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lose their agency, during the process or during the performance. Essential for performing is improvisation that is based on inner repositories, which the spectator can also clearly recognise, since movements, as well as general expressions, are specific to each individual performer. For me it is important that the performers on stage can take full responsibility for the material they perform. In my works, performativity is often one of the strongholds of the performance. The set-up is mainly minimal, and I’m trying to clear the choreographic structure of all the superfluous and unimportant elements so as not to lose the focus on the performers’ performativity. The minimalist set up also makes the choreographic structure, as well as all the choreographic layers through which the performers travel during the performance, visible.
I.S..: I find it interesting that in 'Temporary Exposition / Catch 22' the individual opposes bureaucratic mechanisms, in which collectivity is exposed as negative, whereas in Ensemble you examine collectivity as handed down by the socialist regime, where a high value is placed on collective
action and collective creation.
J.L.V.: In 'Temporary Exposition', I see the bureaucratic system as an apparatus in which collectivity serves the bureaucratic machinery and operates in the interest of the State. In 'Ensemble', I’m dealing with a very different notion of collectivity. Here, a group of artists works together not only to make the ensemble function, but also in the interest of each individual working in the ensemble. There are constant discussions among the members of the ensemble, before any decision is taken. In Zagreb there are not many ensembles left in contemporary dance, and it seems to have become almost an archaic form. But I find it very valuable that it still exists, as it resists the capitalist modes of producing art. But I find it very valuable thing that it still exist, cause its resisting the capitalist modes of producing art. A return to such artistic structures is in a way a return to the beginnings of modern dance in the 20th century, since all the currents at the time emerged from
collectives or groups, among which the individual names we know and praise today as pioneers were established. In Berlin I truly felt a strong individualisation of artists, whereby many artists get enclosed in their own aesthetics and cultivate relationships with art institutions rather than with their art community. This is something that is also supported very much by the art market, that looks for singular names, out of which it can easily create value.
In our most recent collaborations with Public in Private, we ask ourselves the question how we could open up to the collective without losing individuality, without compromising ourselves, and how to, within a collective, continue to follow one’s ideas and goals. We started a company in which we create individually and collectivity is realised through constant feedback; we evolve as artists who are on a similar path but in constant exchange. This exchange follows individual development and is visible in the company structure.
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