Bojan Jablanovec

Theatre director, VN artistic director

Projects (91) Photo (121) Video (81) Media responses (305) Text (64)
Gallop 2002-2022 • Poster
Gallop 2002-2022 Poster
Gallop 2002-2022 • Poster Manipulations
Gallop 2002-2022 Poster Manipulations
Gallop 2002-2022 • Poster Would Would Not
Gallop 2002-2022 Poster Would Would Not
Gallop 2002-2022 • Poster Incasso
Gallop 2002-2022 Poster Incasso
Gallop 2002-2022 • Poster Viva Verdi
Gallop 2002-2022 Poster Viva Verdi
Gallop 2002-2022 • Poster Out
Gallop 2002-2022 Poster Out
Gallop 2002-2022 • Poster No Like Me
Gallop 2002-2022 Poster No Like Me
Gallop 2002-2022 • Poster The Ninth
Gallop 2002-2022 Poster The Ninth
Gallop 2002-2022 • Poster Physis
Gallop 2002-2022 Poster Physis
Gallop 2002-2022 • Poster Hundred Toasts
Gallop 2002-2022 Poster Hundred Toasts
Gallop 2002-2022 • Poster Just the Beginning
Gallop 2002-2022 Poster Just the Beginning
Gallop 2002-2022 • Poster More
Gallop 2002-2022 Poster More
Gallop 2002-2022 • Poster Four Deaths
Gallop 2002-2022 Poster Four Deaths
Gallop 2002-2022 • Poster Invalid
Gallop 2002-2022 Poster Invalid
Gallop 2002-2022 • Poster Pure Performance
Gallop 2002-2022 Poster Pure Performance
Gallop 2002-2022 • Poster Naked Life
Gallop 2002-2022 Poster Naked Life
Gallop 2002-2022 • Poster 365 Falls
Gallop 2002-2022 Poster 365 Falls
Gallop 2002-2022 • Poster Shame
Gallop 2002-2022 Poster Shame
Gallop 2002-2022 • Poster Last Rehearsal for a Generation
Gallop 2002-2022 Poster Last Rehearsal for a Generation
Gallop 2002-2022 • Poster The Heart
Gallop 2002-2022 Poster The Heart
Gallop 2002-2022 • Poster MandićCircus
Gallop 2002-2022 Poster MandićCircus
Gallop 2002-2022 • Photo MAS_7269
Gallop 2002-2022 Poster exhibition
Gallop 2002-2022 • Photo MAS_7283
Gallop 2002-2022 Poster exhibition
Gallop 2002-2022 • Photo MAS_7281
Gallop 2002-2022 Poster exhibition
Gallop 2002-2022 • Photo MAS_7279
Gallop 2002-2022 Poster exhibition
Gallop 2002-2022 • Photo MAS_7276
Gallop 2002-2022 Poster exhibition
Gallop 2002-2022 • Photo MAS_7275
Gallop 2002-2022 Poster exhibition
Gallop 2002-2022 • Photo MAS_7274
Gallop 2002-2022 Poster exhibition
Gallop 2002-2022 • Photo MAS_7267
Gallop 2002-2022 Poster exhibition
Gallop 2002-2022 • Photo MAS_7272
Gallop 2002-2022 Poster exhibition
Gallop 2002-2022 • Photo MAS_7271
Gallop 2002-2022 Poster exhibition
Gallop 2002-2022 • Photo MAS_7270
Gallop 2002-2022 Poster exhibition
Fearsome Ass • Photo MAS_6709
Fearsome Ass Installation VN20
Fearsome Ass • Photo MAS_6710
Fearsome Ass Installation VN20
Fearsome Ass • Photo MAS_6711
Fearsome Ass Installation VN20
Everything We Dumped • Photo MAS_3938
Everything We Dumped Installation VN20
Everything We Dumped • Photo MAS_3948
Everything We Dumped Installation VN20
The Second View • Photo MAS_3183
The Second View Installation VN20
MandićBaptism • Photo MAS_9718
MandićBaptism Installation VN20
No One Should Have Seen This VN20 Foto MAS_2434
No One Should Have Seen This VN20 installation
No One Should Have Seen This VN20 Foto MAS_2375
No One Should Have Seen This Katarina Stegnar, Bojan Jablanovec
No One Should Have Seen This VN20 Foto MAS_2362
No One Should Have Seen This Katarina Stegnar, Bojan Jablanovec
No One Should Have Seen This VN20 Foto MAS_2351
No One Should Have Seen This Katarina Stegnar, Bojan Jablanovec
No One Should Have Seen This VN20 Foto MAS_2342
No One Should Have Seen This Katarina Stegnar, Bojan Jablanovec
No One Should Have Seen This VN20 Foto MAS_2305
No One Should Have Seen This Katarina Stegnar, Bojan Jablanovec
No One Should Have Seen This VN20 Foto MAS_2314
No One Should Have Seen This Katarina Stegnar, Bojan Jablanovec
No One Should Have Seen This VN20 Foto MAS_2265
No One Should Have Seen This Katarina Stegnar, Bojan Jablanovec
All That You Came For VN20 • Foto MAS_8860
All That You Came For VN20 installation
The Article • Foto MAS_1209
The Article Installation VN20
The Article • Foto MAS_1204
The Article Installation VN20
Now • Photo MAS_0200
Now Installation VN20
For All Pigs in My Heart • Photo AAB8060
For All Pigs in My Heart Installation VN20
Physis Cinema Photo MAS_8944
Physis Cinema Video installation VN20
Physis Cinema Photo MAS_8937
Physis Cinema Video installation VN20
Physis Cinema Photo MAS_8933
Physis Cinema Video installation VN20
Physis Cinema Photo MAS_8912
Physis Cinema Video installation VN20
Physis Cinema Photo MAS_8401
Physis Cinema Video installation VN20
Physis Cinema Photo MAS_8408
Physis Cinema Video installation VN20
Physis Cinema Photo PHC03
Physis Cinema Video installation, Cukrarna
Physis Cinema Photo PHC01
Physis Cinema Video installation, Cukrarna
No No No, No No No Foto MAS_9053
No No No, No No No Installation VN20
Hundred Toasts Foto IG_17032420
Hundred Toasts Grotowski Institute Wroclaw
Hundred Toasts Foto MAS_2303
Hundred Toasts Bojan Jablanovec, Anita Wach
Physis Cinema Photo PHC06
Physis Cinema Video installation, Cukrarna
