Ivana Bojanić and Viktoria Bubalo
performance
The idea for the work We Were Not Here was born from the title of Tamara Obrovac’s song, the phrase “Dube sanjan” which literally means “I dream while standing”, and it inspires us as an image of duality, paradox and impossible simultaneity. We perform out the impossible idea of producing presence and bodies that are in several places at the same time. We question how imagination participates in the construction of sensory experiences that change depending on where we place our attention. Or where attention places us. Testing how stretchy the understanding of “being here” is, we blur the boundaries between the personal / collective / everything that outgrows the collective, while not giving priority to any angle, but in their changes and consequent ruptures we find other types of relationships with each other / spectators / space, in which we encounter the space of dance. The ruptures take place in a wide spectrum whose extremes could be called presence and absence, that is, ways of being that we evoke by layering numerous simultaneities, whether perceptible or imperceptible. By reminding ourselves that “here” is always different from “here” a few moments ago, we continuously destabilize our experience of being in space.
We Were Not Here, it was an expedition. A passage through. A leap into: decay, decomposition of states of matter, cooperation with the present and imagined gravitational fields with some tectonic and quantum shifts. The dawn that, at the transition to the morning, stops and repeats itself, the shift of the gaze from right to left and balancing on the edge or end of everything. Departures without arrivals, with retention. On the way there, we went somewhere else. Everything changed without us even noticing.
AUTHORS: Ivana Bojanić and Viktoria Bubalo
PERFORMERS: Ivana Bojanić, Viktoria Bubalo, Tessa Ljubić
SOUND DESIGN: Nika Pećarina
LIGHT DESIGN: Andrija Santro
DRAMATURGICAL SUPPORT: Nikolina Rafaj
SET DESIGN: Pavao Babić and Lucia Ilijić
COSTUME DESIGN: Ema Kani
VISUAL DESIGN: Pavao Babić and Lucia Ilijić
PRODUCER: Nikolina Medak
PRODUCTION: Association of professional dance artists “PULS” and Art organization “mhmm…” in co-production with Antisezona 23 and in cooperation with the Local Board of Voćarska.
The project was realised with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, the City Office for Culture of the City of Zagreb and the Kultura Nova Foundation.
We would like to thank Nikolina Pristaš, Una Bauer, the Zagreb Dance Centre and everyone who encouraged this project with their presence.