Amfiteater Journal of Performing Arts Theory
International Academic Symposium
Connecting Avant-Gardes and Theatre: How to Revolutionise the Relationship between the Periphery and the Centre
9-11 October 2024
Slovenian Theatre Institute, Ljubljana
The UL AGRFT research group is together with the scientific journal Amfiteater, the Slovenian Theater Institute and the Slovenian Society of Aesthetics, within the framework of the UL AGRFT research program Theatrical and Interartistic Research (P6-0376), prepared an international scientific symposium in which more than 25 foreign and domestic experts and artists will participate. The aim of the symposium will be to map the various geographical and historical attempts to revolutionize the relationship between the periphery and the center in Europe and beyond. First during the historical avant-garde of the 1920s, then the neo-avant-garde of the 1960s and 1970s, the post-avant-garde at the turn of the millennium, and finally the contemporary radical stage practices after the turn of the millennium. We will check whether, in different national, political and aesthetic contexts, neo-avant-garde, post-avant-garde and contemporary engaged art have revived some basic ideas of constructivist, futurist, expressionist, surrealist, suprematist and other utopian visions.
Some of the topics that we will be addressing:
• How do we conceptualise the European theatrical avant-garde from today’s perspective?
• In what ways have avant-gardes resisted the asymmetry of international artistic forces and revolutionised the relationship between periphery and centre, both historically and in contemporary contexts?
• What is the current state of research on Eastern European and Central European avant-gardes?
• Has the map of European theatrical avant-gardes shifted significantly in recent decades? How and to what extent?
• What about the autonomy of art in the relationship between the avant-garde and society?
• How are the aesthetic avant-gardes connected to social movements as well as the past, present and future?
We invite theatre researchers, practitioners, students, and interested individuals to join us in sharing their perspectives at the international academic symposium that will take place in Ljubljana. The working languages of the symposium will be Slovenian and English.
Wednesday, 9 October 2024
1:30 p.m.: Opening of the symposium
prof. M.Sc. Žanina Mirčevska, Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television, University of Ljubljana
Gašper Troha, PhD, Slovenian Theatre Institute
14:00
Plenary lecture
Aleksandra Jovićević: Where Do You Come From?
14.40: discussion
15.00: coffee break
15.15
First session
Moderator: Gašper Troha
Hanna Veselovska: From Generation to Generation: Avant-garde and Neo-Avant-garde Visionaries of the Ukrainian Theatre
Kristina Pranjic: Decentring the Avant-Garde and the Yugo-Dada Network
Mojca Puncer: The Noordung Project and the Care of Avant-Garde Heritage: Changing the Relationship Between Periphery and Centre
16.15: discussion
16.30: coffee break
17.00
Second session
Moderator: Maja Murnik
Valentina Chechyk: Avant-Garde Scenography of Ukraine: Vadym Meller’s Version
Narvika Bovcon, Aleš Vaupotič: Did the Avant-Garde Become Materialised in New Media? Techno-Performance and Socialisation
Tery Žeželj: Ephemeral Practices of the Periphery: Bogdanka Poznanović’s Artistic Practice and Networking Through the Perspective of the River
17.40: discussion and coffee break
18:00–18:45
Panel: book presentation
Polona Tratnik (ed.): The European Avant-Garde – A Hundred Years Later (Brill, 2024)
Thursday, 10 October 2024
09.30
Plenary lecture
Dariusz Kosiński: Performing a Hermitage: Jerzy Grotowski’s Tactics of Periphery-Centre Policy
10.10: discussion
10.20: Book presentation:
Dariusz Kosiński (ed.): A Lexicon of the Central-Eastern European Interwar Theater Avant-Garde (Performance Research Books, 2024)
10.45: coffee break
11:00 a.m
Third session
Moderator: Tomaž Toporišič
Lada Čale Feldman: Exalted Periphery: The Confusing Case of the Lero Student Theatre in Dubrovnik, Croatia
Valentina Hribar Sorčan: Atmosphere in Avant-Garde Theatre
Ana Kocjančič: The Reflections of Modern Art Movements and Theatrical Historical Avant-Gardes in the Scenography of Vasily Ulyanischchev at the Professional Theatres in Slovenia
