postgravityart::aktuator

from 21 to 21 October 2016

by dragan živadinov, dunja zupančič and miha turšič

a moment of the Informance action by postgravityart, 2016; the Constructivist Cabinet by Avgust Černigoj in Trieste, 1927

INFORMANCE

Friday, 21 October, 2016, 18.30

Trieste, Studio Tommaseo (via del Monte 2/1)
after the informance action the artists will be in conversation with Tatjana Rojc

POSTGRAVITYART is a term coined by a group of artists: Dragan Živadinov, Dunja Zupančič and Miha Turšič.

They began to develop postgravity art, art that emerges in conditions without gravity, with Noordung::1995-2045, a fifty-year theatre project which is to be repeated, the same day, every ten years, till 2045.

Noordung::1995-2045 premiered in 1995 in Ljubljana. The first repeatition, in 2005, was moved from the original stage to the model of the International Space Station (ISS) in the hydro laboratory at Star City (Russia). The second repeatition was performed in 2015 at KSEVT in Vitanje, the Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies that was opened in 2012 in Slovenia and operates at the intersection of artistic, scientific, cultural and space-related topics. In the remaining three decades, all fourteen actors will be replaced by technological substitutes which in turn will be placed in the Earth’s orbit at the end of the project. In 2045, during the fifth and last repeatition, Dragan Živadinov, co-founder of the Neue Slowenische Kunst, who is a candidate cosmonaut since 1998 (Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, Star City), will use a spacecraft to convey 14 satellites/umbots into geostationary orbit, from where they will transmit signals to Earth and deep space. Now, inside its 50-year theatre project, Postgravityart is launching its first satellite Umbot::MG, that is a substitute for the actress Milena Grm, who passed away in 2011.

Dragan Živadinov’s first performance in zero gravity – Biomechanics Noordung – had been accomplished before the millennium came to an end, in 1999, at the Cosmonaut Training Centre in Star City, Moscow. Informance, that will be performed in Trieste, is a “model” with which these artists illustrate the integral planned postgravity art operation. In the 21th century they (re)use avant-garde methodologies of the previous century to develop ideas on a new postgravity art. In the Trieste performance they mostly look back to art movements such as Constructivism, because it was introducing a new dichotomy between process and material, and Suprematism, in which forms were developing into volumes.
Just after their presentation of Informance, at the end of September, at the Moderna galerija in Ljubljana, in the frame of REPETITION/S Festival of Performance and Philosophy, a very interesting connection of this performance to the city of Trieste is the homage the artists tribute in it to the Italian-Slovenian artist Avgust Černigoj and his pioneering Constructivist Cabinet displayed in Trieste in 1927.

Also, while the performance is organised, the NSK from Kapital to Capital. Neue Slowenische Kunst – An Event of the Final Decade of Yugoslavia exhibition, the first major survey show in Russia of the Slovenian art collective NSK is on view (till December 9, 2016) at the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow.
After the performance the artists will answer qustions put by the audience, moderator Ms Tatjana Rojc, literary critic.

Trieste Contemporanea gratefully acknowledges the generous assistance provided by Mr Darius Bork and Ms Marianne Wagner.

Authors: Dunja Zupančič, Miha Turšič, Dragan Živadinov / Collaborators: Slavko Glamočanin, David Pilipovič, Aljoša Pirc, Jože Zajec / Special thanks: dr. Etienne Tilmans (ESA), Karen O’Flaherty (ESA) / Production: Zavod Delak / In cooperation with: ESA Redu Centre (B), ESTEC, Noordwijk (NL) / Support: Ministry of Culture Republic of Slovenia, City of Ljubljana, VO-KA.

Dragan Živadinov (SLO) is a theatre director from Ljubljana. He was a cofounder of the art movement Neue Slowenische Kunst in 1985. During the '80s he constructed the style “retro-gardism”. In 1983, he founded the retro-garde Theatre of Scipio Nasica's Sisters, and in 1987, the cosmokinetic observatory Red Pilot. In the early '90s, he constructed "informances" and transformed Red Pilot into the Noordung Cosmokinetic Cabinet. In 1995, he embarked on the 50-year theatrical process Noordung 1995-2045, through the style of "telecosmism." In 1998 he became a candidate cosmonaut, and in 1999 realised Biomechanics Noordung, the first complete theatre production in zero-gravity conditions. Since 2000, he has been constructing post-gravitational theatrical abstracts. In 2005 he staged Noordung 1995-2045 first reprise in Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, Star City, and in 2015 the second one in KSEVT, Vitanje.

Dunja Zupančič (SLO) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana. During the '80s, using processes involving the montage of abstract textures and the construction of composites, she produced pictures of monumental size. During the '90s, using the engineering of pneumatic and hydraulic elements, she constructed mechatronic abstracts and art satellites (umbots). On December 15, 1999, she visualised and materialised Biomechanics Noordung, the first complete theatrical production performed in conditions of zero-gravity. Since 2000, she has devoted herself to substitutes of corporeality, which she translates into amorphous structures with the help of digital tools. In 2015, she created a mechatronic construction as substitute of the role played by deceased actress Milena Grm in the 50-years performance Noordung 1995-2045.

Miha Turšič (SLO) was first involved into worldwide product and brand development. Since 2004 he is dedicated to the research of artistic methodologies and practices in outer space, developing post-gravity art and facilitation of space culturalisation. In his career he co-founded several institutions in the fields of research, development and art. He was a cofounder, and the director from 2010 until 2015, of the Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies (KSEVT) in Vitanje .

Tatjana Rojc works in the fields of literary criticism and comparative literature. As a professor and a translator of slovenian literature she collaborated with the universities of Trieste, Udine, Rome "La Sapienza", Ljubljana and Nova Gorica. She is the author of monographs and studies on the Slovene poetry of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and on twentieth century's avant-garde artists, and has deepened writers such as Boris Pahor, Alojz Rebula, Miroslav Košuta, France Balantič and Srečko Kosovel. Her volume The Slovenian letters from its origins to the contemporary age (Goriška Mohorjeva družba in 2004, second edition 2005) has become a textbook in several Italian universities. She is also a writer and scripwriter for radio and television, collaborating with RTV Slovenija and the RAI regional centre in Friuli Venezia Giulia since 1980.

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