Maja Smrekar: Requiem for the Future


Event Details


Requiem for The Future

The project Requiem for The Future, conceived by an interdisciplinary artist Maja Smrekar, will be presented as an experiment/performance, in which the human body is substituted by animals and machines. The pivotal question tackled within it will be: What is a machine as artificial intelligence and how can we build a dialogue between the animal and artificial intelligence? The link between the technology and nature will be established through animation. It has been several years now since the author started exploring the work with dogs on an empirical level, using elements of modern technology. She is particularly interested in creating spatial choreography, mainly performed by dogs and robots (what she actually deals with are synergic transitions between anthropomorphic, technomorphic and zoomorphic – the associations, which are evoked by puppets as well).

Setting up hybrid connections between the technology, nature, puppets, robots and animals is about devising modern, (bio) political contents, where man, who is excessively praising his own culture, almost completely destroys the nature, which nevertheless survives and begins to live a new, full-blooded life in a symbiosis with technology – but only in his absence. »As an interdisciplinary artist, fusing humanities and natural sciences into interdisciplinary projects, I look at the complex field of puppetry through an interdisciplinary perspective, ranging from Medieval Spanish theatre, with the so-called máquina real style, to modern, Stelarc’s techno-performances.«.

Maja Smrekar is an established interdisciplinary artist, creating for many years at the intersection of science, technology and the arts. She tackles her projects in an extremely analytical manner and with a great deal of social sensibility. Her interest lies in various phenomena of media environments, systems of perception, and the anthropology of fear.

PREMIERE: October 2016, Stage under the Stars LGL

Author: Maja Smrekar
Actress: Alenka Marinič
Dogs Training: Mia Zahariaš
Dogs: Žorž, Kiki, Mala, Vip, Mi
Dog Guiders: Mia Zahariaš, Tina Šolar
Programming, Consulting, Handling with Drones: Alen Balja
Handling with Drones: Blaž Kovačič
Music: Luka Prinčič
Lighting Design: Miloš Vujković
Scenography: Andrej Strehovec
Set Production: ScenArt
Stage Manager and Sound Designer: Luka Bernetič
Producers: Pija Bodlaj and Marcela Okretič

Co-production: Lutkovno gledališče Ljubljana and Zavod Aksioma, in collaboration with the City of Women Festival