Via Negativa has been researching the field of performance art for a long time and can look back on a wide range of experiences. The productive past can be felt in the present – in my case in the Via Negativa Lab 2024. The two sentences that I have memorized very well – because they take the pressure off artistic production – are: Keep it simple. Don’t try to be original. I come from clowning and am well versed in the craft of clowning, in the art of improvisation and in contact with the audience. In the lab I learned that I have to integrate methods of acting when I perform in order to appear authentic on stage. In addition, I learned to fix scenes, make them repeatable, learn text by heart and speak out loud. (I worked as a health clown at the bedside, so we often had to whisper.) Up until now I was theoretically familiar with situation-based performances. Well, I learned to structure a performance narratively. This method suits me very well, as I like to incorporate storytelling into my performances. I appreciate the continuous feedback in the VN Lab from both the mentors and colleagues. Based on what the audience has seen, I hear what was interesting, what confused them, what they wish to know more about, etc. Of course there were also setbacks, for example when a scene doesn’t work and doubts about my own abilities appear. It’s good to have a backbone, to stick to the fact that you have something to say and to process critical feedback constructively. Personally, the final presentation also gave me a lot. It’s something different to present one of my own selected scene with simple lighting settings in front of a largely unknown audience in a black box (Stara Elektrarna Ljubljana). I can highly recommend the Via Negativa Lab.
Ingrid Türk – Chlapek, performer
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VN Lab is a group of nice people who gather once a month to tell you what you just showed them was shit. And I learned a lot, especially about myself as a performer: where my strengths, weaknesses and tastes lie. I also found pretty quickly that I only get out of the Lab as much as I put in: half-effort, half-result. I am learning how to be a more patient viewer and more articulate at saying what I saw and thought. In short, if I think about the whole year, it changed me as a performer and viewer. And I made some friends too. So all in all, pretty great.
Luka Piletič, actor and theatre maker
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After attending VN LAB for a year I can say the workshop offers a great space for developing ideas for artists of all artistic fields that are interested in working with the human body. The format of the classes offers safety to express yourself and provides knowledge to efficiently compose performative proposals. The process of giving and receiving opinions, which is a crucial part of the workshop, teaches you to think about the audience, to understand them and their way of perceiving your work. You will learn not just through your failure and success, but also through the work of the other attendees. The VN LAB format expects the attendees to be self-initiative, so the results of your work highly depend on your personal approach and work ethics. The workshop teaches you not just how to read and perceive performative art, but it also allows you to develop your artistic identity and discover your personal methodology. The attendees work in different fields of art, which allows you to receive and absorb knowledge that you may not get through formal education within your field. Additionally, you will meet great artists of all ages and nationalities, develop friendships and connections that will broaden your perception of what performative art is and should be. No matter how much experience you have, I would recommend VN LAB to anybody that is interested in expressing themselves through their body, but especially, I would recommend it to the people that studied visual art and are interested in performance art, because you will receive knowledge about the movement, the space, and the audience that is simply not accessible through the formal education of any kind of visual art. Don’t be afraid to enroll, because as we like to say, what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger!
Lučka Centa, visual artist
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If you are an artist (of any medium) who is interested in creating performative works that are honest, meaningful, and challenging, and if you are willing to take risks and be vulnerable, then the VN labs are for you. It is a supportive and welcoming environment that encourages participants to explore and discover what works and what does not in contemporary performance. From the moment I arrived at my first lab until the moment I said goodbye to the facilitators and other participants, I was welcomed and supported, and I felt safe taking risks that led to failures and successes. After each proposal, I received honest and invaluable feedback that helped me understand what I had presented, but, surprisingly, it also helped me understand what I wanted to present and how best to do so. During each lab session, each participant presents an original proposal on the theme of that year’s lab. After a proposal, the performer receives feedback from the participants and facilitators about how they experienced the performance. The key during feedback, of course, was to listen (regardless of whose work was being critiqued). By listening during feedback, I discovered what a proposal evoked in each viewer and what the performance meant, regardless of the “great ideas” one had in one’s head; no matter what I was “trying to do” or “trying to say” in my proposals, it was only through the performance and feedback process that I understood the work I was presenting. Whether my piece failed or succeeded in achieving my pre-performance objectives, I always understood the work anew from how it was received, and this allowed me to rethink each piece. Sometimes this meant I abandoned an idea altogether. Other times it led me to revise the performance, which I presented in a new form in the final lab weekend, which led to more feedback and new failures and successes. Additionally, offering my fellow participants honest, critical feedback forced me to articulate my ideas and experiences, and thereby to more fully understand how performance works for me as a viewer, which further helped me reconsider my process. And process is paramount. The labs are a research process. I did not leave the lab with a final polished piece ready to present. Instead, I left with three or four “seedlings” that I am ready to nurture and grow, and several ideas for other proposals. Yet, I know that from these seedlings and ideas, I may end up with only a single, final, polished performance, or none at all. And that’s OK, because the lab is not about creating a final product, but about developing a research process by which I will create future works, all of which will need to be put through a similar crucible if they are to reach their potential. I had been following Via Negativa from afar for about 8 or 9 years before I finally had the opportunity to fly to Ljubljana and participate in the labs. While I entered the lab with extremely high expectations, the experience far exceeded those expectations and not only changed my thinking about performance, but about art more broadly and the role and importance of performers in society. First opportunity I get, I will return to participate again.
