Publication Edge in the center: Selected chapters on experimental theatre in Slovenia 1955 – 1967 will be presented by its author, mag. Primož Jesenko, editor Gašper Malej and Ivo Svetina. The publication will be published in the collection Documents of the Slovenian Theatre Institute. Admission is free.
Book The Edge in the Center: Selected Chapters from the History of Experimental Theatre in Slovenia 1955–1967 stems from the realization of the intertwining of institutional and extra-institutional activity during the development ofThe history of Slovenian theatre after 1950, when it was fed by creative currents outside Slovenia and Yugoslavia. It shows the dialectic of developmental changes that were not only predicted and realized by visiting theatres from Europe (which became regular after 1955), but also by the activities of agile individuals who, with their broad-mindedness and non-conformist personality, broadened the horizons – namely by drawing attention to genre and stylistic approaches that were already established abroad, such as theatre in the circle or the introduction of choreographed movement into stage expression.
"Through stories about the artistic organisms of the experimental theatres of Balbina Baranovič (Experimental Theatre, Youth Theatre), Draga Ahačič (Ad hoc Theatre) and Odra 57, as well as other factors (Student Current Theatre, Workers' Theatre, Experiment in Drama, Side Entrance by Jurij Souček, etc.), Jesenko's book also becomes a detailed insight into an important segment of the history of Slovenian theatre. The author forms a sharp and fruitful theorized-historical view of Slovenian theatre, culture and society of this period, as reflected through the experiments with experimental theatre of the central protagonists of his research." Dr. Tomaž Toporišič
"While focusing on the context, Jesenko also pays due attention to the aesthetic characteristics of experimental theatre, draws attention to the close intertwining of aesthetics with the spatial location of the experiment, consolidates the difference between the avant-garde and the experimental, and in the introduction even develops a convenient theory of the experimental(l), which then helps him in assessing both experimental phenomena or groups and their manifestations or performances..." dr. Blaž Lukan
Primož Jesenko (*1975) is a dramaturg, theatrologist and researcher at the Slovenian Theatre Institute. He holds a master's degree from the AGRFT at the University of Ljubljana; his study Dramaturgical Concepts in Slovenian Theatre 1950–1970 was published in 2008; Svobodne roke, an anthology of theoretical thought on Slovenian theatre (co-edited with B. Lukan), in 2012. Since 2004 he has been the editor for theatre at the monthly magazine Dialogi. He publishes in theatre anthologies and book editions (author of the foreword to the Slovenian edition of Sarah Kane's work, etc.). He participated in several research projects (TACE – Occupying Spaces: Experimental Theatre in Central Europe; SGM; Staging the Visual, Staging Life, Mask Ljubljana, …) and in international colloquia, festivals and exhibitions (Exodos Ljubljana, 2006-2008; Performing Revolution, New York, 2009, a series of events marking the twentieth anniversary of Jan Lauwers' Needcompany group, etc.). In 2012 and 2013, he was the selector of the Borštnik Meeting.
