Premiere of the new performance by Leja Jurišić,
created in close collaboration with set designer and visual artist Petra Veber,
February 5 and 6 2022 at Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana
©MatijaLukić
Dancer, performer and choreographer Leja Jurišić has long been interested in artists and artistic movements that during their formation radically redefined the concept of art and artistic creation, directing her focus towards works of historical avant-garde movements, but also towards works by contemporary artists living and working today. In the process of creating her performances she often collaborates with authors from a variety of artistic fields, constantly striving to cross the supposed boundaries of dance and theatre performances.
From the very beginning, her artistic corpus has been characterised by reflections on the relationship between dance and other arts, including music. In 2005, in her first original solo performance she gives up music and dances “to” and “with” silence in order to re-invent dance, but subsequently in 2012 in Ballet of Revolt, realised in collaboration with Petra Veber, she allows that dance finds her on stage again due to the inability to physically keep up with the complex and fast mechanical composition Ballet Mécanique by George Antheil, a unique musical work of the 20th century.
In the concert performance De Facto (Go with Yourself), which was created in 2019 in collaboration with composer and multi-instrumentalist Milko Lazar, she establishes for the first time an explicit relationship with a musical instrument on stage. At this point the piano, previously a silent object, comes to life in unconventional ways, and the performer, unburdened by the rules, approaches music composing in her own manner through dance.
In her latest work entitled CONCERT, the artist appropriates the piano as an object even more freely and radically: by deconstructing the instrument’s immanent functions she deepens and intensifies the relationship with it, boldly pushing it even further. As well as including piano pieces composed by the artist herself, the performance programme, which was prepared in close collaboration with the artist’s long-time collaborator, set designer and visual artist Petra Veber, consists of performative references to literary works by different Futurists, Dadaists and contemporary writers. Her continuous questioning of conventional forms of musical and dance performances and persistent search for new ways of artistic creation is even more uncompromising and resolute in the present performance: Leja’s concert breaks down the hierarchical relationship between body and musical instrument and subtly upgrades the relationship between dance and music.
Programme:
1. I hear you
2. Spiral
3. I put a stone on my foot
4. There is no time to lose (China)
5. Solo body piano
6. The mothers of invention
7. Triangle
8. Second movement, Ursonata
9. But a dog
10. Canzione di Maggia
11. Divine advantage
12. The chair and I
13. I do not allow!
14. The sky prefers the night
15. RADI OS, Book III (Paradise)
16. Poème a crier à danser (chant 1)
17. The Radical Characters of Verbs and Nouns (to be)
18. So it is written
Leja Jurišić is a dancer and choreographer working in the field of performative and political art. Her performances are built around the body – which the author perceives as a political machine – while at the same time remaining committed to researching both personal or intimate and (bio)political aspects. She has performed her original pieces at various institutions across Europe, the USA and Mexico, and received several awards, including the Borštnik Award and the Ksenija Hribar Award that she and Marko Mandić won for the performance Together.
Petra Veber has been active in the field of scenography since 1993. In addition, she contributes to performances as the author of concepts and in the role of lighting and costume designer. She is also a dramaturge, designer of printed matter and a photographer. The outstanding feature of her award-winning scenographies and spaces is that they always represent a commentary of a given performance and even of the social context in which they are created.
©Matija Lukić
Author, performance, music: Leja Jurišć
Scenography and lighting design: Petra Veber
Music design: Jure Vlahovič
Dramaturgy: Petra Veber
Texts proposed by: Petra Veber
Texts selected by: Petra Veber and Leja Jurišić
Texts: Giacomo Bella, Pierre Albert-Birot, Kurt Schwitters, Miklavž Komelj, Francis Lodwick, Ronald Johnson
Photography: Petra Veber
Producer: Žiga Predan
Production: Pekinpah and Leja Jurišić, Ljubljana
Co-production: Cankarjev dom – Cultural and Congress Centre
Partners: Kino Šiška – Centre for Urban Culture