Jeff Stein, multidisciplinary artist
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Prihajam iz področja vizualne umetnosti, skozi katero sem vstopila v laboratorij Vie Negative. V samem začetku sem imela jasno predstavo o tem, kaj performans je. Po koncu pa sem iz laboratorija izstopila s kupom vprašanj in z pomanjkljivo predstavo o tem mediju. Na laboratoriju so mi bile zanimive ravno te različne predpostavke udeleženk in udeležencev. Učila sem se iz naših razlik, ki so posledica različnih področji iz katerih prihajamo.
Nina Goropečnik, vizualna umetnica
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I have been working with Via Negativa for 10 years creating performances and performing in collective pieces. For a long time I’ve been avoiding the Lab thinking that my work in the frame of VN is enough. Well, I’ve been wrong. I decided to take part in the Lab two years ago and I couldn’t be more happy, and more shaken about the results. First of all, comments and thoughts of other participants about my proposals gave me fuel to think broader and to dig deeper into the emotional side of my ideas. Most of the people on Lab didn’t know me so i received very fair, objective and reasonable feedback. I knew I could trust everybody. I’ve been kicked in the ass, I was praised, I was questioned, I was enlightened…sharing ideas and being invited to watch others, to witness their struggle to find right frame for their unique imagination, to share thoughts and to listen carefully to what the others have to say is a beautiful, sometimes painful, sometimes blessing experience. What I like about the Lab is that we are encouraged to be honest, even if it may not please the author of the idea, but our task is clear, to offer clear and helpful feedback so each comment is there to help artists make decisions about what direction they want to take. We are all creators, seeking ways to reveal new levels of imagination and go beyond habits. We are all facilitators giving our feedback, sharing observations, feelings, associations and interpretations of what we see on the stage. My notebook is filled with ideas tested on Lab, thanks to the possibility to try them in front of Lab participants. It’s up to me to decide what, where and how to develop in the future. Some of those ideas I’ve already used and shared with the public. I will not lie, it’s a demanding process, half of the tries are failures, half of the time colleagues have no clue what the hell I am doing and why I create such a mess on the stage. But when the moment of clarity appears and we all can recognize what is behind a specific idea, action, movement, that is a moment of pure joy. Yes, the Lab is definitely for people who would like to understand and who want to be understood. This is what we do here, connecting mind, emotion, intuition and instinct in one, personal and collective process.
Anita Wach, dancer, performer, choreographer
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The work in the VN lab is something anybody engaged in the performing arts should have an experience of. This maybe sounds weird but I speak out of love for the theatre. It`s a rare oportunity to have that kind of laboratory for perfomance art in Slovenia and also abroad. As an actress I needed that kind of training. To train my eye, my capabilites to observe, to train how to give articulated feedback to perfomers presenting their work and to learn how to just listen to what others saw in your work. Without unnecesarry explanations, the only explanation is through the work on stage. I also learned how important actions are, not words, and how important it is to have a clear intent behind every action. I learned a lot about simplicity, presence, stage strategies, about using my own body. I will always remember Bojan`s following sentence: »We come to the theatre to watch, not to listen, that`s why it is GLED-ališče and not SLUŠ-ališče.« … In Slovene gledati means to watch and slišati means to listen. I love how the work at Via negativa creates »an always living theatre«. I love how it teaches you to observe your creation through the eyes of the spectator, how to open your creation for the here and now. And what strikes me the most after being in the VN lab is how I can use the principles I learned in the lab in my work on other projects, even if they are not performance art, even if they seem to be completely different things; be it classic theatre or even movies or concerts … The work in the VN lab became a part of my subconscious. Just go and try it, but it’s not for the lazy/laid back, you have to be fast and take chances at transforming your ideas into actions.
