{"id":24514,"date":"2025-11-25T13:15:36","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T13:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/predstave\/artmoney\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T13:00:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T13:00:20","slug":"artmoney","status":"publish","type":"predstave","link":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/en\/plays\/artmoney\/","title":{"rendered":"Art&Money"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY: Freja Hallberg<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PERFORMED BY:
Vanja Ejdus<\/strong>
Milica Stefanovi\u0107<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

COSTUME DESIGN: Maja Mirkovi\u0107<\/p>\n\n\n\n

COMPOSER: Anton Alfven<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LIGHT DESIGN: Na\u0111a Vukorep<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TRANSLATION FROM SWEDISH: Nikola Pu\u0161i\u010di\u0107 and Vesna Stani\u0161i\u0107<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DRAMATURGICAL ASSISTANCE: Jana Milivojevi\u0107<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PHOTOGRAPHY: Mi\u0161a Obradovi\u0107<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VISUAL IDENITITY: Jana Or\u0161oli\u0107<\/p>\n\n\n\n

COSTUME MAKING: Vesa Karanovi\u0107 and Gabrijela Kne\u017eevi\u0107<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HAIR AND MAKE-UP: Marija Sto\u0161i\u0107<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PRODUCTION: SWEETS \/ HEARTEFACT, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PREMIERE: 27 NOVEMBER 2025, Heartefact House, Belgrade <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*This production is created in partnership between SWEETS\/PotatoPotato (Sweden) and Heartefact (Serbia), with the support of the Swedish Institute.<\/em>

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

DIRECTOR’S NOTE\n<\/strong>

I run a theatre in Stockholm and work every day with the paradox the art world prefers to pretend doesn\u2019t exist: the extremely intimate relationship between art and money. They are inseparable and yet seem to live in entirely different solar systems. Art wants to be free, irrational, unpredictable. Money demands structure, control, measurability. But in practice no artistic process survives without capital \u2013 just as capital without artistic imagination has no direction, no meaning, no ability to create a future. This is an issue that is both timeless and nationless. The relations between creation and survival, between desire and dependency, look different in every society but are always driven by the same undercurrents: power, guilt, compromise, longing. It is a drama unfolding just beneath the surface, regardless of language, currency, or era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have tried to deepen this question through an impossible love story. To me, the tension between art and money is not only something that concerns institutions, organisations, or infrastructures \u2013 it exists inside every person\u2019s daily life. We all live within it. In how we prioritise, how we count, how we compromise, how we value our time, our desire, our bodies, our work. Economic logic and artistic logic are not external forces; they sit inside us. That is why I wanted to write a relationship where these two forces are not metaphors but actual bodies trying to love each other, despite not speaking the same language. A couple in which power shifts, where dependency is mutual, where pride and shame go hand in hand. Rehearsing this production with Serbian actors, during the same period the national theatre closed, made the question more urgent than I first imagined. What began as a philosophical inquiry \u2013 an existential relationship between art and capital \u2013 suddenly expanded into practical politics. We found ourselves in a situation where artistic work was not an idea but something threatened concretely, materially, institutionally. The rehearsals in Belgrade gave the play a different weight, as if reality began to speak back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dresses by Maja Mirkovic are not costumes in traditionell mening \u2013 they are architecture, obstacles, tools, extensions of the two forces on scen. They shape the movement, the sound, the intimacy and the conflict. Bodies inside systems. Systems inside bodies. Art and Money is not a pamphlet and not a solution. It is a confession. A love story between two forces that both need and destroy each other. A portrait of all of us \u2013 how we try to live, create, and survive in a world that demands everything to be measured, valued, and sold, while the most important things we have are the ones that cannot be counted. – Freja Hallberg<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND DIRECTOR<\/strong>

Freja Hallberg is a Swedish director and author who doesn\u2019t write plays \u2014 she composes them. Her works emerge where performance meets philosophy and politics \u2014 raw, emotionally precise, and formally unexpected. Her pieces do not follow a narrative arc, but rhythm, rupture, repetition. She does not write for a protagonist, but for polyphony. Not for a lesson, but for a shared space. Not for a voice, but for a chorus.

She is the founder of the Swedish company PotatoPotato, runs the international platform SWEETS, and manages KONTR\u00c4R \u2014 a stage for radical performances in Stockholm, through which she has, for two decades, not only created new artistic works but also built the conditions for their very possibility. Her performances often begin with something simple \u2014 a pile of receipts, a wedding between strangers, a long-forgotten apology \u2014 and grow into dense, absurd, sometimes devastating worlds that are often humorous, sometimes brutal, but always sincere.

