Unstable Comrades
- Dance & performance
60 min.
Info
The performance explores and reflects on new ways of combating capitalism through the ideas of fluid identities. It interrogates the legacy of queer emancipation through a constant process of constitution and warping of resistance influenced by Western “liberal” societies and socialist values for a fairer society. As a theoretical approach addressing intersections of capitalism, class struggle, and queer culture, queer Marxism challenges traditional Marxist analyses by critically examining categories of gender, sex, and sexuality, emphasising the fluidity and complexity of identity and sexual desire. From such a theoretical perspective, the performance scrutinises various mechanisms of normativisation, oppression, control, and exploitation through which capitalism, patriarchy, and other systems of repression intersect and interact.
Through a comparative analysis of historical intersections of queer culture, art, and Marxist ideology within international socialist/communist and capitalist societies (Yugoslavia, Romania, Russia, USA, UK), the methodology of the performance sought examples of artistic practices directed against social and state dogmatism, hegemony, authoritarianism, and depoliticization, including instances such as critical realism and partisan dance in interwar Yugoslavia, punk outer-culture in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Yugoslav new conceptual art, queer-artistic opposition in communist Romania, queer-core practices of the American new left, Stonewall protests, etc.
Concept, choreography: Igor Koruga
Dramaturgy: Dimitrije Kokanov
Music: Vladimir Pejković
Performance: Tamara Pjević, Jakša Filipovac, Mariana Gavriciuc, George Pleșca, Hunor Varga
Light Design: Boris Butorac
Production: Marijana Cvetković, Olivera Kecojević, Teona Milićević, Station Service for contemporary dance
Co-production: National Center for Dance, Bucharest and Brain Store Project Foundation, Sofia through South-East European Dance Stations (SEEDS), APAP-Feminist Futures, The Culture Moves Europe mobility grant and the Goethe-Institute; Program Creative Europe of the European Union; Residential program TanzFabrik Berlin e.g.; Tenerife LAV Residential Program.
Thanks to: Magacin Cultural Centre, Belgrade; theatre Atelje 212, Belgrade
Biography
Igor Koruga is a freelance artist, working within the field of contemporary dance and choreography. His educational background in anthropology (University of Belgrade) and dance authorship (UdK/HZT Berlin, DAS Third Amsterdam), set his artistic practice in applying choreography as an artistic tool for interpreting socio-anthropological phenomena within apparatuses of theatre, museum, and multimedia. He works continuously as a stage movement choreographer within institutional theatre and film. As a member of a regional team for archiving and historicizing contemporary dance in the (post)Yugoslav context through the regional network Nomad dance academy, Koruga contributed to the prominent regional magazines for dance and performing arts (Maska Ljubljana, Walking Theory Belgrade, Movements Zagreb). Engaged as a freelance pedagogue, Koruga worked within various educational platforms by Station Service for contemporary dance Belgrade; Goethe Institute; Yugoslav Drama Theatre Belgrade; Belgrade Dance Institute; Petnica Science centre Serbia etc. He was a recipient of several international dance fellowships and locally relevant accolades.
Supported by
Ministry of Culture, Aerowaves, Creative Europe, Starea Naţiei, Odeon Theatre, Bucharest National Theatre, CINETic (UNATC), LINOTIP – Independent Choreographic Center, Les Films de Cannes à Bucarest, Goethe-Institute Bucharest, Cinema Union, Cărturești, 1000 de Chipuri, 5 to go
Main media partner
Radio Guerilla
Media partners
Adevărul, Agerpress, Elle, Happ.ro, Liternet, TVR Cultural, Radio România Cultural, Revista Arta, The Institute, Zile și nopți, Zeppelin, ISCOADA, Revista Golan, Feeder, Visit Bucharest, Ziarul Metropolis, Scena9, IQads, Ceașca de Cultură, Modernism.ro
The SEEDS (South East European Dance Stations) project is co-financed by the European Union through the Creative Europe program. The views and opinions expressed belong only to the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Education, Audiovisual, and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