Anja Novak, actress
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VN Lab for me was like returning to my original settings. The settings before they were corrupted by too much talking and thinking and not enough action. It encouraged me to try out different forms and to challenge myself. The Lab is an amazing place for experimenting, making mistakes and for the further development of your performing strategies. It is a place where you get to perform in front of your colleagues/spectators (and vice versa) who give you their unbiased feedback of what they saw. This helps you to develop your material until your idea is successfully communicating with the audience. It also also helped me to better articulate my thoughts and to give an honest and concrete feedback. I would highly recommend VN Lab to anyone who is seeking artistic development and new challenges. I can’t wait to go to the next one.
Ena Kurtalić, actress
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V enem stavku povedano so delavnice v gledališkem smislu oranje ledine. Ker vsakič na novo vstopaš z novim materialom in to vsekakor ni lahko, se pa točno na tem segmentu privajaš tega, kar je za ustvarjalce včasih najtežje. Dovoz novega in novega materiala. “Gremo dalje.”
Medea Novak, igralka
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O VN Labu lahko govorim iz pozicije piske in dramaturginje, kar je bila tudi moja izhodiščna točka za vstop v sam razvojni proces laboratorija. Ob misli na Vio Negativo se hitro zatakneš ob predpostavko performansa in osebnoizpovednega nastopanja, v resnici pa gre za delikatno gradnjo in razčlenitev uprizarjanja tako iz pozicije gledalca, kot pozicije nastopajočega. Naučiš se misliti skozi oder, misliti skozi telo in misliti kaj je sploh tisto kar hočeš skozi oder pripovedovati. Misel se začne z detektiranjem “zakaj?” in razvija skozi raziskovanje “kako?”. Zame kot pisko je najpomembnejša dramaturgija, ker pa dramaturgija izhaja iz prakse, je VN Lab čudovit prostor, kjer se moraš izviti iz svojega varnega prostora udobja – kjer se dramaturgija ne lepi zgolj na besede, koncept in teorijo, temveč izhaja iz praznega odra ter iz tebe kot ustvarjalca. VN Lab ti kot ustvarjalcu pomaga vstopiti na pot razgaljanja miselnosti, ki v tebi osebno vre, vendar ti kot ustvarjalcu še ni uspelo iznajti jezika, skozi katerega bi svoj “statement” modeliral v razumljivo in privlačno uprizoritveno celoto, ki bi nagovarjala sodobnega gledalca.
Varja Hrvatin, dramaturginja in piska
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VN lab je bila zanimiva izkušnja. Počutila sem se kot Peer Gynt, ki na odru lušči čebulo, različne plasti balasta, dokler ne pride do jedra, ki je NIČ oz. je sestavljeno iz novega balasta, ki mu ne moreš priti do živega. Kot antropologinji vsakdanjega življenja mi je bilo zanimivo preučevati tako različne strategije, s katerimi smo prišli do skupne teme kot različne individualne performanse, ki reflektirajo načine mišljenja in delovanja posameznikov, ki jih zanimajo performansi. Šele ko enkrat dobiš neposreden odziv s strani publike vidiš na kakšen način razmišljajo gledalci in kako redko kdo vidi poanto, ki jo želiš prikazati, na isti način kot ti sam. Zato mi je bilo tudi zanimivo delati na zaključni produkciji, ko je bilo treba ožeti vse predhodne refleksije in jih povezati v dramaturško kompaktno in suvereno celoto. Mislim, da nam je to uspelo. Odzivi gledalcev so bili pozitivni – sicer so se bolj ukvarjali z videnim kot s samo temo, a njihovo nezavedno bo mlelo naprej in ustvarjalo povezave, ki smo jih že tekom delavnice vzpostavljali, ne da bi jih analizirali (še vedno bi rada zagrizla tudi v to jabolko). Rada bi pohvalila tudi mentorja Bojana Jablanovca, ki nas je krmilil med Scilo in Karibdo skušnjav in predpostavk, v katere kot začetnik moraš pasti, da znaš kasneje ločiti seme od plevela. Naučil nas je sinergije in prizemljitve na način iskanja preprostih in konkretnih rešitev za razliko od razpršenega podajanja filozofskih in psiholoških iztočnic, ki obvisijo v zraku. Tista stara židovska miselnost, da mora vsaka ideja skozi zrak, ogenj in vodo preden pade na rodovitna tla, se je tudi tokrat izkazala za pravo umet(el)nost, ki je na koncu zadela v bistvo. Čeprav bralcem nismo ponudili trdnega jedra čebule, smo pokazali, da sta radovednost in strast pri luščenju njenih neskončnih plasti tudi nekaj vredna …
