“Together” can be read in very different spatial and temporal dimensions, physical and mental spaces, and what is at stake in the project of the performing duo Jurišić-Mandić is a striking conceptual and methodological focus intent on answering the question of what it means to be together and how to be together.
©Matija Lukic
… it was risky, it was funny, it was violent, it was excessive, it was human, it was touching, it was pop, it was intelligent, it was political, it was daring, it was a challenge.
AWARD FOR BEST PERFORMANCE Slovenian Dance Biennale Gibanica 2019
A powerful experience that cuts deep into one’s mind.
AWARD AT THE DISCRETION OF THE JURY FOR UNIQUE PERFORMATIVE GESTURE
Maribor National Theatre Festival 2018
Today we are witnessing unbearable inflation of performativity. Everything is a performance, we are drowning in the constant presence and medialization of everything. We are quick to identify what we binds us together, yet we are unable to bind ourselves to anything for any significant amount of time. “Together” requires an investment that is increasingly difficult to pay.
Leja and Marko deal precisely with this investment, but without looking for an answer outside of themselves, in some external site (a theory, a story, a mythology) that would make sense of their relationship. They turn the question upon themselves: Why do I want to be together (with him / her), how to endure being together, what to do (with oneself) so that “together” becomes a realization of a surplus (in me), how to avoid the hierarchy of power (for that is not being together) ...? And last but not least: How to establish this “together” in the performative time and space of the spectator?
... an electrifying, unpredictable dialogue that comes across as intimate, while inspiring the audience to reflect on the social implications of “being together”.
AWARD FOR BEST PERFORMANCE OF SEASON 2017/18
Association of Theatre Critics and Researchers of Slovenia
An uncompromising comment on the pace of modern life, the pace dismantling not only “free” times, but also the foundations of their respective communities.
Zala Dobovšek, Dnevnik Newspaper,
1 February 2018
Together can be recognised - without a shadow of doubt - as one of the most important performing arts events staged in Slovenia in the last decade.
Nika Arhar, RTV MMC,
8 February 2018
CREDITS
Created by Leja Jurišić and Marko Mandić in cooperation with director Bojan Jablanovec and writer Semira Osmanagić
Performed by Leja Jurišič & Marko Mandić
Production Pekinpah in Via Negativa
Coproduction: Kino Šiška
Support: Ministry of Culture-Republic of Slovenia, City of Ljubljana-Department of Culture
PREMIERE
27. January 2018, Kino Šiška, Ljubljana
Leja Jurišić is a dancer, choreographer, and performer who, in transcending everyday understandings of liminal corporeality, seemingly naturally and almost effortlessly adopts various positions of radical performative expression, while at the same time moving within the frameworks of dance, performance, and political art.
Marko Mandić is an actor and performer who is regarded as indisputably accomplished in Slovenia and as a rising acting star internationally, as confirmed by his selection for Shooting Stars at the 2007 Berlinale and the numerous awards he has received for his work.
Bojan Jablanovec is a theatre director, founder and artistic director of the Via Negativa project. Through a method of reduction, he explores the relationship between performer and spectator, focusing on the question of the real within this relationship.
Semira Osmanagić is an art historian who in recent years has given preference to words over images. In 2015 she published her debut novel, Three Circles Around the House, and last year her second novel, How Many Steps Do We Take While Standing Still.
©Matija Lukic