Shift

Health. Knowledge. Work. Justice.

Shift moves within the institutions of health, social care and education. Shift performs with and for those who work and live in these institutions. Shift does not invent. Shift is the evidence of the evident. Shift is interested in the potential of everyday life. Shift is a performance practice. It stands where it knows why it stands. Shift aims to extend beyond its own creative medium. Shift triggers interactions in new contexts. Shift is simple. It is physical not technological, it is analogue not digital. Shift considers humour as the most powerful potential of thought.

The basic idea that drives the Shift project is the need to break out of the established creative practice, context, production logic and protocols of contemporary performance art. Art production has become an ideologically integrated practice that presupposes a critical and innovative creator. In principle, the state’s cultural policy supports him through various calls for proposals, in principle he is guaranteed freedom of expression, in principle he is supported in production collaborations – in principle contemporary art has become an integral part of the dominant ideological apparatus. Shift has taken this democratic principality of contemporary statism as a starting point to address systemic gaps in the social norms of health, knowledge, labour and justice in the form of different performance formats in the period 2018-2021.

Shift projects directly address human rights and freedoms, which are derived from the Slovenian Constitution: “In Slovenia everyone shall be guaranteed equal human rights and fundamental freedoms irrespective of national origin, race, sex, language, religion, political, or other conviction, material standing, birth, education, social status, or any other personal circumstance. All are equal before the law.” (Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia, Article 14). In the reality of everyday life, the implementation of this ideal has major and minor problems, visible and invisible slips, agreed exceptions, a wide range of grey areas and even institutionalised violations. We are all aware of this. We talk about it when we can no longer pretend not to see it. And we don’t talk about it when we don’t have to see it. Shift engages in this social climate by evidence of the evident. Through the desire to open up the field of its own creative medium and to trigger interactions between different audiences, performance environments and event participants and performers, Shift aims above all to refresh the record of our democratic disability.

The most important aspect of the Shift cycle is the strategic relocation of the creative process to social, educational and health institutions. This is not only a spatial or contextual shift, but also a shift in positions in the creative process. The role of makers in these shifts is taken up by participants who are in one way or another involved in institutional forms of education or health care. In these settings, the shift facilitators try to create conditions in which the participants can express themselves in the field of contemporary performance art. The shifts that were able to fit into the spaces and schedules of the institutions took place gradually and over a long period of time, several weeks or even months, with the support of professional staff. The final events, with the support of the shift facilitators, took place within the institutions and were not open to the public. The shifts that did not manage to enter the institutions invited participants to workshops that took place in artistic production environments.

Concept and artistic direction
Bojan Jablanovec

Devised and performed by
Loup Abramovici • Tomaž Grom • Mary Anne Blanche • Andrej Fon • Tjaša Črnigoj • Olja Grubić • Rok Kravanja • Anita Wach • Kristina Aleksova • With the support of many collaborators and participants

Coordinator and producer
Špela Trošt

Photo and video documentation
Marcandrea Bragalini • Martina Dervarič • Špela Trošt • Tomaž Grom • Vid Hajnšek • Rok Kajzer Nagode

Co-production
Zavod Sploh

Partners and venues
Social Care Institution Hrastovec • Therapeutic Community Pelikan Institute – Karitas, Ljubljana Sostro • Social Care Institution Home for the Elderly Rakičan • Bunker, Ljubljana • Foundation for Assistance to a Child with Cancer • Social Care Institution Kindergarten Mežica • Primary School Videm pri Ptuju • Španski borci Culture Centre, Ljubljana • Association of Friends of Youth Moste-Polje, Ljubljana • Social Care Institution Vrtec Sežana • +MSUM Ljubljana • Fotopub, Ljubljana • Nova pošta, Ljubljana • Pripovedovalski Festival, Ljubljana