Miša Gams, magistrica antropologije in performerka
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Zakaj VN Lab? Velika kvaliteta VN Lab-a se mi zdi odprtost/svoboda, kako boš sam razvijal svoje prizore na izbrano temo. VN Lab te ne sili v učenje neke tehnike ali obrti, a te sili v to, da za tistim, kar pokažeš na odru, stojiš scela. Tako zelo razširiš svoje polje ustvarjanja, saj si naenkrat sam svoj pisec teksta, kostumograf/scenograf, dramaturg/režiser in na koncu tudi (»gol«) izvajalec. Sčasoma ugotoviš, da razvijaš nek svoj lasten, sebi ustrezen, način uprizarjanja. Pri tem se seveda kažejo tako kvalitete kot šibkosti tvojega ustvarjanja, poudarek VN Lab-a pa je na tem, da začneš razvijati svoja močna področja in na njih intenzivno delati. Z opazovanjem dela drugih udeležencev se uriš v gledanju dogajanja na odru, (samo)refleksiji in artikulaciji, kako jim podati smiseln komentar. Bistven del vsega skupaj pa je izvajalčevo vzpostavljanje odnosa z gledalcem, učenja, kako med njima neprestano teče komunikacija ter iskanja strategij, da se ta komunikacija še spodbudi in čim bolj ohrani.
Rok Kravanja, igralec in performer
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In 2015 I grabbed the opportunity to join VN Lab and that was one of the best decisions I made as an artist. After the first Via Negativa laboratory I have become VN junkie. VN lab is like a playground for me, a safe space where I can explore, try and see what people think about my ideas and work. It is space of freedom, it is a training, it will always push me to work on something, to think more than ever before and develop something that I never thought I could. It is a place for education, a place for thinking, hard work, trying, failing, succeeding, seduction, reduction, development and understanding. VN lab is now a big part of me as a person, artist and performer. Here I feel useful and fulfilled, and the most important, my brain is working like Swiss clock. This was my fourth year in Lab, and not my last year. I would recommend VN lab to anyone who wants personal or artistic development or education.
Olja Grubić, visual and performance artist
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Stvari se dogajajo neizprosno tukaj in zdaj. Lab je megaglasno soočenje s samim seboj in s tem, kaj in kako početi na odru ter se hkrati soočati s publiko. Zahteva iskrenost do drugih in sprejemanje iskrenosti od drugih. Ni četrtega zidu. Ne gre za to koliko barve ali mesa (golote) uporabljaš na odru, gre za zavest o prezenci, o tem kaj projiciraš in kakšen odnos vzpostavljaš z gledalcem. Proces dela te pripelje do tega, da v prvi vrsti razumeš, kaj delaš, ne glede na to kaj uporabljaš.
Mirel Knez, igralka
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Z Labom vstopiš v praktično-kritičen proces dojemanja različnih življenskih kategorij: od ideologij do tega, kako se preprosto mesi kruh. Zaveš se, na kakšen način se balast spravlja na oder in se ga začenjaš otresati. Komuniciraš intimno, a vedno skupaj z drugimi. Pod vodsvom mentorjev in preko diskusij z ostalimi udeleženimi, začneš na novo misliti uprizarjanje – ne samo v okviru scenskih umetnosti.
Staša Jovanović, sociologinja kulture
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VN LAB je prostor, kjer lahko svobodno raziskuješ, kaj je sodobna performativna umetnost in koliko performativnega imaš v sebi; je priložnost, da se naučiš kritičnega razmišljanja in analitičnega opazovanja; je spodbuda za neprestano iskanje novih idej; je laboratorij z mentorjem iskrenega, neposrednega, a spoštljivega duha z izostrenim občutkom za posameznika; je svojevrstna, dragocena izkušnja in jo privoščim vsakomur, ki rad raziskuje, preverja in prestopa meje svoje ustvarjalnosti.
