3 - 8 / 10 / 2017
Filodrammatica (Korzo 28, Rijeka)
OKC Palach (Kružna 8, Rijeka)
Eighth edition of performing arts festival Zoom presents the always compelling UK Live Art scene
The iconic British cabaret diva Ursula Martinez ⇒ will perform her world-famous stand-up character comedy My Story, Your Emails, while Marisa Carnesky ⇒ arrives to Rijeka with Dr. Carnesky’s Incredible Bleeding Women, exploring the significance of menstruation, fertility and the question of what it means to be ‘female’ in modern society. London’s own legendary anti-drag queen David Hoyle ⇒ will present his latest cabaret Escape from Opression – live in Rijeka. Multi-disciplinary “artivist” Shabnam Shabazi ⇒ will treat us with her new immersive durational performance Snail Portret, that will turn Filodrammatica into a temporary home for about three hundred snails.
The festival program will be enriched with the performance of Mefisto, a play by Damir Avdić ⇒ which transfers the topic of Faust’s pact with the Devil to the local socio-political reality. Presented by Ivana Ivković, Ivan Marušić Klif, Phil Hession i Christian Cherene, ⇒ the festival will be concluded with Atlas of Tremors, a performance that was developed in the framework of intercultural artists’ platform Corners.
PROGRAM
My Stories, Your Emails
Ursula Martinez
Tuesday, 3/10/2017, at 20h
Filodrammatica (Large Hall), Korzo 28/1, Rijeka
Entry fee: 20 kuna
Photo: Stephany Štefan / Drugo more (Flickr gallery)
In 2006, a recording of Ursula Martinez’s infamous magic/striptease act Hanky Panky was posted on the Internet, without her permission. The clip very quickly went ‘viral’ and Ursula was inundated with emails from fans and admirers all over the world. This was the inspirational catalyst for her show. As the title suggests, My Stories, Your Emails is in two sections. In the first section Martinez recounts real stories and experiences from her life. In the second section she relays some of the unsolicited emails sent to her by strangers. Juxtaposing Martinez’s true stories, with the fantasies expressed by her admirers, ‘My Stories, Your Emails’ highlights the disparity between the real person and the iconised public figure. It also questions what happens to an artist’s work when it is placed in the wrong context, and becomes available to anyone who has access to the Internet.
Throughout the show Martinez assumes the voices and personalities of the diverse characters she introduces; from family members very close to her, to men she has never met offering their hand in marriage. From this wider perspective the show is not about Ursula at all, but about ordinary people, human interaction, miscommunication and the internet.
Video report, Moja Rijeka web-portal (author Sanja Kapidžić)
“Hanky Panky” is not performed live during the show, however the aforementioned video clip is shown during the performance. The show contains non-sexual live nudity, graphic sexual images and strong language.
The show combines stand-up, live art and character comedy. Following sell-out seasons around the world including The Barbican (London), Sydney Opera House, Brighton International Festival and La Fondation Cartier (Paris) Olivier Award-winning performance provocateur Martinez, invites you to meet the ordinary and extraordinary characters in her life and in her inbox.
Written and performed by Ursula Martinez
Directed by Mark Whitelaw
Mefisto
Damir Avdić i Grega Zorc
Wednesday, 4/10/2017, at 20h
Filodrammatica (Large Hall), Korzo 28/1, Rijeka
Entry fee: 20 kuna
Photo: Stephany Štefan / Drugo more (Flickr gallery)
It is two thousand and sixteen. The world is coming to an end. God has retreated. There is nobody left to direct Faust. Mephisto walks into a bar …
Avdić’s Mephisto does not attempt to bring down stereotypes of mythical excitement about two poles, nor does it attempt to establish them. In fact, it does not attempt anything. It enters the story of life of the human and divine spirit of protagonists directly and uncompromisingly. These protagonists are Damir Avdić and Grega Zorc. Mephisto and God. Patient and psychiatrist. Director and artist.
