NOW IS HERE!

STRATEGIES OF TIME • lectures • Pia Brezavšček, Rok Kranjc

• WEDNESDAY, 27. 9. 2023, 14.00–16.00
, Old Power Station – Elektro Ljubljana

Pia Brezavšček: The Communal Creation of Yugofuturism: Searching for Strategies to Create an Imaginary of Another Possible (Feminist) Future


In this lecture, Pia Brezavšček will summarise the insights proposed by artists and writers when invited by Maska to reflect on what could be the new proposed contemporary Neo-Futurist movement in the Balkan region – Yugofuturism. The latter, like other Neo-Futurist movements, especially Afrofuturism, seeks to affirm its own voice and thus create a possible future where there is supposedly none. It is a creative strategy that uses past possibilities as well as fictions to construct a future world that is not necessarily a utopia, a perfect flawless world, but one in which we have evolved and learned to strategically use failure to better deal with the adversities to come. Yugofuturism is neither a politics of assimilation nor of acceleration, but an affirmation of the marginal as such, with all the paradoxes of self-colonisation it entails. It is a feminist vision, as it takes into account and uses the regionally specific liberation struggles of women and learns from its shortcomings and battles won. Because the internet is now understood as a cybertopia hijacked and monopolised by multinational tech giants, Yugofuturism develops a parallel online micro-community that practices a democratic vision of joyful co-creation of a movement for a (albeit hopeless) future.

Rok Kranjc: Performative Utopias: Pre-experiencing Worlds beyond Capitalism


In this lecture, we will delve into the interplays between performing arts, experiential futures, and radical alternative political-economic paradigms such as degrowth and the commons. We will explore the conceptual foundations, methodologies and collective strategies associated with envisioning and enacting alternatives to capitalism. Our focus will be on interactive performative expressions of alternative economic systems and speculative everyday lives within them. Throughout, we will explore how these practices, which constitute and embody a particular politics of anticipation, possess the capacity to challenge prevailing discourses and power structures, interweave and amplify the voices of marginalized communities, and promote tangible change in the real world.

CONTINUITIES AND CUTS • round table • Janez Janša, Alja Lobnik, Goran Sergej Pristaš, Tjaša Pureber, Teja Reba, Miha Horvat

• THURSDAY, 28. 9. 2023, 16.00‒18.00
, Old Power Station – Elektro Ljubljana

Do forms of art production have a limited duration? The state is represented precisely through the continuity of institutions, including cultural institutions, because the state and its institutions have the ambition to be timeless. But what kind of temporality is inscribed in so-called private, extra-institutional initiatives, i.e. those that have a recognised status of operating in the public interest, either through continuous funding or granting status, or simply through continuous engagement in the public cultural space?

The roundtable discussion Continuities and Cuts addresses questions related to the forms of production as they emerged in the last quarter of the 20th century – in Slovenia, this was particularly the case with the legislation that allowed the creation of private institutes. The questions we are asking are not new, but they have a different dimension precisely because the generations that established non-governmental forms of artistic production are leaving in one way or another. And the conditions in which we operate are increasingly tense and precarious.

MENDING THE INVISIBLE • presentation of the research work • Bojana Kunst and Ivana Müller

• FRIDAY, 29. 9. 2023, 16.00–18.00, 
KINO ŠIŠKA – Upper lobby

During the week of 25–29 September, the first phase of research for the work Mending the invisible, which will be premiered in Mladi Levi 2024, will take place.

In this work, Kunst and Müller want to propose a performative and poetic practice of group walks through Ljubljana, during which we “repair” the living environments of the participants in different ways. We are especially interested in exchanging ideas about how imaginative, poetic, sometimes almost imperceptible or invisible processes can influence change and bring communities together in establishing new ways of looking at or living in their immediate environments.

The authors will present the research and talk about conversations they have had with different guests this week, sharing the traces of the conversations with the audience and open up the opportunity for the participants in the audience to join in the discussion with them.

• Daily tickets
  

Mala Kline: ALPHA PURE 2006 > ELIAS 2069: BODIES OF ELIAS
Monday, 25. 9., 13.00‒19.00 / Elias Institute, Mohorje
15 €
Capacity: 32
The price includes the drive to Elias Institutu in Mohorju and lunch. The number of organized transportation is limited. Reservations are obligatory at pr@maska.si.

Now is Here! in the Old Power Station – Elektro Ljubljana (Tuesday, 26. 6., Wednesday, 27. 9. and Thursday, 28. 9.) and in Kinu Šiška (Friday, 29. 9.)
10 €
7 € ‒ Students, Pensioners
Free ‒ Unemployed

Due to limited capacities at both venues, we recommend advance bookings at pr@maska.si.

Reservations are obligatory for the performance Goran Sergej Pristaš: The Undecidable Question
► Wednesday, 27. 9. / Old Power Station – Elektro Ljubljana
The event can be visited by 7 peopl at the same time, viewing time is 25 minutes.
Viewing options: 19.00 • 19.30  • 20.00 • 20.30
Reservations at pr@maska.si.

• Free entrance
  

Andreja Rauch Podrzavnik: Thinking of Then Being Now
► Monday, 25. 9. and Tuesday, 26. 9. / DUM Project Space
Capacity: 10
The event is single entry and lasts 30 minutes.
Viewing options: 10.00 • 10.30 • 11.00 • 11.30 • 12.00 • 12.30 • 13.00 • 13.30 • 14.00 • 14.30.
Obligatory reservations at pr@maska.si.

Marko Pogačnik: Gaja Culture
Capacity: 30
► Wednesday, 27. 9., 16.00‒18.30 / Republic square (Meeting at the Revolution monument)
Obligatory reservations at PRIJAVE
► Thursday, 28. 9., 16.00‒18.30 / Republic square (Meeting at the Revolution monument)
Obligatory reservations at pr@maska.si