Via Negativa

Platform for research, education and production of contemporary performance art

Transgressive performance practices

Via Negativa is a platform open to all artists working on the fringes of various performance practices, crossing their boundaries and reintegrating them into a field of unexpected, unmarked and unconventional artistic formats. VN productions are mostly conceived in the Via Negativa laboratory for contemporary performance arts, the VN Lab, where we focus on the development of different performance strategies, production models and creative processes, with an emphasis on the liveliness of performance formats.

The Via Negativa platform was conceived in 2002 out of the need to explore the meaning, significance and reasons for the existence of theatre at the turn of the millennium. In twenty years of conceptually sharpened activity, it has emerged as one of the key players in the “production of contemporaneity” in Slovenia and in the broader European context of contemporary performance art. Through its long-term cycles, VN has marked important shifts in the field of creative practices, performance strategies and the production model of contemporary performance practice.

VN’s performance formats are very heterogeneous and cross the fields of different performance practices such as performance, theatre, dance, lecture, concert, video, installation, intervention, etc. Via Negativa has been operating continuously since 2002 and is based in Ljubljana. The platform is led by producer Špela Trošt and artistic director Bojan Jablanovec.

Creative field
The body as a territory of ideological manipulation, instrumentalisation and aestheticization is the primary means of expression of the VN. The creative field of VN is reduced to basic performance elements and focused on the relationship between performer and viewer, which is considered as a complex flow of attitudes, expectations, stereotypes, prejudices, tolerance or intolerance, knowledge or ignorance… The primary creative tool of VN is the performative “here and now”. The creative process of VN imposes an imperative on the maker to answer the question of why he stands in front of the viewer with his statement, with his body and with his meaning.

VN’s production imperative is a continuous research of performance formats, strategies and creative processes. Conceptual, contextual and methodological guidelines are traced through production cycles, which usually take place over an extended period of time. Three major cycles, which form the core of VN’s production from 2002 to 2022, have been particularly important in shaping VN’s creative practice, performance strategies and production model: Seven Deadly Sins (2002-2008), Via Nova (2009-2012) and Irresolvable (2011-2022).
The name
The term “via negativa” comes from negative theology, which attempts to grasp the concept of God by defining what God is not or cannot be. The concept originated in the late fifth century and is based on the assumption that the concept of the divine is incomprehensible to human beings. It was introduced into the theatre by the Polish director Jerzy Grotowski, who used it as a training method to help an actor overcome the obstacles that prevent him from achieving psychophysical performance harmony. However, neither theological questions nor acting techniques are our field of interest. Via negativa in our context means reducing performance to a relationship between spectator and performer, which allows us to identify what is (or is not) the essence of this relationship.
Books
The No,
Via Negativa 2002-2008

Collection of essays. Editor: Marin Blažević. In Slovenian.
Published by Maska, Ljubljana, 2010

“Via Negativa managed to make the theme of the seven deadly sins a theme of contemporary theatre and at the same time address numerous questions: an implicit and explicit metaperformative and metatheatrical dialogue into which the performers and authors enter with historical poetics or concrete performance art works (body art and autobiographical performance); the testing of the effects of the performing arts performative, the staging of theory (of theatre, performance art, etc.); the interaction between the performers and the spectators at seemingly opposing sides of the performance situation; the strategy of the politicalness of the performance; the contextualisation of aesthetics, ethics and work policies…” (Maska)

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No One Should Have Seen this
The Theatre of Via Negativa 2002 – 2011

Monograph. Editor: Bojan Jablanovec. In English.
Published by Maska, Ljubljana, 2012

“Documentation of 29 performances, which were created in the period 2002 – 2011. It contains 171 photographs with concise concepts and quotes from performances accompanied by Blaž Lukan’s essay Erasing the Audience, which systematically analyzes the development of VN performing strategies. The book also contains the full text of performance by Katarina Stegnar and Bojana Kunst after which it takes its name, and the conversation with the group conducted by Marin Blažević.” (Maska)
Makers and related persons
Partners and co-producers
Festivals and venues
Past performances