(SLOVENIA)
The Ninth
The anthropological machine powered by Beethoven
“The taming of man has failed”, says Peter Sloterdijk. “Civilisation’s potential for barbarism is growing; the everyday bestialisation of man is on the increase.”
The Ninth strolls through the entire sound landscape of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. On the one side there is a “masterpiece of western civilization:” “Giant and complex.” “Sublime.” “Striking example of human spirit.” “Triumphant vision of brotherhood.” Beethoven’s 9th. And on the other side, there’s us: Nothing great about us. Nothing triumphant. Naked and suspicious. Not complex but reduced. Not sublime but explicit. Digital. Switched on or switched off. Repetitive. Blind by the images that we see, deaf by the sounds we hear. Looking for a connection with The Animal.
In his book The Open Man and Animal, Giorgio Agamben addresses the boundaries between man and animal, between nature and civilisation, and questions the logic of Western metaphysics and science, which justifies the procedure of “humanisation of man” in the first place on a systematic suspension of animal. Man is defined only in the difference from the Animal. Animal slowly fades away, and in the identity of modern individual grows bigger and bigger emptiness.
Via Negativa is a platform for research, development and production of contemporary performing arts. VN is an open type project. “We are not bound by the set-ensemble logic of a fixed number of constant members. With each new project, we organise as a group of individuals connected by an interest in research of performing strategies. Our core activities are the production of contemporary performing arts, the organisation of workshops and education programme VN Lab, the Via Negativa laboratory for contemporary performing arts. Via Negativa is based in Ljubljana and operates internationally.
“We are interested 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 stage elements (via negativa) and focused on the relationship between performer and spectator, and on the question of the real in this relationship. We deal with this relationship as a complex flow of points of view, expectations, judgments, conclusions, recognitions, stereotypes, fallacies, prejudices, tolerance or intolerance, and knowledge or lack thereof; all of these trigger various emotional, rational or irrational responses.”
Performers: Loup Abramovici, Grega Zorc, Jaka Lah, Anita Wach, Magdalena Tuka
Concept and direction: Bojan Jablanovec
Choreographic supervision: Anita Wach
Horse masks: Barbara Stupica
Light design: Bojan Jablanovec, Ana Čigon, Igor Remeta
Video: Ana Čigon
Stage manager: Igor Remeta
Producer: Špela Trošt
Production: Via Negativa
Co-producer: JaJaJa NeNeNe Association Warsaw
Partners: Bunker Ljubljana, A Part Festival Katowice, Fundacja Ciało/Umysł Warsaw
The project is supported by the City of Ljubljana and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland.
access to in conversation with Tim Etchells by day ticket only : Sunday 27 November, 18.00
access to performance by day ticket: Sunday 27 November, 19.00 (70mins)
or Single tickets for this performance only are also available
SACRED: homelands festival 