ATELIER

Concept, choreography: Bara Kolenc
Performers: Dragana Bulut, Rado Jaušovec, Alja Kapun, Gregor Luštek, Bara Kolenc
Dramaturgical assistance: Bojana Kunst
Original score and sound design: Matevž Kolenc
Lighting design, technical director: Miran Šušteršič
Set design: Blaž Bačar
Costume design: Iztok Hrga
Graphic design: Atej Tutta
Projection: Luka Umek
Produced by: KUD Samosvoj
Co-produced by: City of Women, Bunker Institute, KUD Pozitiv
In collaboration with: Pekarna magdalenske mreže, KUD Krea, KUD Javorov hudič, Dijaški dom Ivana Cankarja, Agency Jota, The Old Power Station – Elektro Ljubljana, Salonit Anhovo, Merkur, Gostilna Mrak, Slovenijales, Papillon;
Project was supported by: the Ministry of culture of Republic Slovenia, the Municipality of Ljubljana and the Forum of Slavic Cultures

A performance inspired by the extraordinary life and talent of the Slovenian sculptress Karla Bulovec. In the name of art, her extremely bohemian life with husband and dramatist Ivan Mrak renounced everything – comfort, home, family, even sexual gratification. Her creativity was mad, ambitious, masochistic, exaggerated in visions she could not realize.
The performance explores artistic creativity as an impulse, as a relentless desire to create, so wild and destructive that it can overpower the need for biological fulfillment, threaten one’s health by denying physical hunger, and can even be fatal. In the light of such savageness, art cannot be relative (as it is in the eyes of cultural politics and history), but absolute and vital, no matter how we analyze, mythicize or objectify it.
Bara Kolenc (1978) is an independent artist, dancer and choreographer. She has collaborated with numerous international and domestic artists, while independently creating six full-length performances, and receiving several awards. After finishing philosophy and comparative literature studies in 2003, she also began developing a theoretical approach to theatre. She is currently preparing her doctoral thesis in theatre theory at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana.