Kulturanova

THEATRE & DANCE

Views: Personal histories of Serbs and Albanians (2010)

"Views: Personal histories of Serbs and Albanians" (View from my window) is a project which aims at enabling Albanians and Serbs to tell their life stories to each other: stories from the past and from the present, always told from a subjective perspective. We believe that a great deal of misunderstanding, distrust and hate between Serbs and Albanian is based on generalized perceptions of the other ethnic group which creates prejudices and keeps them alive. If on the opposite the stories are clearly marked as subjective, it expresses, that a story from one side can be true, even if the other tells a story which is different. In this way both sides are able to accept and listen to the stories of the other. This project is aiming at involving especially young people. Telling these stories and listening to them will be done in two different forms: oral history interviews and a trinational theater play.

The cultural communication between Kosovo and Serbia in the last 20 years has been stalled. The project aims at exploring our history through personal stories and testimonials of ordinary people and to create a theatre play that will reflect the relations between Albanians and Serbs; differences and similarities. Children and youth used to be educated through a certain history and art that drew its inspiration from wars and battles between people, an art with a patriotic spirit, which inspired and cultivated hatred and the call for revenge. The bloody wars in the Balkans are the aftermath of a very complicated previous conflict, a conflict that artists failed to make all efforts needed to prevent it. This maybe is out of the reach of art, while, on the other hand, this is the mission of art as a reflection of the present and as a vision of future. We propose a project where young people in collaboration with experts from the field of culture and theory of art take the critical approach to our “under construction” identities. The project partners believe that 10 years in the aftermath of the war in Kosovo, it is time to give the world a success story of fruitful cooperation between artists from Kosovo and Serbia, a cooperation which yields positive results and that should be treated as an example by others.

The project will be implemented in a time when Kosovo and Serbia are expected to be candidates for EU accession. The implementation of this project under these specific conditions may facilitate the relaxation of the Albanian-Serbian relations as well as create a debate platform about these relations. If this assumption proves to be true, the spillover effect may be intensified communication and cooperation on the two sides of the border.

Quanta (2009)

"Quanta", by italian performing artist Nhandan Chirco, is the further step of research that started with "Mislim Reku" performance on the same concept with an international team of artists, with the participation of the Slovenian dancer and choreographer Mala Kline, of the Serbian performing artist Branko Popovic and with the collaboration of Serbian electronic musicians Milan Aleksić and Igor Lečić. The performance “Quanta” deals with the movement and breath stream, its waves and vibrations in the female-performer’s bodies, and it deals with the flow of conscience, stream of images, sensations and movements. Choreography and scenic languages are challenged by a non-theatrical approach to the performers “presence” in which the aim is a self exploration, a freedom - the freedom also of accepting limitations - comprehending the whole span of possible manifestations, from the daily gestures to the attempt of conquering an utopist integrated body, non representative, un-educated, un-divided. http://streamlineproject.blogspot.com/

Created / performed by: Nhandan Chirco (Italy), Mala Kline (Slovenia). Photo by: Maruša Bertoncelj.

Mislim reku performance (2008)

"Mislim reku / I think river"-performance, Novi Sad, 2008. Site-specific study for a dance performance. An inner and an outer voice echoing along the urban sections of the river. Lines conceived in the intimacy of a poet's room. Stranger's gaze sliding across the water as he passes by. The river. A flow of images. A being to live with for a lifetime. A coagulum of our past and present bleeds. A substance that fuels the e-motions. A mental space overflowed with symbols in dreams. A bridge between the near bank and the far bank, familiar side and strange side, known front and unknown front. Being both the riverbed and the river-flow. Looking at once from the bank and from the boat. Dancing the river's dangerous playfulness. Based on fragments of the book "Miroslav Mandić" by Miroslav Mandić, and fragments from the text "The freedom bridge – out and about in Novi Sad" by Horst Widmer (Austria).

Concept / directing: Nhandan Chirco (Italy), Photo: Nikola Bradonjić

Mislim Reku / I think river performance from Kulturanova on Vimeo.

Second Life project (2007)

Project 'Second life' is an international artistic project with educational dimension run by performing arts groups in collaboration with cultural institutions in Kosovo, Serbia and Slovenia. This project, based on a contemporary drama and it's interaction with virtual world, (especially Second Life, abbreviated as SL) aims to examine the issues like alienated communication, "internal migration" among the people in the region and our notion about "the others". Further information on "Second Life" project.

Second Life project 2007 from Kulturanova on Vimeo.

Urban art spaces (2006)

August / September 2006. The Urban Art Spaces / Let's make spaces for art. The project had the idea to explore, compare and promote the use unconventional spaces for cultural events. The project consisted of research, seminars and workshop series that led to the production of an event in one of the abandoned venue of Novi Sad (in particular the space of the old “Turkish bath”, in which we have already realized series of successful actions). Project partners were ARCI (Rome), Youth Cultural Center Abrašević (Mostar) and Kulturanova (Novi Sad).