With the Belgrade premiere at Heartefact House, she begins a new, international phase of her artistic work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CRITICS<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to an intriguing directorial concept, its main artistic strength lies in the outstanding performances of Vanja Ejdus and Milica Stefanovi\u0107. It is finely stylized, develops a subtle (self-)ironic distance, and is mathematically precise; the actresses\u2019 actions and lines are flawlessly interlaced, flowing seamlessly from one to another, like in a musical or choreographic score.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ivan Medenica, Radar<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is something unmistakably Beckettian about the performance also has more to do with Freja Hallberg\u2019s direction than the text. After previously, among other things, exploring the logic and pleasure of quarrelling in the four-hour performance \u201cBr\u00e5k\u201d (\u201cFight\u201d), her \u201cArt & Money\u201d constitutes a more concentrated verbal sparring in which the absurd lies in glances and gestures, as well as in a studied apple-eating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anna H\u00e5kansson<\/strong>, Dagens Nyheter.<\/a> <\/strong>(Sweden)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cArt & Money\u201d is a sublime exploration of the inescapable relationship between art and capital, an existential theatre of states at its best, illuminating capital\u2019s desire for something that in itself cannot be bought with money: creativity.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ylva Lagercrantz Spindler<\/strong>, Svenska Dagbladet<\/a><\/strong> (Sweden)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AWARDS<\/strong>
\/<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

FESTIVALS<\/strong>
\/<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An impossible love story between art and capital \u2013 a play about loneliness, dependency, and the quiet cruelty of needing something you cannot live with, by Swedish author and director Freja Hallberg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":25491,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"oznaka":[94,93],"class_list":["post-24514","predstave","type-predstave","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","oznaka-in-the-repertoire","oznaka-plays"],"yoast_head":"\nArt&Money - Heartefact<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/en\/plays\/artmoney\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Art&Money - Heartefact\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An impossible love story between art and capital \u2013 a play about loneliness, dependency, and the quiet cruelty of needing something you cannot live with, by Swedish author and director Freja Hallberg.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/en\/plays\/artmoney\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Heartefact\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HeartefactFund\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-17T13:00:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/dda50a25-1-731x1024.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"731\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@heartefact_\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/heartefact.org\\\/en\\\/plays\\\/artmoney\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/heartefact.org\\\/en\\\/plays\\\/artmoney\\\/\",\"name\":\"Art&Money - Heartefact\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/heartefact.org\\\/en\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/heartefact.org\\\/en\\\/plays\\\/artmoney\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/heartefact.org\\\/en\\\/plays\\\/artmoney\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/heartefact.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/11\\\/dda50a25-1-scaled.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-25T13:15:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-17T13:00:20+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/heartefact.org\\\/en\\\/plays\\\/artmoney\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/heartefact.org\\\/en\\\/plays\\\/artmoney\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/heartefact.org\\\/en\\\/plays\\\/artmoney\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/heartefact.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/11\\\/dda50a25-1-scaled.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/heartefact.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/11\\\/dda50a25-1-scaled.png\",\"width\":1829,\"height\":2560},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/heartefact.org\\\/en\\\/plays\\\/artmoney\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/heartefact.org\\\/en\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Plays\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/heartefact.org\\\/en\\\/plays\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Art&Money\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/heartefact.org\\\/en\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/heartefact.org\\\/en\\\/\",\"name\":\"Heartefact\",\"description\":\"Hartefakt osna\u017euje kriti\u010dku svest i stvara slobodno demokratsko dru\u0161tvo.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/heartefact.org\\\/en\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/heartefact.org\\\/en\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/heartefact.org\\\/en\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Heartefact\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/heartefact.org\\\/en\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/heartefact.org\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/heartefact.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/09\\\/HF.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/heartefact.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/09\\\/HF.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1080,\"caption\":\"Heartefact\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/heartefact.org\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/HeartefactFund\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/heartefact_\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/heartefact_\\\/\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Art&Money - Heartefact","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/en\/plays\/artmoney\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Art&Money - Heartefact","og_description":"An impossible love story between art and capital \u2013 a play about loneliness, dependency, and the quiet cruelty of needing something you cannot live with, by Swedish author and director Freja Hallberg.","og_url":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/en\/plays\/artmoney\/","og_site_name":"Heartefact","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HeartefactFund\/","article_modified_time":"2026-03-17T13:00:20+00:00","og_image":[{"width":731,"height":1024,"url":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/dda50a25-1-731x1024.png","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@heartefact_","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"8 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/en\/plays\/artmoney\/","url":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/en\/plays\/artmoney\/","name":"Art&Money - Heartefact","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/en\/plays\/artmoney\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/en\/plays\/artmoney\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/dda50a25-1-scaled.png","datePublished":"2025-11-25T13:15:36+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-17T13:00:20+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/en\/plays\/artmoney\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/heartefact.org\/en\/plays\/artmoney\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/en\/plays\/artmoney\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/dda50a25-1-scaled.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/dda50a25-1-scaled.png","width":1829,"height":2560},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/en\/plays\/artmoney\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Plays","item":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/en\/plays\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Art&Money"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/en\/","name":"Heartefact","description":"Hartefakt osna\u017euje kriti\u010dku svest i stvara slobodno demokratsko dru\u0161tvo.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/en\/#organization","name":"Heartefact","url":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/HF.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/HF.jpg","width":1920,"height":1080,"caption":"Heartefact"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HeartefactFund\/","https:\/\/x.com\/heartefact_","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/heartefact_\/"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predstave\/24514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predstave"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/predstave"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predstave\/24514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"oznaka","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heartefact.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/oznaka?post=24514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}