Physis Cinema Photo PHC04
Physis Cinema Video installation, Cukrarna
Physis Cinema Photo PHC05
Physis Cinema Video installation, Cukrarna
On This Merry Day of Culture Poster
On This Merry Day of Culture Poster
On This Merry Day of Culture • Photo SHF_142
On This Merry Day of Culture Muzejska ploščad, Ljubljana
On This Merry Day of Culture • Photo SHF_144
On This Merry Day of Culture Muzejska ploščad, Ljubljana
Viva Verdi • Foto VVZ226
Viva Verdi Bojan Jablanovec, Kristian Al Droubi, Petra Govc, Dylan Tighe
The Ninth Foto ANT_347269217
The Ninth Antistatic, Sofia
MandićCircus • Photo PU_006
MandićCircus Marko Mandić, Bojan Jablanovec
MandićCircus • Photo PU_007
MandićCircus Bojan Jablanovec
MandićCircus (dressed) • Photo PU_355
MandićCircus (dressed) Bojan Jablanovec
MandićCircus (dressed) • Photo PU_300
MandićCircus (dressed) Marko Mandić, Bojan Jablanovec
Breathe • Photo MAD_2495
Breathe Police intervention
Naked Life • Photo MAD_9833
Naked Life Olja Grubić, Bojan Jablanovec, Kristina Aleksova, Anita Wach, Sara Horžen
Sorry Photo CU_VN54
Sorry Body/Mind, Warsaw
Sorry Photo CU_VN53
Sorry Body/Mind, Warsaw
365 Falls Plakat
365 Falls Poster
The Ninth Poster
The Ninth Poster
The Ninth Foto CU_VN_51
The Ninth Body Mind, Warsaw
The Ninth Foto CU_VN_46
The Ninth Body Mind, Warsaw
The Ninth Foto MAD_9775
The Ninth Loup Abramovici, Bojan Jablanovec
The Ninth • Photo MAD_8129
The Ninth Bojan Jablanovec
Hundred Toasts • Photo FES7901
Hundred Toasts Bojan Jablanovec
Hundred Toasts • Photo MAD_7517
Hundred Toasts Bojan Jablanovec
Hundred Toasts • Photo MG_K303 Komentar
Hundred Toasts MSUM Comment#3
Hundred Toasts MG_K302 Komentar
Hundred Toasts MSUM Comment#3
Manipulations • Photo EDY0354
Manipulations Press presentation
Manipulations • Photo EDY0323
Manipulations Press presentation
Manipulations • Photo EDY0356
Manipulations Press presentation
Retrospective VN 2002 – 2012 • Foto MAD_8494
Retrospective 2002-2012 No One Should Have Seen This • Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana
Retrospective VN 2002 -2012 • Foto MAD_8510
Retrospective 2002-2012 No One Should Have Seen This • Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana
Retrospective VN 2002 – 2012 • Foto MAD_8489
Retrospective 2002-2012 No One Should Have Seen This • Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana
Retrospective VN 2002 – 2012 • Foto MAD_8491
Retrospective 2002-2012 No One Should Have Seen This • Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana
Retrospective 2002-2012 Foto MAD_8543
Retrospective 2002-2012 No One Should Have Seen This. The theatre of Via Negativa 2002 – 2011 • Monograph
Retrospective 2002 – 2012 • Foto NB17
Retrospective 2002-2012 No One Should Have Seen This. The theatre of Via Negativa 2002 – 2011 • Monograph
Retrospective 2002 – 2012 Foto NB09
Retrospective 2002-2012 No One Should Have Seen This. The theatre of Via Negativa 2002 – 2011 • Monograph
Retrospective 2002-2012 Foto NB18
Retrospective 2002-2012 No One Should Have Seen This. The theatre of Via Negativa 2002 – 2011 • Monograph
Retrospective 2002 – 2012 Foto NB12
Retrospective 2002-2012 No One Should Have Seen This. The theatre of Via Negativa 2002 – 2011 • Monograph
Retrospective VN 2002 – 2012 • Foto CCS9511
Retrospective 2002-2012 No One Should Have Heard This • Opening Concert
Retrospective VN 2002 – 2012 • Foto CCS9500
Retrospective 2002-2012 No One Should Have Heard This • Opening Concert
Retrospective VN 2002 – 2012 • Foto CCS9506
Retrospective 2002-2012 No One Should Have Heard This • Opening Concert
Retrospective VN 2002 – 2012 • Foto CCS9504
Retrospective 2002-2012 No One Should Have Heard This • Opening Concert
Retrospective VN 2002 – 2012 • Foto L9997993
Retrospective 2002-2012 No One Should Have Seen This • Opening
Just the Beginning • Poster
Just the Beginning Poster
Hunt for the Real • Foto FFT001
Hunt for the Real Katarina Stegnar, Grega Zorc, Bojan Jablanovec
Naked Presence • Foto FFT004
Naked Presence Bojan Jablanovec
Invalid • Foto 20-11-19
Invalid Bojan Jablanovec, Primož Bezjak, Špela Trošt
Invalid • Foto 20-04-27
Invalid Bojan Jablanovec, Primož Bezjak, Špela Trošt
Via Nova Museum • Foto MAD_9340
Via Nova Museum Bojan Jablanovec
All That You Came For • Foto MAD_1414
All That You Came For Bojan Jablanovec, Grega Zorc
Erasing the Audience • Foto MAD_0202
Erasing the Audience Boris Kadin, Grega Zorc, Blaž Lukan, Bojan Jablanovec, Katarina Stegnar, Mateja Pucko
Viva Verdi • Foto VVZ042
Viva Verdi Protest
Viva Verdi • Foto VVZ043
Viva Verdi Protest
One More Warrior Every Day • Foto IMG_6719
One More Warrior Every Day DDT students
Incasso • Foto DSC00684
Incasso BIT Teatergarasjen, Bergen
More • Foto VN_0314
More Kampnagel Hamburg
Starting Point Anger • Foto VN_0216
Starting Point Anger Marko Mandić, Bojan Jablanovec
Starting Point Anger • Foto VN_0217
Starting Point Anger Petra Govc, Bojan Jablanovec

