Dialogi
Eurozine
Dialogi
2010-09-30
Summary of Dialogi 9/2010
The most famous event in Maribor, which is to be a European Capital of Culture in 2012, is the Lent Festival. Each year at the beginning of summer, the city is flooded with a mass of shows, many that liven up the historic city centre, and many others that merely strew the city with tacky tents and advertising. Dialogi's editor-in-chief Emica Antončič asks in the introductory editorial why this is so, and analyses in more detail the latest excess of the Lent Festival in the city's space: the Adventure Park with Art Camp, which took over the old city park with its English-style landscaping, and began to change it into an entertainment centre, shopping area, and eatery. The author concludes that the Lent Festival is shaped primarily by the world of consumption and business interests, while the free cultural events, like those in shopping malls, serve primarily to attract consumers to spend their money on goods and services peddled by local businesses. The result of this is usually the degradation of the historic city centre. Since the programme director of the ECC 2012 set as one of his central tasks to liven up of the city centre, it will be interesting to see how various interests combine, and whether there will be a continuation of the Lent mentality in the city or a break with it.
A new section of the magazine, "Mirror", is connected with the topic of the editorial and provides a commentary on the goings-on in the Park of experiences in the form of a photo reportage.
The autumn issue of Dialogi devotes considerable space to the theatre. Specialist editor in that field Primož Jesenko interviews actor and director Mija Janžekovič, who was an active participant in Stage 57 (Oder 57), a well known experimental theatre movement in Ljubljana on the threshold of the 1960s. Janžekovič, who has kept silent about this subject until now, reveals new details important to Slovenian theatre history.
Three articles are on theatre studies. In the first one, Blaž Lukan thematizes the so-called performer vis-a-vis the actor, dancer, and performing artist, and attempts to define the theoretical framework for his activity. He concludes that the performer is not defined by his education or knowledge, but by his physical presence and the quality of the paralactical relationship with himself which he is capable of establishing at a staged event. Barbara Orel examines experimental theatre praxes in the Ljubljana alternative scene in the 1980s from a female perspective. Women's theatre groups at the time established space in the sociopolitical critique of Yugoslav socialism and emancipatory characters in relation to the ideology of desire formulated by the newly emerging consumer society. Anja Bajda discusses Slovenian ludist drama of the 1960s and finds that despite the appearance of indifference, it was deeply engaged.
The literary section consists of translations of passages from three novels by three contemporary Bosnian writers: Zdeno Lesić, Sead Fetahagić and Nedžad Ibrišimović, as translated by Jana Unuk, followed by new prose from Slovenian writer Peter Rezman.
In "Cultural diagnosis", Lara Plavčak writes about the exhibition "Alex Katz Prints" in the Albertina in Vienna, and Aljoša Abrahamsberg about the exhibition "Arctic Perspective" by Slovenian artist Marko Peljhan and associated groups in Dortmund as part of the events for the European Capital of Culture. Ana Šturm analyses Mihael Haneke's film "The White Ribbon" (Das weisse Band -- Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte), and Matic Majcen the film of images Valhalla Rising by Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn. Majcen analyses in ten steps the typical products of the Hollywood film industry, using the example of Kick-Ass, directed by Matthew Vaughan. Tomaž Toporišič continues his survey of no longer dramatic and intermedia performing events that can be seen of late in Slovenian theatre offerings, as well as those of visiting companies from Europe and elsewhere. Serbian critic Ana Vujanović reviews a book by Aldo Milohnić, Slovenian sociologist of culture: Theories of Contemporary Theatre and Performance. Robi Šabec reports on a book on Silvio Berlusconi by the Slovenian journalist Mojca Širok: The Last Roman Emperor; and the new novel The Mystery of the Chestnut Forest by Alojz Rebula, a Slovenian writer from Trieste. The theme of Bosnian literature in this issue of Dialogi is concluded by an essay by Aleš Debeljak on the Sarajevan writer Muharem Bazdulj.