»Small Arts« Platform 2021

»Small Arts« Symposium
9.-11 September 2021, Slovenian Theatre Institute and other locations in accompanying program

If the pathways have ever taken you to glittering and smoky halls where subversion and transgression reign. If you ever got shivers from what you saw on the stage, if your stomach was full of laughter but your breath was short from the suspension, then it is likely that you peeked into the world of »Small Arts« or »Kleinkunst«. But what constitutes »Klein« in »Kleinkunst«? This kaleidoscope of stage practices is not marked by a diminutive, nor are they small because of their primary audience. So are »Small Arts« really small then? The queen of disguise in 12-inch heels and a puffy wig might disagree. An acrobat 10 meters above the ground would say the same. So what’s so small about cabaret, improvisational theater, burlesque, circus and stand-up comedy, and what else do they have in common? The epistemological scope, theoretical strength and artistic quality of the phenomenon in question will be discussed at the »Small Arts« Symposium, but this phenomenon will not be examined under a magnifying glass, but rather with academic experts and a hint of artistic license.

Within the project »Small Arts« Platform Emanat is organizing an international symposium about »Small Arts« in Ljubljana. Events will take place between 9 and 11 September 2021 at Slovenian Theatre Institute and other venues in Ljubljana. Symposium aims to highlight the quickly developing and topical yet dispersed and scarcely visible non-institutional production of hybrid stage practices by presenting the work of artistic groups, academics and producers who are developing these genres in Slovenia and abroad.

The three-day program will include talks, lectures, workshops and performances by representatives of the field from Slovenia and abroad. Focus of the symposium will thereby be contextualization, affirmation and professionalisation of such artistic practices, analyzing the potentiality of social questions that these practices open and an impact these practices have, through which they can build new communities.

Among the domestic academics we will host Zala Dobovšek, Maja Šorli and Katja Čičigoj, and from abroad we will host Hans van Maanen (Netherlands) with a lecture on ‘Aesthetics of small arts’ and Irena Ristić (Serbia) with a lecture ‘Collectives and commoning in »Small Arts«’. In addition to theorists, the symposium will be joined by domestic and foreign producers, including Maja Dekleva Lapajne and Goran Završnik from Slovenia, and producers from abroad by Fabrice Laffon, Divan du Monde and Madame Arthur (France) and Helena Bunker, Stockholm Fringe Festival (Sweden).

In the accompanying program we will present deverse artistic creations, such as drag cabaret Madame Arthur from Paris (FR), dance collective TRAS from Zagreb (HR) and locally renowed technoburlesque Image Snatchers.

»SMALL ARTS« SYMPOSIUM PROGRAM

Registration and ticket purchase: https://tix.emanat.si/

The symposium will be held in Slovene and English. All lectures will be broadcasted live on the open source platform Pretok.tv.

Collaborators

Head of symposium: Maja Šorli
Symposium committee: Maja Šorli, Maja Delak, Sabrina Železnik
Symposium project group: Sabrina Železniki, Eva Jus, Leon Marič, Jan Rozman, Metod Zupan
Graphic design: Špela Drašlar
Space and uniform design: Tanja Pađan/Kiss the Future & Anselma
Photo documentation: Asiana Jurca Avci
Technical team: Damjan Delak. Luka Prinčič, Janko Oven and Žan Rantaša

Support

Production: Emanat
In collaboration with Slovenian Theatre Institute, for them director Mojca Jan Zoran
Partners: Bunker / Stara mestna elektrarna - Elektro Ljubljana, DUM - Društvo umetnikov, Union Hotel Collection
Supported by: Ministry of Culture RS, City Municipality of Ljubljana

With support of Teatroskop, a program initiated by French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, French Ministry of Culture, and Institut français Paris.