SEARCHING FOR THE CITY
In the project “Searching for the City,” the main theme is the “invisible” walls in our city, made of hidden histories and taboos related to our city. The hidden history of our city is also manifested through the lack of clear information about what happened in the past and for what purposes certain places in the city were used. This primarily refers to buildings that still exist but have changed their purpose, as well as buildings that once existed but are no longer there, but the memory of them still lasts. [2007]
By creating a theater performance precisely on the ruins of the library on Kosančićev venac, our idea is to shed light on the “hidden walls,” i.e., on the hidden history of our city. The story of the bombed library is also a story about erasing the memory of a nation as well as severing ties with the universal spiritual values that make up every library. Our desire is to use this performance to re-establish the broken thread of memory as well as the broken connections with the world.
The hero of all wars, Marco Polo, Heidi, and many other characters from this play will deconstruct the past on the ruins of the library, thereby evoking life and constructing a possible future.
The ruins also carry another aspect – besides the destructive one, the ruins also represent memory, the essence of a certain idea, an imaginary space for projecting visions and desires. “If there is something more beautiful than a beautiful thing, it is its ruin,” said the French symbolist painter Pierre Puvis de Chavannes.
The project was carried out in collaboration with the Fragment Theater from Switzerland.
Starring: Jugoslav Hadžić, Barbara Keller, Sanja Krsmanović Tasić, Ivana Milenović, Lidija Milić,
Maja Mitić, Natalie Müller, Donka Torov, Kristin Vodusek, Mirjana Vuković
Direction and dramaturgy: Dijana Milošević
Co-director and assistant: Olivier Bachmann
Dramaturg consultant: Patrick Bachmann
Stage: Neša Paripović
Costumes: Milena Ristić and DAH Teatar
Music composed and performed by: Aleksandra Damnjanović, Nebojša Ignjatović,
Jugoslav Hadžić, Dragan Simeunović
Organization: Kristina Mlađenović and Suzana Tasić Anović
DAH Teatar thanks: The National Library of Serbia, the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of the City of Belgrade, JP Gradsko zelenilo, JP Elektrodistribucija Beograd, Nikola Tasić, the Torov family, and the residents of Kosančićev venac.
Teatar Fragment thanks for the financial support: Ernst Goehner Stiftung, Zug (CH) Werkraum Warteck pp, Basel (CH) as well as Murielle Bachmann, Philipp Berweger, Jonas Schudel, Patrick Zemp.
REALIZATION SUPPORTED BY