12.00: discussion
12.15–13.30: coffee break
1:30 p.m
Fourth session
Moderator: Barbara Orel
Maja Murnik: The Issue of Space in Post-Avant-Garde Art: A Discussion of Several Examples
Nika Leskovšek: Towards War and Violence and Away: A Violent Echoing of the (Historical) Avant-Gardes in Yugoslav Performing Arts and Their Alternatives in Feminist Performance Art
Knut Ove Arntzen: From the Historical to the Post-Avant-Garde in Norway and Scandinavia, 1920–2010
14.30: discussion
15.00: coffee break
15.15
Fifth session
Moderator: Gašper Troha
Barbara Orel: Fran Žižek’s Independent Theatre: A Dialogue with the Prague Avant-Garde
Nenad Jelesijević: The Avant-Garde Exotic
Only Oleami: How We Went Looking for the Neo-Avant-Garde and Missed It
16.15: discussion
16.30: coffee break
17.00
Sixth session
Moderator: Aldo Milohnić
Darko Strajn: Discontinuity, Disruption and Subversion as Theatrical Gestures
Lela Angela Mršek Bajda: The Avant-Garde and Subculture in the Subversion of the Periphery and the Centre
Gasper Troha: Peter Božič and the Question of the Authentic Theatrical Avant-Garde in Slovenia in the Second Half of the 20th Century
18.00: discussion
18.30: coffee break
19.00: final discussion of the second day
Friday, 11 October 2024
09.30
Plenary lecture
Tomaž Toporišič: How to Revolutionise the Periphery-Centre Relationship: Three Historical Avant-Garde Cycles Between East, West, South and North
10.10: discussion
10.30: coffee break
10:45 a.m
Seventh session
Moderator: Jakob Ribič
Kristof Jacek Kozak: The Fatal Woman of Slovenian Dramatic Modernism
Sanita Duka: Flânerstvo as a strategy for transmitting the revolutionary ideas of the avant-garde: the creative co-authorship of Asja Lācis and Walter Benjamin
Petra Ježková: Scrapbook of One of Them as an Original Source of Research on the Czech Theatrical Avant-Garde
Aldo Milohnić: Václav Vlček, Lidija Wisiak and Prampolini's futuristic theater
12.00: discussion
12.30: final discussion of the symposium
Arhivski video posnetki simpozija
Head of the symposium: Tomaž Toporišič
Organising committee: Tomaž Toporišič, Gašper Troha, Polona Tratnik, Aldo Milohnić, Barbara Orel and Maja Murnik.
The symposium is organised by:
Slovenian Theatre Institute (SLOGI) is a national public institution founded in 2014 as the legal successor of the National Theatre Museum of Slovenia, founded in 1952. SLOGI focuses on continuing the evolution of theatre culture at the national level and on raising awareness of theatre’s role and importance in developing society and individuals. SLOGI engages in collecting, preserving, documenting, researching, examining, interpreting, promoting and presenting Slovenian theatre culture, its heritage and contemporary theatre arts, both at the national and international levels.
Academy for Theatre, Radio, Film and Television of the University of Ljubljana (UL AGRFT) performs educational, artistic and research work in the fields of theatre, radio, film and television. From its founding in 1945 to 1975, it operated as an independent higher education institution with a rector and then became a member of the University of Ljubljana.
Amfiteater – Journal of Performing Arts Theory is a scientific journal that publishes original articles on performing arts, covering a broad spectrum of subjects, including dramatic theatre, drama, dance, performance, and hybrid art forms. Authors can analyse the forms and content of artwork and art phenomena from the field of performing arts, their history, their present and their future, as well as their relationship to other art forms and broader (social, cultural, political …) contexts.
Slovenian Society of Aesthetics was established in 1983. The organisation focuses on research into avant-garde formations in culture, its main theoretical references. It is a member of the International Association for Aesthetics (IAA/AIE) and organises regular international colloquia.
The symposium is organised in cooperation with the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television, University of Ljubljana (UL AGRFT) within the framework of the research programme Theatre and Interart Studies (project no. P6-0376), co-financed by the Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency (ARIS) from the state budget.