VN Newsletter

Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates.

Sign up

Terms of use

VN Depo contains texts, videos, photos and media responses of VN projects from 2002 to the present. All content is protected as copyrighted works and may only be used for private and non-commercial purposes.

Public reproduction, distribution, transmission, broadcast, display or any other form of public distribution of the content published in the VN archives and on the VN website is prohibited without the explicit written permission of VN or other copyright holders.

In case you need VN documents for a purpose other than exclusively private, please send us a request for consent, which can be found in the information section of each document. Read more about the terms of use

I agree

Bojan Jablanovec

Theatre director, pedagogue, VN artistic director

Bojan Jablanovec (1961) studied Theatre Direction at the AGRFT in Ljubljana. Already in his graduation project Helios (a project based on Brecht’s Galileo Galilei, Cankarjev dom, 1988), Jablanovec showed his interest in opening up the theatrical field and exploring the audience’s perception. In 1989 he conceived and directed the performance Triumph of Death (SNG Maribor), which synthesised the theatrical trends that characterised the 1980s. From 1993 to 1999 he directed in most Slovenian theatres. His productions during this period included Pierre Corneille’s L’Illusion Comique (Slovenian National Award for Best Stage Design), Federico Garcia Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba, Howard Barker’s The Love of a Good Man (Slovenian National Award for Best Director), Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Rex, Philip Ridley’s The Pitchfork Disney, Werner Schwab’s The Presidents, Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s Romulus the Great, Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, Bertold Brecht’s Puntila and His Man Matti, Eugene Ionesco’s The Chairs, Antonin Artaud’s Jet of Blood. From 1997 to 1999, he was an assistant for theatre directing at AGRFT in Ljubljana.

