Stitches
“Quality is in the stitches. That’s what a friend told me.”
The secret of life is in the stitches, not in having no scars. From good stitches, a good life blossoms. For some the stitches heal, for others they do not. Some put their lives back together after a tragedy, others do not. Some go abroad, others stay at home. Some are pussies, others are drunks. Some were on one side, others on the other, but all have looked at each other’s underpants and stared into each other’s eyes. Some have killed, raped, lied. Some lifted weights on the roof of the building, ignoring the snipers. “I’d rather die like a bird than like a rat! Let them blow me up in broad daylight!” The performance Stitches, based on a text by musician, writer and performer Damir Avdić, is based on an autobiographical story from the time of the war on the territory of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. The aim is to tell the stories that happened. To him, to her, to you, to that one, to them, about them, to us. The fact that the former common state was bloodily torn apart at the seams has created thousands of new stitches, which – consciously or unconsciously – we all carry. Stitches are the framework for the here and now. Stitches are stories that are never fully healed. No entry for conceptual artists.
- Performance
Directed, written and music by: Damir Avdić
Performers: Damir Avdić, Asja Kahrimanović, Barbara Krajnc Avdić, Gregor Zorc
Dramaturgy: Andrea Kopač
Costume and set design: Natša Recer
Graphics/video: Almir Mazalović
Lighting: Janko Oven
Production: Maska Ljubljana
Head of production: Nastja Kotnik Minik
Premiere: September 2024
The project is supported by the City of Ljubljana – Department of Culture and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia.
Stitches is part of the project MOJ DOM supported by EU Programme CERV (European Remembrance), caried out by the partner consortium that combines research, non-governmental and artistic organizations from both new and old EU member states: Codici – Cooperativa sociale onlus, Lapsus – Laboratorio di analisi storica del mondo contemporaneo (Italy), Documenta – Centar za suočavanje s prošlošću, Institut za društvena istraživanja, Institut za etnologiju i folkloristiku (Croatia), Maska Ljubljana, Mirovni institut (Slovenia), Univerza v Regensburgu (Germany).
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CERV. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
