Tito - The Third Way
A political idea in theatre
an international theatre project by
Kampnagel, Hamburg (Germany)
Eurokaz, Zagreb (Croatia)
Teatar &TD, Zagreb (Croatia)
Slovensko narodno gledalisce, Ljubljana (Slovenia)
Festival EX PONTO, Ljubljana (Slovenia)
Naroden Teatar, Bitola (Macedonia)
Laboratorio Nove, Florence (Italy)
Under the heading Tito - The Third Way Kampnagel Hamburg will focus on a major issue: the life and work of the ex-Yugoslavian president Josip Broz Tito, and his political progress to becoming an international statesman. The project is also an attempt to explore the concept of utopian idealism and to engage contemporary theatrical and artistic forms with this complex political theme. We will present an international theatre project with over 100 participating artists and experts, initiated by Kampnagel, where the production will be premiered, in cooperation with partners from south-eastern Europe.
Throughout his life Tito was a contradictory and controversial person. On one hand he was dictatorial as supported a centralised government, on the other hand he is internationally recognised as being one of the founders of the movement of non-assigned nations, a spokesperson for the developing countries and creator of the Third Way between capitalism and communism, between east and west. In the persona of Tito myths and reality have always been confused and influenced each other.
Various directors, choreographers and performance groups will take part in this project, their performances will complement one another and at the same time inform both their form and content. The performances deal with the different biographical phases of Tito's life and the social context of this historical period, pointing to the permanent longing that is at the centre of every utopia. This means that the lyrical, epic, metaphysical and tragic phases of a grand utopian ideal can be seen as different levels of development. In the final analysis they are interwoven and inter-related to each other.
The main focus of this project is to point out the social, political and historical coherence of both Titoism, its consequences for the region and the worldwide significance of The Third Way at the time and today.
In addition, Tito Project includes a series of complementary activities, in the form of workshops, symposiums, exhibitions, a book, social actions, artistic events, discussions, films, etc.
Tito, Certain Diagrams of Desire
direction: Martin Kocovski, Dean Damjanovski, Dejan Projkovski
choreography: Olga Pona
text: Slobodan Snajder
project coordinator: Branko Brezovec
set design: Tihomir Milovac
live music: Pizzicato Gypsy Brass Orkestar
coproduction: Eurokaz (Zagreb), Naroden Teatar (Bitola), MOT (Skopje), Kampnagel (Hamburg), Fabbrica Europa (Florence), Laboratorio Nove (Sesto Fiorentino, Florence)
The project is supported by Culture 2000 Programme of the European Union
A young generation of Macedonian directors, Martin Kocovski, Dejan Projkovski and Dean Damjanovski, collaborated with the internationally renowned Russian choreographer Olga Pona on staging a new, for this purpose commissioned play by Slobodan `najder which is focused primarily on the subconscious of communism rather than on its ideological sedimentations.
An ensemble of 40 actors and dancers from Macedonia, Italy and Slovenia, together with a Gypsy brass orchestra, presents the episodes from Tito's life in powerful images which extract the essence of the time from 1918 to his death and onwards, until the fall of the Yugoslavian confederation. A performance with extensive scenic ideas, cubistic fractures and an extensive use of original source material, the chronology of the life of Tito is radically reordered; lyrical, tragic, epic and metaphysical phases provide a playful introduction to the status of the symbolic unity of society.
Tito, Certain diagrams of desire describes the monstrous tension of historic deficits in an era when a state rises out of nothing. It describes heroic revolutionary times and the attempts and failures in reaching utopia. At the same time, the play does not shy away either from naming enormous costs to be paid for it, or from describing the revenge of the defeated ideas.
|
