Performance at the festival Ex Ponto. The first performance on Tuesday 22 September 2015 at 20:00 and on Wednesday 23 September 2015 at 20:00. Performed in English. The performance will be followed by a discussion with artists. ABOUT MANIPULATIONS Asking someone to kill his own son is a horrible game to verify the faith. Abraham
Performance at the festival Ex Ponto.
The first performance on Tuesday 22 September 2015 at 20:00 and on Wednesday 23 September 2015 at 20:00. Performed in English.
The performance will be followed by a discussion with artists.
ABOUT MANIPULATIONS
Asking someone to kill his own son is a horrible game to verify the faith. Abraham was ready to pay the price, he trusted the will of GOD, and he was richly rewarded. Today we sacrifice entire national economies, which must pay absurdly high prices in order to regain the trust of imaginary financial markets. It’s the same game. Capitalism is a religion, capital demands trust and obedience. And we hope to be rewarded. After the former Hungarian prime minister publicly admitted that his government “fucked it up, not a little but a lot”, he again succeeded to gain the trust of the Hungarian PEOPLE at the following elections. Trust is both rational and irrational, conscious and unconscious, willing and unwilling at the same time.
We all trade with trust, we all negotiate for trust, we all manipulate with trust. In this game, there is no innocent victims – we all know what it is about. Trust is a weapon to fight with fear, insecurity and uncertainty of the future. Trust is the fuel of power. And this is where manipulations begin. If there is no trust, there is no trading, no bankers, no politicians, no democracy, no love, no God. NOTHING. Trust is not a question of choice. It is a matter of necessity.
Performance is a series of images and situations on manipulations with trust. Trust is a wall of questions, which is impossible to climb with rational answers. Trust is a knife between the two dancers. Trust is a flower that nobody knows how to water. Trust is a chewing gum – when it loses its flavor, spit it out and take the fresh one. Trust makes no sense unless it is constantly put to the test. It’s a game. Very old game.
Manipulations is produced by four festivals based in cities located near the borders between Hungary, Serbia and Romania: Thealter Szeged, TESZT Timisoara, Infant Novi Sad and Desire Subotica together with Via Negativa. At the opening workshop in Szeged director Bojan Jablanovec selected a group of seven performers and actors from Hungary, Serbia and Romania and over the next months we have been working in Kosztolanyi Dezső Theatre in Subotica. Final composing of the piece was done in the Hungarian State Theatre in Timisoara, where the project has been presented on May 23 as an opening performance of the TESZT Festival.
ABOUT VIA NEGATIVA
Via Negativa is a platform for research, development and production of contemporary performing arts, based in Ljubljana and founded in 2002. VN is focused in devising and exploring different performing strategies, with an emphasis on ethics and liveness of performance practices, procedures and genres. The VN creative field is strictly reduced to basic performing elements and focused on the relationship between viewing and performing. VN deals with this relationship as a complex flow of points of view, expectations, judgments, conclusions, recognitions, stereotypes, prejudices etc. VN insists on the performing with the standpoint that consciously radicalizes and relativises its own position with self-irony and humor.
Via Negativa is based in Ljubljana and operates internationally under artistic direction of founder Bojan Jablanovec. VN performing strategies are very diverse: devised theater pieces, lecture-performances, dance pieces, video works, gallery projects … Beside production VN runs workshops and leads VN Lab, the Via Negativa laboratory for contemporary performing arts.
CREDITS
Produced by
Via Negativa (Ljubljana, Slovenia)
Csiky Gergely State Hungarian Theatre / TESZT Festival (Timisoara, Romania)
MASZK Association / THEALTER Festival (Szeged, Hungary)
Kosztolányi Dezső Theatre / DESIRÉ Festival (Subotica, Serbia)
INFANT Festival (Novi Sad, Serbia)
Conceived, devised and performed by
Borisz Kucsov
Csaba Formanek
Esztella Levko
Etelka Magyari
Kriszta Szorcsik
Zsolt Imre Mátyás
Gábor Mészáros
Concept, direction & set
Bojan Jablanovec
Stage manager
András Molnos
Running time: 75 minutes
TICKETS
Tickets: www.eventim.si, www.exponto.net, +386 (0) 41 200 390, b51@exponto.net
Organization: EX PONTO in collaboration with Kino Šiška