{"id":566,"date":"2019-12-10T08:39:48","date_gmt":"2019-12-10T08:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/?p=566"},"modified":"2022-02-05T13:32:08","modified_gmt":"2022-02-05T13:32:08","slug":"lets-start-love-over-in-belgrade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/20\/lets-start-love-over-in-belgrade\/","title":{"rendered":"Let’s Start Love Over in Belgrade"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tina Peri\u0107<\/strong>*<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bitef (Belgrade International Theatre Festival) in Serbia, 17\u201325, September 2019.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its 53rd edition, Bitef explored the disintegration of the community\u2014both political and social\u2014and the collapse of family and intimate relationships, as well as the possibilities for their renewal. These were deliberate choices, since one could argue that Ivan Medenica, artistic director since 2015, directs the festival as a performance in itself. Indeed, it follows a specific dramaturgical thread\u2014from performances that open difficult, almost irresolvable questions, to those that create the space and tools for approaching the issue from a different angle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will\nconcentrate on this second category, including a particular \u201cprologue\u201d\nperformance, which introduces important formal issues. It is a project\nby Stefan Kaegi and J\u00f6rg Karrenbauer, produced by Rimini Protokoll\n(Germany\/Switzerland) under the generic\nname Remote X<\/em>, which gets reformulated into the name of the town it visits. Remote Belgrade<\/em>, designed specifically\nin and for Belgrade, is conceived as a city walk for\na group of people (roughly 50 \u201cspectators\u201d), guided by the pre-recorded voice of a robot-narrator who speaks to us via headphones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we\nwalk through a graveyard,\ncross the streets, watch the turmoil in a nearby supermarket, or descend into a metro station, the narrator’s\nvoice keeps turning our attention to details that we encounter on our way. It\nencourages us to \u201csmell\u201d the past or the future of certain places, thus\nreminding us constantly of the impermanence of our existence . . . The voice of\nthe narrator is artificial, which induces a\nclear sensation of being in a matrix, monitored and controlled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Participants taking a picture of themselves in a mirror located in one Belgrade park. Photo: Tina Peri\u0107<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The\nconcept of Remote Belgrade<\/em> is very\nprovocative and multilayered: we are both performers and spectators; we are\npresent and conscious, as well as submissive and potentially manipulated; we\nare immersed in our environment but also isolated, not speaking with or\ntouching anyone; some of our senses are strongly engaged, but due to the\nconstant narration and the fast rhythm of the proposals, we are mostly \u201cin our\nown head.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main\nobjective of the performance is to broaden and sharpen our awareness of\ndifferent layers of experience. It is a sort of modern technological happening\nthat abolishes the difference between life and art and underlines the\nperformativity of our daily routine. It is exemplary of so many principles of\ncontemporary aesthetics of performance, including the one according to which\nthe aesthetic achievement is measurable by the intensity of personal\nexperience. In the case of this performance, as often happens, responses were\nvery divergent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A big serpentine tube carried by the performers, and used during the performance as a soft, comfortable plateau. Photo: Danny Willems<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Invited, <\/em>a performance by the Belgian\ncompany Ultima Vez and choreographer Seppe Baeyens, experiments with the same\nprinciples as it slowly and systematically builds connections between\nperformers and spectators, who ultimately melt into one unique space and\naction. The beauty of this performance is in its simplicity. This was by no\nmeans easy to achieve, since we know that it entailed a process of more than a\nyear of preparation and laboratory work. It uses simple, basic actions, such as\nwalking, running, jumping, carrying . . . These are gradually introduced by\nperformers of different ages, who step into the round performance space from a\nserpentine tube, where, while not in action, they are seated along with the spectators. Moments of physical action are\ncombined with those of small encounters. Performers meet spectators through\ncommon points of contact\u2014eyes, hands, shoulders . . . This contact is often not\nso easy to bear, and we actually witness very emotional responses. Step by\nstep, there is increasing action, contact, fusion, finally bursting into a\njoyous dance by all of the participants, with live music. It certainly is a\ncathartic experience! If the disintegration of the community is an indisputable\nfact of our contemporary reality, this performance brings proof that building\nnew communities of equal, open and present individuals is also a realistic\noption. It opens up the question of creating conditions and tools for the\nencounter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Video 1<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
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