Curators’ Statement
We Are Going to Make Something about War, Gender and Liberty, It Will Be Titled: What Would Chelsea Say by authors and performers Đorđe Živadinović Grgur and Irena Ristić is one of the pieces at this year's festival focusing on the lecture-performance format that goes a step further by simultaneously presenting a kind of theatrical inquiry inspired by American whistleblower Chelsea Manning, a transgender woman and former US Army intelligence analyst. An additional intriguing aspect of this inquiry is the collaboration with architecture students who, alongside the authors, contemplated the design of spaces where Manning found herself during key moments of her whistleblowing on US military war crimes. In addition, the uniqueness of this performance is also reflected in the audience’s chance to choose between being observers behind the scene (sometimes also literally behind the curtain), and actively participating in the inquiry thus contributing, in a kind of co-authorship through their insights, actions and reflections, to the development of this exciting and important story.
About The Performance
This theatrical inquiry is dedicated to whistleblowing actions and the concept of radical transparency. It is inspired by the book Readme.txt, a testimony of a former military analyst whose actions have altered our perception of imperial wars and broadened the scope of the fight for gender justice. Her life story and struggle form the basis of this inquiry, which raises a series of questions: To what extent are we aware of the violence committed in the name of profit, under the guise of liberalisation? How do we relate to what we know? Are insights sufficient to spark action? Are people ready for social changes? What would they give up, and how willing are they to take risks?
The debates that Chelsea Manning continues to provoke with her increasingly controversial actions in the public sphere can be viewed in light of the concept of radical transparency, which unites questions of personal and social change. On one hand, this change is rooted in the dissonance where the violence of western hegemony and the warrior ideology of capital clash with human conscience. On the other hand, it is in the struggle to achieve a transgender identity against a militant system entrenched in patriarchal pathology. These processes are, of course, complementary and only when viewed together, intertwined, do they reveal pathways for further actions, as they intersect in direct action which at this moment may be the only possible outcome.
This is an artistic homage to Chelsea Manning and an experiment based on a dynamic form in which the audience becomes an accomplice, while local echoes of macro-political movements are sought and enacted in an immersive public inquiry.
The Authors
Irena Ristić operates in the fields of art and science, and sometimes beyond. She focuses on generative processes, collective, and activist practices. She is the author of numerous artistic and scientific works, including the books “Ogledi o drugarstvu i posedovanju” (2019), “Mala vrata. O zajedničkom i uslovima radikalne imaginacije” (2021), and „Početak i kraj kreativnog procesa“ "The Beginning and End of the Creative Process" (2010). She is also a co-author and editor of several thematic proceedings on the outcomes of contemporary artistic practices. One of the founders of the Hop.La! troupe and a full professor at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, she writes, rehearses, directs, creates and performs works, teaches, writes, edits, occasionally organizes, defends, agitates, debates with students, and writes again… www.irena-ristic.com
Đorđe Živadinović Grgur is a performer and author in the fields of acting, dance, choreography, and poetry, occasionally directing, mostly active on the independent cultural scene. He received formal education in political science and acting at universities in Belgrade, as well as informal dance education at Stanica - Service for contemporary dance. Interested in political and social issues, and in researching performative and hybrid forms, particularly physical and poetic in theatre, as well as the theatrical aspects in life. He is one of the founders of Reflektor Theatre and the NEUT dance collective, a regular collaborator of the Hop.La! and Tri Groša troupes, a participant in several editions of Bitef Polyphony, and a regular author of the Bitef Festival blog.
Škart Collective [Dragan Protić, Đorđe Balmazović, and collaborators] was founded in 1990 at the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade. Through the "architecture of human relations," the collective experiments in poetry, design, and everything and anything. They are skilled at turning mistakes into something beautiful. www.skart.rs
Olga Košarić is an editor and video author, with a deft touch and significant artistic as well as theoretical reach. She is the recipient of the "Marko Glušac" award and the 79th Venice Film Festival award for editing the film "Have You Seen This Woman?"
Antonio Andrić is a sound designer and assistant at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. Inclined towards film production, both fictional and documentary forms, although he subtly introduces fear and other emotions into theatrical explorations.
From the Reviews
“An unusual title announces an unusual work of art... Indeed, it resembles nothing you’ve seen before in the theatre. The question is, in fact, whether this is theatre at all. Or at least: whether it is only theatre. Irena Ristić and Đorđe Živadinović Grgur combine various media and expressive forms: theatre, dance, performance, documentary exhibition, visual installation, and sound installation, drawing the audience into a dialogue about the most important ethical dilemmas of our time. The question is, in fact, whether we are the audience at all... because the flow and content of this program depend largely on us.
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You will have the opportunity to learn everything that interests you, but above all, to reflect on the fascinating number of current social issues raised by the unique life story of Chelsea Manning."
Reflektor Theatre, Zoomer
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