Marina Gržinić: Rearticulation of the history of performance art
“Incasso is about life, and even more, it is about naked life, a life without form, after each performer’s life is dismantled in front of the audience. The result is a clash between “good and naked life;” both are put to work within the post-fordist global capitalist way of production. What is going on in the process of global capitalist production is that life in itself is the primary source of the labor force of global capitalism. The mode of our submission to the capitalist machine is through precariousness, marginality, and a constant fear for our living standards and the contemporary (im) possibility of fixed forms of labor. The precariousness of life is connected with that of labor, and is the central topic not only of contemporary biopolitics, but also of contemporary theater politics.” (Maska Ljubljana, XX/92-93, 2005)
Piersandra di Matteo: Via Negativa / Incasso
“If the modern spectacle resorting to decoupage and multimedia hybridism accustomed us to visual provocation, eastern theatre tells us anew how to avoid the stage illusion by employing the bona fide power of stage elements that is in the function of reduction to the minimal theatrical gesture. This particularly holds true for the young Slovenian formation Via Negativa which studies the foundations of theatricality and combines performative post-dramatic strategies with traditional stage conventions.” (Artteatro contaminazioni, Exibart 18. 4. 2006)
Valeria Ottolenghi: L’odore dei soldi alla kermesse del Lenz
“This performance, with its investigations, tests the limits, and not just the theatrical ones. It incites laughter and entices smiles. At the same time it brings to awareness the straightforward anxiety that precedes the actual discovery of how very hard it is to live off the creation of art. An old problem, everlasting, and seemingly unsolvable.” (Gazzetta di Parma, October 2005)
Ana Perne: Money as stage material
“The theatrical research of the lust for money, which simultaneously deals with a financial side of the artist and the artefact, is in the so far existing process of Jablanovec’s project the most complete, thought over in the presentation of themes extremely bold in its staging, yet throughout presenting reasons for its actions.” (Finance Ljubljana, 21. 12. 2004)
Blaž Lukan: Nataša and Katarina
“In this amusingly-painful vivisection of one of seven deadly sins, greed, Katarina Stegnar exposes herself – according to the merciless logic of the performance – completely (we could say to the very “blood”) before the spectator and asks him a series of fundamental questions, because of which he suddenly finds himself more naked than she is.” (Delo Ljubljana 29. 12. 2004)
Petra Pogorevc: Staging edges
“Upon entering the theatre, every viewer hands an arbitrary sum of money to Špela Trošt. Banknotes and coins, Tolars and foreign currency even tokens and buttons all go into the cash box in front of her. She then arranges it all, counts it, announces the sum total to the audience and then leaves the total to the performers. These then come onto the set and reach into the till and the bills and coins are subjected to a process that inspectors and lawyers would probably deem arrogant madness or criminal: in most cases the money will be damaged or destroyed, yet will gain a new meaning or worth by participating in the artistic process. Matej Recer ponders his obsession with expensive hobbies for which he has “burnt” huge sums of money: this aged metaphor then receives a literal rendition. Sanela Milošević cleans a bill with cotton wool and alcohol and, having been taught that notes carry germ and disease at home, puts it into her vagina to avoid bacteria. Petra Govc narrates a story of greed brought upon by splitting up a house. To keep her share from her sister, she defiantly marks a pile of bills with urine: “never mind how it looks, it’s the principle that counts.” Mateja Pucko describes a man she only loves for the money; while stuffing her mouth full of bills and coins, saying her wedding vows to the people depicted on them. The performance closes in the spirit of the sale of the burnt, salivated on, torn and urine covered artifacts that the performers bring to the stage in plastic bags, autograph and launch onto the market.” (Sodobnost Ljubljana, no. 1, 2005)