In 1999, Jablanovec stopped directing in Slovenian institutional theatres and devoted himself to theatre research. In the period up to 2002, Jablanovec launched three research projects dealing with the staging of the subject through sexual difference (Europa – The Girl Who Ran Too Fast), the staging of the subject in relation to time (Lenora) and the staging of the subject through the difference between speech and language (Olga Grad vs. Juanna Regina). With these projects Jablanovec successfully established his working method and in 2002 he founded the international platform Via Negativa for contemporary performance art. From the beginning, his main goal has been to develop a working method that allows the performer to stand in front of the audience with his own statement, his own body and his own meaning. This basic creative field becomes the performative “here and now”: my story, my relationship, my body, my situation, my gesture, my conflict… The creative field is strictly limited: a reduction to basic stage elements (via negativa); theatre as a medium of communication and not aestheticization. Via Negativa focuses on the relationship between performer and spectator (between what is shown and what is seen – which is the basis of theatrical communication) and on the question of the real in this relationship (which is the key characteristic of a live theatre situation).

The first seven years of VN (2002 – 2008) were dedicated to seven negative aspects of life, commonly known as the seven deadly sins (anger, gluttony, greed, lust, sloth, envy and pride). The result is a cycle of seven performances entitled Seven Deadly Sins, each of which deals with a ‘deadly sin’ as the basic agent that drives the performative act and forms the relationship with the audience. With the first performances, Starting Point: Anger (2002) and More (2003), Via Negativa clearly outlines its creative field, but the great response from audiences and critics confirms its production method. The next few years saw a period of rapid international expansion of the VN platform. Through a series of workshops, Jablanovec intensively developed a flexible model of international contemporary performing arts production that was not closed in the logic of a limited number of permanent group members. The team of artists becomes international, and with tours to international festivals and contemporary art centres, Via Negatova establishes itself in the European space (Eurokaz Zagreb, Venice Biennale, Hebbel am Ufer Berlin, Kampnagel Hamburg, Teatergarasjen Bergen…). In 2010, the Maska publishing house published the book No, Via Negativa 2002 – 2008.

Between 2009 and 2011, Jablanovec and Via Negativa devote themselves to a new cycle of performances under the collective title Via Nova – a reversal of Via Negativa, announced at the time of its founding in 2002. Via Nova reflects on its own production by asking questions about the relationships between old and new, creation and destruction, theory and practice, copy and original, presence and absence, value and price, etc. The result is a series of twenty small-format performances, which Jablanovec conceptually synthesises into more complex events, establishing a communication with the architecture of the venues and the context of the events into which VN enters (theatre, museum, gallery, symposium, etc.). The most important collective presentations from this period are Via Nova Museum (City Museum Ljubljana, 2009), Via MSU Zagreb (Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb, 2010), Naked Presence (Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, 2010), Via New Territories (Live Art Festival New Territories Glasgow, 2011), No One Should Have Seen This. The Theatre of Via Negativa 2002 – 2012 (Moderna galerija Ljubljana, 2013). In 2012, Maska Ljubljana published the monograph No One Should Have Seen This. The Theatre of Via Negativa 2002 – 2011.

In 2011, Jablanovec begins to create a new performance series under the collective title Irresolvable, which aims to build on the creative processes and performance strategies of VN. It focuses on questions of ideological instrumentalisation, aestheticization and representation of the body, and on the formation of collaborative creative processes. He shifts the creative interest from radical individualisation (as a critique of the neoliberal subject) to the collective, which still represents the utopian ideal of any ideology. Among the most notable projects of this period are On the Right Track (2013), Last Rehearsal for the Generation ( 2014), Hundred Toasts (2015), The Ninth (2016), Together (2018), 365 Falls (2018), Physis (2021).

The working method that Jablanovec continuously develops and improves in his artistic leadership of the VN platform has proven to be an effective educational model for introducing young artists to the field of contemporary performance art in numerous workshops at home and abroad. In 2012 , he founded VN Lab, the Via Negativa Laboratory for performance art. It is a programme of a continuous mentor-led creative process for artists who want to profile themselves as contemporary performance artists. In 2019, he also founded and launched the web portal for reflection on contemporary performing arts , Neodvisni (Independent). The aim of the portal is to establish a reference point for the reflection of independent contemporary performance art production. In 2019, with the aim of a higher level of integration of knowledge, experience and methodologies of artists and producers working in the field of contemporary performance art in Slovenia, he establishes and manages the residency programme for research in contemporary performance art PARL – Performance Art Research Ljubljana.

Between 2020 – 2023 he is teaching at the Academy of Visual Arts (AVA Ljubljana). In 2023 he receive the Ksenija Hribar Award for outstanding contribution to the field of performance art, and in 2024, the Distinguished Artistic Achievement in Theatre Arts by the University of Ljubljana.