Sara Horžen, igralka in producentka
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VN Lab – ena zelo redkih vadbenih platform na tem področju – je zame zelo dragocena izkušnja, saj na radikalno zavezujoč način omogoča razvoj strategij ustvarjanja in gledanja performansa. Proces dela je zasnovan tako, da razpre prostor za iskanje lastnega performativnega izraza, na konceptualni (miselni) in uprizoritveni (telesni) ravni. Do udeleženk_cev je neusmiljen (v dobrem in v slabem) in skorajda zasvoji z natančnostjo, premišljenostjo in brezkompromistnostjo. Udeleženci_ke so v položaju, da se sami_e potiskajo ob rob lastnih zmožnosti s tendenco, da ta rob prestopijo ne glede na dejstvo (oziroma ravno zaradi njega), da ne vedo, kaj je na drugi strani. Priporočam vsem, ki se želijo resno ukvarjati s performansom.
Lana Zdravković, performerka in filozofinja
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Razumevanje in refleksija drugih udeležencev je prav tako pomembna kot gradnja in izvajanje lastnega materiala. Simple and clear decisions. Na delanje gledališča sem pogledal iz kota, ki ga prej nisem dobro poznal. Ne pravim, da je lahko, je pa lepo, ko se sprostiš in začneš uživati.
Andraž Jug, igralec
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I often think of my stay in Ljubljana workshop, even though it had been several months ago. Although I had a lot of experience in the world of theater, this experience was very significant and important for my future work. And I’m extremely grateful for that. Workshop gives many opportunities for artistic development, you can use them successfully but also you can fail in using them. I have failed many times and I succeed sometimes. I learned to trust in the reduction of artistic expression, authorial approach, to trust myself on stage. I learned about how viewers read what is happening on stage in different ways. I met some fantastic colleagues and I personally met Bojan Jablanovec. I was a fan of him and I am a super fan after the workshop. PS I think to visit a complete workshop has more sense than individual lessons. The continuity of the work was really valuable for me. I traveled about 700 km each time, and it paid off.
Jakub Čermak, performer
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VN Lab je bila zame očiščujoča izkušnja. Začel sem se spraševati o svoji lastni percepciji gledališkega in artikulaciji le-tega. Spoznal sem, da se da delati drugače, da ti npr. ni treba biti prijazen in všečen, ko komentiraš prizore drugih, ampak samo iskren in to sem dobival tudi od drugih. Ni opravičevanja svojih prizorov in iskanja izgovorov. Zdi se mi, da tukaj lahko res napreduješ, predvsem v praktičnem smislu, ne moreš se skrivati za drugimi, samo ti si, sam. Moraš iti na sceno in pokazati svoje, tukaj ni nobenega kalkuliranja, nobenega čakanja. In potem se začneš čistiti, začneš filtrirati stvari, začneš odmetavati svoj balast. Prideš na svojo ničlo in začneš znova. Mislim, da bi moral vsak mladi igralec iti čez takšno izkušnjo, kot je VN Lab.
