The Line

The Route of the Upcoming Uprising

(Luka Jovanov)

“Radicalism in the Western Hemisphere is significant only as an aesthetic attitude, perhaps as a philosophical habitus, but no longer as a political style.” Peter Sloterdijk

The conceptual starting point of the performance The Line is formed by two elementary building blocks: the philosophy of the praxists (named after the magazine Praxis, published in Zagreb from 1964 to 1974) and the socio-political background of the student protests in Belgrade (from November 2024 to November 2025). The reflection of the intersection of these two elements forms the conceptual basis for The Line –  as that line which marks certain boundary or dividing line that we as a civil society must cross in our efforts for the democratic development of society. And when we succeed (if we succeed), our straightforward civic consciousness demands that we create the next dividing line that we will not allow ourselves to cross, because we simply have no other tool, model, or vision to operate as a society without some particular limitation – without a line.

It is a question of the emergence of an authoritarian system. Does the dominant current of today’s left, with its autonomy and anarchism, actually support or undermine the current era of neoliberalism? The authoritarian system can be explained as a state in which society is not based on universal values. Socialism crossed the line into an authoritarian system by arguing that socialist theory is a scientific truth realised on the basis of universal values, and by denying freedom of speech, it did not allow any criticism of this dogma. Neoliberalism crosses the line into authoritarianism in a different way – by claiming that there are no universal values, only particular ones. In this way, neoliberal authoritarianism draws numerous lines based on the very idea of separation: everyone should look after themselves; everyone is free to hold their own opinion if they so wish. Private or party interest is established as the dominant social norm.

The student movement was born with the idea of ​​defending against such irrational levers of action. These levers are evident in technocratic claims that there is a single rational solution to every individual problem, which implies that anyone who does not agree with this solution is irrational. Similar to this is the populist claim that there is only one genuine popular will, which means that anyone who disagrees with this will is a traitor to the people. In this technocratic-populist dynamic, there is no room for democratic dialogue based on argumentation and the exchange of ideas. In an impoverished democratic discourse, the political game becomes a contest between only two options. Discourse is reduced to simplified forms of belonging/participation – I agree or I disagree, I’m in or I’m out, I participate or I don’t. What both sides have in common in this competition is the view that there is no alternative.

This fact is the trigger for the conceptual decisions that drive the performance The Line. The audience participates in the formation of a community, without a clear knowledge of what kind of community it is building – as long as there is an internal need and the dynamics of the crowd that maintain this community – together we cross the line that we have defined as a border, as a demarcation. The performance poses the question: Do we as a people exist only in a situation of emotionally high-octane events, while in the context of rational decisions we disintegrate into individuals? The Line aims to create a space for raising awareness of our personal responsibility for the decisions we make – decisions that are presented to us as the only possible ones. Is there a way out of this cycle? Is it possible to overcome the procedures that obscure the essence – that a democratically elected master is, after all, still just a master?

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The Line

2026
Emancipatory performance • 60 min

Concept, text and performance — Luka Jovanov
Performance dramaturgy — Bojan Jablanovec
Producer — Špela Trošt
Production — Via Negativa

The project is conceived at Via Negativa’s performance art laboratory VN Lab 2025 and the performance art research platform PARL 2025.

Luka Jovanov (1995) graduated in theatre directing from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. He works as a performer, director and playwright. He participates in theatre and dance projects, having directed, among others, at the Bitef Theatre in Belgrade (Pascal Rambert: Love’s End) and the Sartr Theatre in Sarajevo (Teodora Marković: Transformation: The Genesis of a Decline).