Mephisto, a fine member of society, has preserved his sense of humour despite great preoccupations with work. Of course, he is to blame for everything. For illness. Conspiracy. Manipulation. Nonsense. Absurd. Surrender. Revolution. Anarchy. Capitalism. Performance. Me. Him. … He is, however, no longer sure about his supremacy. And this is what breaks him.
So he walks into a bar where he asks a mason to sell him his soul. He wants to get on his feet and ask God and man a few essential questions. Because both have to know the answers. Because man is God and God is man. From the surgery …
Video report, Moja Rijeka web-portal (author Emilija Sekulić)
Insofar as you lean too far to one or the other side of anything, insofar as you think that we need to communicate important things and foster an idea about the possibility of accurate transfer of information, insofar as you believe in the meaningfulness of relationships of human, divine or material nature, we ask you to see all that you are about to view today as a mere story, fiction that does not concern you personally in any way.
Text and direction: Damir Avdić
Music: Damir Avdić
Light design and technical supervision: Janko Oven
Costume: Grega Zorc
Professional advisor: Barbara Krajns
Graphic design: Ajdin Bašić
Production manager and executive producer: Tina Dobnik
Production: Maska
Co-production: Mini teater, Desiré, Central Station International/Regional Theatre Festival & Pozorište “Kosztolányi Dezső” (Subotica, RS)
Snail Portret
Shabnam Shabazi
Thursday, 5/10/2017, 17 – 20h
Filodrammatica (Gallery), Korzo 28/1, Rijeka
Free entry
Photo: Tanja Kanazir / Drugo more (Flickr gallery)
Snail Portrait is a new immersive durational work combining performance, visuals, text and installation
Taking inspiration from personal history, memories, key social and historical moments, and nature, Snail Portrait finds parallels to the life of a snail. In Persian there is a specific phrase: “Khane be doosh“… ‘home on your back’. Exploring how the past is always present, a moment of memory that recurs, returns to haunt you, no escape…and exploring the tensions and borders between movement and stillness. Shabnam Shabazi continues her ongoing investigation into notions of ‘home’. This time creating an aural and visual ‘listening room’, shedding light on what it means to be without a permanent location or abode.
Video report, Moja Rijeka web-portal (author Damir Jevtić)
Shabnam Shabazi is a multi-disciplinary ‘artivist,’ a maker and enabler of creative projects. Her work is autobiographical and archival. Exploring notions of home, place, displacement, identity and the body. Recent and ongoing research includes exploring the idea of the body as a house and investigating stories from ourselves, stories from within. The interstices and intersections between art forms and cultures animate her practice. Committed to a ’without walls’ approach. Interested in site-specific work and subverting use of existing spaces.
Dr. Carnesky’s Incredible Bleeding Women
Marisa Carnesky’s Menstrual Mystery Tour 2017
Friday, 6/10/2017, at 20h
Filodrammatica (Large Hall), Korzo 28/1, Rijeka
Entry fee: 20 kuna
Photo: Jadranka Lacković / Drugo more (Flickr gallery)
A provocative, rigorously researched, untamed romp through Dr Marisa Carnesky’s PHD research into the significance of menstruation in modern culture. Alongside a cast of extraordinary women from UK’s alt-cabaret and live art scene, Carnesky reinvents menstrual rituals for a new era drawing on the hidden power of a forgotten matriarchal past. This eclectic group of women met regularly on Dark Moons – the birth of the birth of the new moon – over many months to research the lore of menstruation, to enact ritual, and to create performance. The resulting research is presented by Dr Carnesky, who uses the form of a performance-lecture that is both serious and tongue-in-cheek at one and the same time, interspersed with contemporary sideshow vignettes that celebrate and subterfuge the popular theatre, circus and cabaret traditions of the show-woman making a spectacle of herself.