Stane Tomazin, igralec
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Via Negativa dobiva v mojem odrskem ustvarjanju posebno mesto. Predstavlja način razmišljanja, način gledanja in način uprizarjanja. Z delom Vie Negative sem se redno srečeval zadnja leta, ko sem spremljal njihove performanse. Iskrenost in lucidnost, obravnava tem, odnos performejev do lastnega telesa in uma kot praktično edinih izraznih sredstev so me kot gledalca vedno znova pretresli in mi nastavljali ogledalo. Ta občutek popolnega avtorstva, svobode in javne fizične eksplicitnosti me je privlačil najbolj od vsega. Delo v laboratoriju VN je potekalo zelo produktivno, vsak dan je bilo treba pripraviti in pokazati najmanj dva prizora. Na eni točki se mi je sicer zdelo, da sem pokazal in videl že vse, kar se o tej temi dá pokazati, vsakič znova pa sem bil presenečen, da nismo niti blizu temu. Največja vrednost takšnega raziskovanja je zagotovo sprotno preverjanje, ki ti daje takojšen odgovor na to, kar ponudiš. S tem Via Negativa goji princip gledanja in komunikacije. O tem, kar gledaš, moraš govoriti in deliti svoje mnenje. Ne gre za kritiko, v ospredju ni to, kar ne funkcionira, ampak iskanje tega, kar deluje, trenutkov, ki razprejo prostor in dajejo odrskemu dogajanju drugo dimenzijo. Tako se počasi oklesti, kar je odvečnega, in prihaja do izčiščenosti. Tak princip dela mi je pisan na kožo, ker gre za iskanje temeljne prisotnosti na odru in enostavnega pripovedovanja zgodbe, ki svoje sporočilo razkriva postopoma. Via Negativa pri svojem delu vedno aktivno vključuje gledalca, tudi če ne pričakuje njegovega neposrednega sodelovanja. Odnos do gledalca je ključen. Vzeti ga moraš s sabo in ves čas neposredno komunicirati z njim. Gledalcu je treba dati občutek, da ve, kaj gleda, in mu s tem dati navidezno prednost, tako si ustvariš manevrski prostor za presenečenje, obrat, ki ga razoroži in mu vrže novo kost. Stati pred gledalci, jih gledati v oči in imeti njihov odziv ves čas na pladnju je zame postalo nujno. To mi daje večjo gotovost kot karkoli prej, ker vem, kje se gibljem, pa če je gledalec z mano ali ne.
Vito Weis, igralec, performer
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VN Lab je zame zelo dragocena izkušnja. Osebno zato, ker sem bila soočena s stalnim preizkušanjem lastne vztrajnosti, odločenosti in zaupanja vase. Profesionalno pa, ker mi je proces razprl pogled iz mojega istitucionalno-igralsko-akademsko-realizatorskega v samostojno-ustvarjalno-celostno-performativnega. Všeč mi je, ker je brez recepta in spodbuja težavno iskanje sebi lastnega gledanja in izražanja. Toplo priporočam.
Nika Rozman, igralka
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Kako v gledališču govoriti zgodbe, ki jih je treba slišati? Kako jih uprizoriti tako, da jih je potem preprosto treba kontradiktorno misliti? Koliko interpretativnega prostora pustiti, kje se predati, kje se opustiti? Kako nagovoriti zahtevno publiko, ki od umetniškega dela pričakuje, da jo pretrese, destabilizira? Kako se raznolike javnosti intimno dotakniti in spodbosti refleksijo umeščenosti v družbena razmerja moči, biti kritičen, aktualen in kako tematizirati osebne in družbene horizonte, ki jih lahko razumemo tudi drugače? Laboratorij je izziv razumevanju gledališča kot forme, vsebine in Odnosa. Bom kar iskrena, v tem laboratoriju ni nič pretirano lahkotnega in na trenutke človek res ne ve, ali bi jokal ali se svoji preproščini samo nasmejal, pa sentiment nekako zmeraj povozi pomembnejše razumevanje principov na videz zelo preprostega početja, a v resnici zelo subtilnega umerjanja sveta besede, podobe, giba, glasu in sporočila v tvar, ki jo je gledalcu, tistemu prebirajočemu Drugemu, mogoče v srži začutiti. No place to come, if you can’t handle the truth…. A če je tvoje vprašanje, kot je bilo moje, Kako se zgodi teater, ki gledalca ceni dovolj, da mu dovoli in ga spodbode, da sporočilnost predstave dojame z lastnimi sredstvi?, potem je odgovor na dlani. Prodoren učni proces pod mentorstvom izjemnih pedagoških vodij, Via Negativa Lab, zaključujem s prostodušnim občutkom, da je upodabljanje zgodb ne le stvar tehnike, temveč odpiranja prostora za sporazumevanje, za dialog, simpatijo, rahločutnost in dotike tam, kjer smo bili prepričani, da jih več čutiti ne zmoremo. Vse je upodobljivo. In morda je laboratorij še najbolj namenjen tistim slehernikom, ki menijo, da bi bilo najbolje, da bi zgodbo povedali sami.
