Culture
Theatre
No Limits for the New Generation
21.11.2008
Aggressive Theatre, the Association for Contemporary Art, is a group of nine young artists who share the idea that art can happen anywhere and at any time and thus can have a great impact on the individual. They stand for the implementation of unusual practices in the field of arts and for the presentation of high-quality works of the 80’s Art Generation.
Their progressive and aggressive work includes the fields of visual arts (theatre, street theatre, performance), visual communications (installations, works of fine arts) and literature (poetry, prose, dramatic pieces, literary evenings).
Project with no time or space limits
At the beginning of November, the group conducted its first experimental literary evening titled Mišolovka (Mousetrap), in which they combined poetry, music and theatre in a new art form, whose final outcome and effect resulted on the activities of the participant. The project was conducted without a pre-announced space or beginning time.
Mousetrap – Step by Step
For the participation in the event it was necessary to provide your mobile phone number on an e-mail address. Registered persons on the very date of the event received a message only when and where should they buy matches. At the time of purchase they received instructions that led them to the shelter of Ljubljana, where Aggressive Theatre, among others, also displayed its poetry.
At the precise hour the lights went down in the main room and from the speakers was heard poetry by Andrej Grilc and Glorjana Veber (the authors of the project), recorded with background audio effects of noise, piano and heartbeat. Viewers were caught in the dark with poetry, as a girl in white dress with a key stepped out of the light and past them. Visitors again found themselves in the dark and heard a voice intone: “Visitors, you are trapped in poetry; to exit, find the girl in white; she has the key.” At the same time, all corridors of the shelter were filled with poetry recordings at the same time. Members of the Aggressive Theatre began running dynamo, given the few sluggish lights, while the spectators were having no easy job finding the girl in the space of lightening and poetry.
Trapped in a poem
The concept of the Mišolovka - being trapped in poetry, stems from the Aggressive Theatre’s tendency to bring poetry closer to people in a different and innovative way, as they believe that poetry can become interesting for wider audience. Since they established the society less than year ago, they have presented eleven projects. Among them was also the installation Komu zvoni (Who is calling), which was showcased during the Ana Desetnica Eleventh International Street Theatre Festival in Ljubljana this summer. Three antique phones with integrated sensors, placed on old-fashioned cabinets, were set on three streets in Ljubljana’s city centre. People passing by and could not resist picking up the receiver and were surprised by a recording of the Aggressive Theatre’s poetry. Their ways of attracting people in order encourage communication with art are different and unique.
New visions, new projects
The group, which also set two art installation on the island of Goli Otok in Croatia this year (in 1949 the entire island was officially transformed into a high-security, top secret prison and labour camp; it was shut down in 1988), is already preparing new projects. Anjuša Belahar and Glorjana Veber are working on installation called Poetry on an Empty Stomach, Marko Kumer on an experimental video Dynamics and Ivana Komel is preparing a project Pilgrimage of poetry.
Aggressive Theatre has opened the new field of presenting art, where the individual has at any time the choice between ignorance and experimentation and is also aware of always being on the open playground, entering the unknown area.