Project description: For Reflektor Teatar, Manifest 2.0 marked an important step forward, as the company invited a guest director for the first time. Filip Petkovski from Skopje, North Macedonia, joined the project with the aim of introducing new working methods and methodologies, enabling the ensemble to expand its artistic practice. His choreography workshops, based on the Suzuki and Viewpoints techniques, proved particularly valuable for the participants. Alongside Petkovski, the creative team included Milena Bogavac, Nemanja Marinović, Jovan Zdravković, Isidora Bulatović, Vojkan Arsić, and Igor Marković. The workshops initially brought together twenty actors associated with Reflektor Teatar, from whom Đorđe Živadinović Grgur, Aleksandar Stoimenovski, Milena Božić, Lazar Nikolić, and Tanja Petrović Živković were later selected to perform in the production.
Following its premiere, Manifest 2.0 had two additional performances as part of Reflektor Teatar’s repertoire before touring to Kraljevo, where it was presented at the A.N.F.I. Theatre Festival, and to Novi Sad, where it was performed at the Pokretnica Festival. Each performance was followed by discussions with audiences interested in contemporary avant-garde theatre. Kraljevo and Novi Sad were identified as cities with active independent cultural scenes, making collaboration with local independent cultural actors an important aspect of the project. Although ecology was not one of the project’s primary themes, the stage design, costumes, and props were created entirely from recycled materials. No new set pieces or costume items were produced for the performance.
A distinctive component of the project was a series of five public lectures. The programme opened with Dr Milena Dragićević Šešić’s lecture, Manifesto: A Guide, Inspiration or the Iron Cage of the Avant-Garde, which focused largely on questions of inclusion and diversity in contemporary theatre. This was followed by Dr Nele Tonković’s The World Owes Heroes: The Futurist Manifesto and Its Role in Transforming the World; Dr Srđan Milošević’s Marx and Engels’ Manifesto: A Historical Perspective; Aleksandra Petković TKV’s Street Art: A Manifesto of Freedom; and Frosine Dimovska and Dunja Crnjanski’s This Is / This Is Not / This Will Be: The Manifesto as a Thought Exercise. The final lecture took place in Novi Sad at the SKUP venue as part of the Pokretnica Festival.
The project also included the production and publication of a five-episode web series on the Zoomer.rs portal. The episodes explored different artistic movements, including Futurism, Minimalism, Dadaism, and the Art of Maintenance.
Grant amount: 1,600,000.00 RSD
