The swish of the tracksuits of the future
Yugofuturism is a never-ending story, but we think it is nevertheless worth starting anew. The term evokes different feelings, but leaves no one indifferent. This is Maska’s third “Yugofuturistic” conference, this time in coproduction with the Bitef festival, which is spatially and generationally expanding the milieu for consideration of this inexhaustible concept. Is Yugofuturism a trap or a solution? Is it forgetting or remembering? Is its aim to build a new community or an excuse for it? Is it possible to extend the idea of the South beyond the borders of the former commonwealth? Is the future after the declared end of the future just a utopia? How to leave the notion open so that it can be inhabited?
International conference with side events
at Bitef (Belgrade, Serbia).
Curators: Pia Brezavšček in Rok Bozovičar
29th September, 15.30
30th September, 14:30
Lecturers
Vukan Marković is a junior researcher at the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory and part of the Yugolab institute. He is working on a doctoral thesis at the University of Cambridge in the philosophy of history and theory of history in the late 20th and early 21st century. The areas of specialization he deals with are the crisis of historical consciousness and discipline in the 20th century, temporality, theories of the West, as well as the question of the influence of the Anthropocene on the understanding of historical time.
Borisav Matić is a critic and dramaturg from Serbia. He is the Regional Managing Editor at The Theatre Times. He’s a member of the feminist collective Rebel Readers with whom he co-edits Bookvica, their platform for literary criticism, and creates print publications, literary shows and podcasts. He occasionally works as a dramaturg or a sriptwriter for theatre, TV, radio and other media. He’s the administrator of the IDEA – The International Drama/Theatre and Education Association.
Hana Sirovica is writer and editor in the fields of performing and visual arts, film and culture. Her texts have been published in various electronic and print media and publications. She works as a journalist and co-editor at media outlet Kulturpunkt.hr, and as a coordinator of World Around Us, a platform devoted to the development of art criticism in former Yugoslavia. She’s interested in developing discourses that blur the lines between criticism, practice, theory and everyday life.
Mladen Alexiev is a Bulgarian theater maker and writer based in Sofia. He has realized various theatre and radio productions in Bulgaria as well as several cross-media projects and has been part of different independent theatre productions in Bulgaria, Serbia, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy. He is a co-founder of the first in Bulgaria Independent Theatre Association – ACT Association (2009) and artistic director of the first edition of its festival – Independent Theatre Festival – ACT Festival (2011). Mladen Alexiev is a fellow of Akademie Schloss Solitude/Stuttgart, Stiftung Insel Hombroich and a former participant in the MA-programme of DasArts – Master of Theatre/Amsterdam. Lately he has been producing his work through the production body of Tiho prostranstvo (Silent space). At present Mladen Alexiev is Head of the International department of National Theatre Ivan Vazov, Sofia/Bulgaria.
Photo Gallery
Presentation of the Special Issue of the Performing Arts Journal, MASKA 209-210: YUFU 2.0
The oldest European journal for performing arts, Maska, came up with a special edition on Yugofuturism, YUFU 2.0. This is Maska‘s further attempt in the direction of searching for a future after its proclaimed end. It is only logical to first dig in the region – but how to do it without disturbing the dead? How to find a common ground to again open a Yugoslav futuristic horizon in the arts and beyond it? In the journal, we give voice above all to the transitional generation, which knows the former country more as a narrative and less as an experience, but desperately needs a source of perspective in times where its level is ecologically and economically, especially in the region, close to zero. However, this does not mean that we are not critical of the idea of Yugofuturism. It may as well be a cynical ideal, a trap or in the best case, a utopia. But what have we to lose? The magazine brings together 14 theoretical, artistic or hybrid contributions by authors from the region, who put their stone in the YUFU mosaic in the making.
The journal will be presented by some of the contributors and Maska’s editors-in-chief, Pia Brezavšček and Rok Bozovičar.
Some of the contributors will present the journal:
Maja Mrđenović is a theater critic and theoretician in the field of performing arts. She holds a PhD from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade (Serbia) and collaborates with the Faculty for the Montenegrin language and literature in Cetinje (Montenegro).
Ana Fazekaš is an art writer and editor, currently procrastinating work on her PhD dissertation. Her field of interest is mostly psychoanalysis read as an antihumanist proto-queer theory, gender studies, and contemporary art practices. Working as a freelance author, she regularly publishes critical texts, reviews, and essays about performing arts, literature, and pop culture.
Vera Mevorah is an art and media theorist and digital society researcher at the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory at the University of Belgrade.
Natalija Majsova is a culturologist working as an Associate Professor at the Department and Chair of Cultural Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana. Her research interests include theory of culture and film studies, post-Soviet cultural studies, memory studies, and science fiction.
Simon Smole is a philosopher and sociologist. He regularly cooperates with the RŠ cultural editorial office and Megafon. He is also a publicist, critic and author of radio plays.
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