimum, the opposition to the logic of “yet another gritting of one’s teeth” because of accumulated political disasters, opposition against the “reduction” of women’s power to first aid and caring for the wounded.
We strived to fight this “global hospital” with all available means, trying to create a true City of Women, a City of Solidarity, a city to listen to and respect mutual fears, passions and differences. (Nataša Govedić)
An artist, activist and happy housewife, Selma Banich lives and works in Zagreb. She is a co-founder and program coordinator of ekscena, a prize-winning platform for education and research in performing arts. She is an author, an artistic collaborator and a performer with OOUR, a Zagreb-based collaborative performance group and Trafik, a Rijeka-based theatre group, a member of the Institute for Disaster and Chaos and a performer with Every House Has a Door, a Chicago-based performance group. When not working in theatre, she lives a simple life of an admirer of nature, mankind and Web 2.0.
Nataša Govedić gained her PhD in Theatrology at the Faculty of Philosophy, Zagreb. Since 1995, she has been working as an independent scholar, critic and teacher at the Centre for Women Studies, the Centre for Peace Studies, the Academy of Dramatic Arts, the University of Pedagogy and the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb. She is a co-founding member of the editorial board of several magazines (including Zarez), editor-in-chief of the feminist magazine Treća, and theatre critic for the Novi list newspaper of Rijeka. She is the author of nine books in the field of theatrology and performance studies, and as a dramaturge, a creative consultant, an author or co-author, she has collaborated on independent theatrical projects with Vitim Matula, Branka Trlin, Darko Japelj, Silvia Marchig and Jasna Vinovrški.
Deana Gobac studied at the School for Classical Ballet in Zagreb, where she graduated in 1988. She was a member of the ballet ensemble of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb from 1987 and a soloist from 1995 to 2005. She danced in the entire repertoire and she toured with her roles in Europe and the United States. She also performs in independent productions by Nataša Lušetić, Jasna Frankić, Željko Zorica and Iva Višak. Deana Gobac has been a freelance artist since 2007, performing with Croatia Group, in independent productions and guest appearing in the Croatian National Theatre.
Iva Nerina Sibila is a Croatian dance artist and dance writer. She trained at the Northern School for Contemporary Dance in Leeds, UK, graduating in 1995. Since returning to Zagreb, she has been active as a dancer, performer and choreographer, and extensively as a teacher and organizer. Following her interest in dance writing and feminism, she has been publishing reviews, essays and publications on various issues considering dance art and the dance profession. As a dancer, she is currently active in various projects (Integrated Movement Research Collective, Institute for Disaster and Chaos) and she is also the editor of Kretanja magazine, a columnist for the Plesnascena.hr web portal and a critic for the European magazine Tanz.
After having finished high school, Roberta Milevoj continued her professional education in Croatia and Europe, participating in a number of international programmes and workshops. She has been a performer and a dancer in the productions of many renowned dance ensembles and independent groups since 1998. She collaborates with various choreographers and directors. Roberta Milevoj started developing her original signature in 2005 and she is the author of several solo and collaborative performances, including TRIO (2005), materijal248 (2009), Roberta, Roberta (2011) and Rachel&Sonny (2012). She received the Croatian Dramatic Artists Award for best female role in the performance Nastup (2010) and the Producers Award of the 28th Dance Week Festival for the performance Roberta, Roberta (2011). She is also a teacher in the field of contemporary dance. She currently lives and works dividing her time between Pula and Zagreb.