Polonca Podgoršek, producentka
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i am absolutely thankful and happy about it… the first affirmative feedback i want to give to you is actually about Via Negativa homepage – it is rich, informative and clear enough for me to get the grasp on what you are doing or what you might be doing, even if i haven’ t seen any of the VN performances. and also the description for the Lab – what is the goal, what is the way, what is the challenge – is complete and understandable, inviting to make the outgo. the working-method of the Lab – showing a scene and then feed-backing on it – didnt strike me as sth completely new, but it was clearly pointing out the aim that an idea, and the presentation of it, has to stand for itself, it has to be complete in its action, and there is no additional explanation possible. there is an extra-attentive audience in the Lab, yes it is not 100 persons, but it is 8 persons, who give their time and attention and good-will to see what i am after, so this actually is creating an effect that i feel even more responsible for what i am using their time … and for example, when it happened that i was presenting and “ok” scene, but didnt have an ending, then actually later – while hearing people talking about the complete/or potentially complete idea – i felt super stupid, for not making the full effort to take it until a clear framing end. being in a feedback-situation, where spectators describe what they saw and understood, mention the links what they emotionally or intellectually had, but then also discuss the potential which they saw as unused or undeveloped – this is a learning situation anyway, and for me especially cause the analyzing-articulating side is not my strongest. so it is good to be again and again pushed to it in a sharing mode. so yes, i appreciate the whole experience a lot… if a foreign-person can afford a flight to visit the Lab even for one weekend is worth it…
Riina Maidre, performerka
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I highly recommend the VN Lab to anybody interested in challenging themselves to making meaningful work – meaningful for themselves as well as for others, that is. We started out with an overall theme to work with. A starting point. The basic working method was to then come up with an idea, an action, something to show the working group, every day, at least one thing, with which to articulate that overall working theme. This seemingly simple task turned out to be not so simple. Or to rephrase – whereas it was somewhat doable to present something that was somewhat clear to myself, when showing it to the others and then hearing their feedback…what THEY got from I was presenting….it became clear where the cracks were, what wasn’t so clear, what was perhaps merely habitual ways of behaving on stage that had no anchor in the reality of the room itself, what was perhaps relying on assumptions about the audience–performer relationship that perhaps should not so easily be assumed, what was avoiding dealing with the other, the spectator, and myself, in a very real way. And things like that. I found this very challenging and very useful to explore. It challenged me to find a clear and logical way to build the event I was working on, to create to conflict in the room for real. Without assumptions. Or, if there were common assumptions, to use them in a different way, to problematise them, to make them conscious, conscious tools in the game. No sleight of hand, no magic tricks. A sort of full disclosure from moment to moment, leading to – hopefully – some surprise, something real, something that meant something real in the room. At least that is what I found myself going for. And I failed time and again. The ideas of what to present became more and more difficult of come up with, because the criteria for these ideas, the bar we were aiming for was slowly revealing itself to be quite high. But not quite impossible. That was the maddening part at times. For sometimes, some simple little idea would pop into the mind – after hours, days, weeks of hitting the wall again and again – some simple little action to do onstage would drift through my consciousness…perhaps just something to buy myself some time until I could think up something “really deep” to do…and that little off-hand idea would end up hitting on something gold. Nothing huge. Just a seed. Something true. Which was enough. Because it turned out, at least for me, that this seed of an engine, of a game engine, a real game, would be the real starting point. From there, something could be developed. And this is what we all did. We dug around, we tried everything we could think of, we failed, failed again, failed better – until we had gathered up enough of these seeds of real stuff – stuff we could use. Then the developing started. Again, another mountain to climb,but at this point we at least knew, for the most part, what mountain we were climbing. Just as difficult, but quite exciting. So a creative process. A rigorous one. Which I am very grateful for. Not least of which because of my Lab mates. For as the Lab went on, we all became more and more committed (and able) to giving the clearest feedback we could. This was most definitely because of the tone set in the room from the very beginning by Bojan and the other mentors, in our case Katarina and Grega. They asked for and gave committed, rigorous, insightful, human feedback from the beginning and in doing so showed how to do the same, how to be rigorous and clear and human and real. To not beat around the bush. That in itself, for me, is pure gold. I guess I’m making it sound like it was some sort of Shaolin training, performance boot camp. Maybe so. But really, I could also say that the only thing I really needed to do was to show up. Every day. Completely. To be in the room and rack my brains and try my best ideas out. The rest just follows. In the end, I developed a performance piece, which I presented to the public – with the help of committed support from Lab group pals and Bojan. A performance I’m very proud of. I highly recommend the VN Lab to anybody interested in challenging themselves to making meaningful work – meaningful for themselves as well as for others, that is.
