Solo performance by Barbara Kukovec
“Richard Wagner, The Valkyrie. Louder. Louder. Louder. And – Boom. The theatre explodes. The walls collapse, he ceiling falls to the ground. But you and I survive. And now – explosions in concentric circles travel further: Zagreb, Venice, Vienna, Rome, Berlin, Madrid, London and Moscow simultaneously – boom. Only you, me and the memory of everything that is gone are left.” The last memory, which Barbara wants to erase form her mind, is a performance “Another Bloody Mary” by Spanish performing artist La Ribot. This memory is the penultimate victim in this story about erasing the boundary between the performance’s subject and the performing of a subject. The last victim in this story is the performer who performs it. Barbara investigates the paradox of live presence in front of a viewer: Live presence can never exist solely as presence for itself; live presence is always a presence for an absence. Barbara becomes a victim of her own vivacity – what she, as a performer, can create is only a memory about what has been created.
Conceived and written by Barbara Kukovec and Bojan Jablanovec
Performer: Barbara Kukovec
Direction, set, light: Bojan Jablanovec
Music: Richard Wagner, The Ride of the Valkyries
Producer: Špela Trošt
Production: Via Negativa, 2009, with the support by Ministry of Culture of Republic of Slovenia and the City of Ljubljana
Premiere: 5 October 2009, The Old Power Station Ljubljana
Duration: 45 min