This show sees Marisa continuing in her lifelong quest to use sideshow, magic and popular entertainment forms to explore serious subjects. Here, not only menstruation and menstrual rights but also female body shame, what it means to be ‘female’, issues around fertility, and the lost ancient herstories are scrutinised, politicised & reclaimed. Delivered with wry humour, revolutionary politics and spectacular performances including breathtaking reworks of traditional magic illusions, sword swallowing, hair hanging, and expressionist cabaret, this unique show has attracted both personal & professional praise since the very first performance.
Featuring performed rituals from collaborating artists Fancy Chance, Rhyannon Styles, MisSa Blue, H Plewis, Nao Nagai, Priya Mistry and Molly Beth Morossa.
Age recommendation 16+
Written and conceived by Marisa Carnesky
Menstrual rituals created and performed by: Nao Nagai, Fancy Chance, MisSa Blue, H. Plewis, Rhyannon Styles
Dramaturges: Kira O’Reilly & Florence Peake
Lighting Designer: Marty Langthorne
Costume Designer: Claire Ashley
Lighting and Technical Assistance: Nao Nagai
Photographer: Sarah Ainslie
Film: Claire Lawrie, Tom Cottey & Nao Nagai
Magic Consultant: Tom Cassani
Associate Producers: Lara Clifton, Dicky, Eton
Producer: Flora Herberich
Stage Managers: Natacha Poldecia & Sarah Morris.
Escape from Opression, live in Rijeka
David Hoyle
Saturday, 7/10/2017, at 20h
Filodrammatica (Large Hall), Korzo 28/1, Rijeka
Entry fee: 20 kuna
Foto: Jadranka Lacković / Drugo more (Flickr gallery)
The sensational anti-drag queen David Hoyle presents a very special performance. Expect polemic, pathos, provocative politicking and high comedy.
Hoyle came to prominence in the 1990s as the Divine David, a kind of anti-drag queen whose lacerating social commentary – targeting both bourgeois Britain and the materialistic-hedonistic gay scene, which he called “the biggest suicide cult in history” – was offset by breathtaking instances of self-recrimination and even self-harm. Following a couple of outré late-night Channel 4 shows and a cameo in Velvet Goldmine, Hoyle killed the Divine David off during a spectacular show at the Streatham Ice Arena in 2000 and retreated to Manchester for “a period of reflection”. He returned to TV screens in 2005 in Chris Morris’s Nathan Barley, then began performing live again, under his own name. This time round, the chances of serious injury in any given show seemed greatly reduced, but Hoyle’s biting satire, bravura costumes, wicked comic timing and compelling charisma remained intact. As well as the Royal Vauxhall Tavern (RVT), with which he is most closely associated, he’s performed at the Soho Theatre, Chelsea Theatre, Battersea Arts Centre, National Portrait Gallery, Tate Britain and Victoria & Albert Museum.
Hoyle is back, all right.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hoyle
Atlas of Tremors
Ivana Ivković, Ivan Marušić Klif, Phil Hession & Christian Cherene
Sunday, 8/10/2017, at 20h
OKC Palach, Kružna 8, Rijeka
Entry fee: 20 kuna
Foto: Jadranka Lacković / Drugo more (Flickr galerija)
Taking as its central motif the contemporary computers’ predecessor, the Jacquard weaving loom, the performance Atlas of Tremors confronts live sung folk song with digital sound processing. The Jacquard weaving loom was a 19th century technological advancement – a mechanical machine whose weaving patterns were programmed by means of punched cards, an instrument that would shape both the industrial age and the development of computers in modern times.
Starting from a selection of songs composed and sung first by handloom linen weavers and later by textile mill workers, Atlas of Tremors reflects the transformations of labor and local communities as production of textile transitions from a man’s craft into the industrial age factories powered by steam and labor of women and children, only to close down across Europe in our own age.
Co-produced by: POGON – Zagreb Center for Independent Culture and Youth & Arts Council of Northern Ireland
This project is a part of the CORNERS platform. CORNERS is an intercultural artists’ platform designed and driven by a partnership of cultural institutions at the edges of Europe.