Eric Dean Scott, performer, actor and writer
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Back to the basics, TESZT Festival blog, 27 May 2015 Straight after the premier of Manipulations, the workshop held by Bojan Jablanovec, within the frame of TESZT Festival, began which is over by now. I’ve been waiting curiously to see what kind of an experience it will be to start from scratch again with Bojan, after going through a whole creation process. Who will attend? I wonder how they will react on this radical working method. What could three (half) days be enough for from this? Bojan has developed the method of Via Negativa for many-many years. He has gradually left the inevitable routines of the institutionalized theatre behind. He has left behind the narration, the engagement in the written text, the acting in its conventional sense, and the burnishing of skills. Primarily, his work doesn’t focus on achieving aesthetical qualities, neither his method aims at this. It stimulates and strengthens creativity and makes the participants have a substantial commitment. It takes you back to the basics of the theatre if you endure. It is not easy. Because there is nothing mystical in it. It’s not the alleged ritual roots of the theatre that Bojan has on the brain. He doesn’t aspire to bring his co-authors, the ones who take part in the work, into an ecstatic mood or state. Just the opposite: he teaches soberness, vigilance. To query and redefine our patterns in our thinking and taste. We need to think about what we are doing, about what we are seeing. We have to define ourselves as a performer and a spectator. To find a way to creative work, fruitful reception. We need to help each other in the difficulties of manifestation. Get rid of the unnecessary illusions, expectations. Perhaps it is harder to tell about a presented etude, what we see in it, what our associations are, what it is about to us, than to come up with one. How should we watch theatre? How to watch each other, ourselves, our things? Do we think about what is happening for real, or we make categories following our schemes, compare and evaluate them? It is not that easy to speak about theatre at all, when we let go of our habits of expectations in theater, e.g. to be entertained, to delectate, to satisfy our sense of time, to admire the skills of the authors. What is left? What do we do and why do we do it? This is the most frequent question of Bojan, to which it is not easy to answer. It is not easy to define us as authors. This is what these three days are about. What do we do, why and what do we think about what happened? Everything can be shown. The theme is: the anger. Is there (personal) anger in us? Can we use it? How do we cover it up, hide it? Is anger really such a bad thing as we generally think about it? Why is it important to control the anger? What could anger mean in the society, etc.? Many questions open up and new questions show up along these questions. At Via Negativa the theme is just a sort of a starting point. During the working process it can change in many way, depending on what we, the authors, bring into the common space. Through the theme everything that we would like to speak about gets a new light thrown upon, and what we would like to talk about – either consciously, either intuitively – throws a new light upon the theme. For instance, Radu draws the contours of the shadows of the chairs in the room, then also the shadows of the people – who move away of course. Now he jots the precise time down, too. He does this until he runs out of chalk. He scrapes up the chalk-powder left from the previous drawings in order to be able to continue. Is this theater? No. It is a visualized thought, which opens a very deep relation to time and the questions of our presence. This is what we talk about and not the “performance” we could see from Radu. Bojan is looking for these perspectives, thoughts, games and questions. The theatre can wait. We don’t know anything about theatre as long as we don’t know anything about ourselves. As long as we don’t know what to think about what we see, what we experience. As long as we can’t speak about it. On the third day Bogdan seats us on two lines of chairs, facing each other, and builds a wall around us from folding screens. We sit, giggle and make jokes. He appears above our heads, walks along the beams of the gallery. That’s the place from where he musters us. “Are you angry?” – he asks. I am angry, because I am afraid that he will fall from there. The helplessness creates anger. In the others it doesn’t. How could we sharpen the focus of our attention, our imagination, so that the game won’t fall apart? Obviously this type of work is not for everyone’s taste. More thinking, less joy. No one tells you what to do, no one tells you what to think. But isn’t this the reason why one attends a workshop? We go to school, as well, in order to learn. Whereas attending the workshop of Via Negativa is worth to the one, who would like to deconstruct their knowledge and start the creation anew from this perspective, this poverty. Because often our (putative) knowledge is what shrouds the really significant things. Where our real self is, rather than the “stage” one. This deconstruction, this renouncement of our achieved results or the descent from the high tower of our skills is really painful. Uncomfortable. Sometimes a dry, meticulous work. It demands discipline, an inner driving force.
Csaba Formanek, performe
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