Dis-Festival
The ‘Dis-Festival’ will take place within the Performing Arts Week of the Kaleidoscope of Culture programme arch in the Gallery of Matica Srpska from 14 to 16 September.
The festival presents a unique programme in the world of contemporary dance and performance and gathers artists with physical disabilities, whose works are made to be performed in museums and galleries or are adapted for this occasion. The programme focuses on critical re-examination of concerns in our society, and ways in which attitudes about diversity are formed. The festival is part of a yearlong continuous work of the ‘Per.Art’ Organisation on development and maintenance of the culture of solidarity and accessible environment. The programme will take place in exhibition spaces of the Gallery of Matica Srpska accessible for persons in wheelchairs, while it will be translated into Serbian spoken and sign languages.
Programme:
14 September / 7 p.m. / Gallery of Matica Srpska / 20th-century Hall
In her video performance and lecture entitled ‘Self-portrait in Three Acts’, Diana Anselmo combines her artistic and activist work, employing the self-portrait format as a means of critical examination of gaze, the manner in which one forms certain opinions and standpoints on the world around us and on individuals who are different in some way, hence stigmatised and ostracised by society and the public. In this piece, Diana Anselmo very accurately and humorously delivers before the audience her own compelling examples, as well as those of her peers, which demonstrate the sought gaze: the gaze determined by real-life experience of those who have been historically discriminated against and the gaze which leads to changes in today’s world.
The performance is delivered in spoken English language and translated into Serbian spoken and sign languages.
Concept, performance: Diana Anselmo
14 September / 8 p.m. / Gallery of Matica Srpska / Great Hall
‘Duet’ is a dance born of struggle for intimacy and struggle with intimacy, which takes place both within us and in our relationships with others, those whose gazes we are permanently exposed to. Diana Niepce fully exposes this struggle on stage – literally through the nude bodies of the performers, through the physical examination of violence which shatters the image of utopian bodies and relationships, as well as by provocatively exposing power relations between different bodies in those moments where their great intimacy and brutal conflict intertwine.
The performance is not recommended for persons under the age of 16. The performance contains scenes of nudity and physical violence.
Artistic director, choreographer: Diana Niepce
Performed by: Diana Niepce, Hugo Cabral Mendes
Lighting: Carlos Ramos
Sound design: Jonny Kadaver
Costume designer: Silvana Ivaldi
Photography: Alípio Padilha
Production: Produção d’Fusão
Co-production, artistic residence: O Espaço do Tempo Co-production: Centro Cultural de Belém Supported by: Lisbon City Hall/ Marvila Library, ORG.I.A
15 September / 6 p.m. / Gallery of Matica Srpska / Central Hall, on the 2nd floor
‘Who cares?/!’ is a saying that can express irreverence or a willing dismissal of the importance of something to us, but what if it could be both a statement and an open question? In this interactive keynote the interdisciplinary artist Perel opens an interrogation of care in light of the times we are now living – from pandemic to endemic, then witness to war in Ukrain and its economic impact. In order to live, to break out of our grief and shrug off the stress, we need to be able to say – ‘Who cares!’. But at the same time, this is the very moment when caring matters most. How can we embrace our own vulnerability to let it inform a collective consciousness of the vulnerability of others, and how can this consciousness support social change? Perel will open up their body to the audience for active engagement in order to hold space for this complexity of questions.
The performance will be delivered in spoken English language.
The performance contains scenes of nudity.
Concept: Perel
Performed by: Perel in collaboration with the audience
Supported by: Mabou Mines Associate Artist Residency (New York), HomoNovus Festival (Latvia), Fonds Darstellende Künste (Germany)
15 September / 7.30 and 9 p.m. / Gallery of Matica Srpska / 20th-century Hall and other exhibition spaces
The performance ‘We Are Not Monsters’ is based on an idea conceived by Dalibor Šandor and his need to point out the issue of the distorted image that society and general public create of anyone who is different in some way, as well as the injustice inflicted on them. In this piece, artists with and without disabilities examine the relation between the visitor and the artwork in a museum, explore new ways of creating art and expand the perception of the very notion of art collection, which they enrich by introducing questions, issues and positions pertaining to persons with disabilities through live performance.
The performance is delivered in spoken Serbian language and translated into English spoken and sign languages.
Idea: Dalibor Šandor
Artistic directors: Dalibor Šandor, Xavier Le Roy, Alexandre Achour, Saša Asentić
Artistic collaboration: Olivera Kovačević Crnjanski, Frosina Dimovska, Scarlet Yu
Performers: Marko Bašica, Snježana Bulatović, Đorđe Hrubenja, Snežana Kolarić, Beata Perge, Mihailo Petrović, Marko Rošulov, Marina Sremački, Jelena Stefanoska, Dalibor Šandor, Natalija Vladisavljević, Anja Vučević, Saša Asentić, Alexandre Achour, Dunja Crnjanski, Frosina Dimoska, Olivera Kovačević Crnjanski, Aleksandra Marković
16 September / 7 p.m. / Gallery of Matica Srpska / Great Hall
The performance ‘Show’ is a chance to meet people who, for various reasons, attract intense stares and do not fit into the contemporary bodily and social norms. Seven artists from the fields of theatre, dance and performance will invite the audience to create a unique performative situation. Tensions will be determined by relationships based on looking, different ways of interaction and behavioural patterns related to how we see ourselves and others. Evoking works of art which thematise the gaze, referring to scientific, medical, and consumerist approaches, the artists will ask the question of what defines the limits of human diversity.
The performance is delivered in spoken Polish and English languages and translated into Serbian spoken and sign languages.
The performance is not recommended for persons under the age of 16. The performance contains scenes of nudity.
Director, stage movement: Justyna Wielgus
Dramaturgy: Justyna Lipko-Konieczna (Texts based on improvisations by the performers)
Performers: Diana Bastos Niepce, Maciej Kasprzak, Michał Pęszyński, Aleksandra Skotarek, Wojciech Stępień, Helena Urbańska, Katarzyna Żeglicka
Scenography, costume designer: Wisła Nicieja
Video: Wojtek Kaniewski
Music selection: Justyna Wielgus
Lighting and sound design: Robert Romanowski
Production: Magdalena Grudziecka
All programs at the festival are free. Due to the very limited number of seats in the audience, registration via email is mandatory: perart2005@gmail.com
Photo: Aleksandar Ramadanović