BLISS
Premiere: 4-6/9/2010, The Old Power Station, Ljubljana
BLISS is a clash – a clash of different languages and strategies of work, a confrontation of individual interests and drives for doing the work we do. Six internationally acclaimed artists working in the field of performance art come together to investigate desire as a driving force of their work and the ways how they individually construct their idnetities only to reflect on the possibility of a meeting and an emergence of a collective in the time where art has seemingly lost its power and impact on the social and political contexts. BLISS is a performance about why we do art and why we need it. It is an attempt to once again affirm its place.
Concept: Mala Kline
Creation and performance: Massimiliano Cuccaro, Leja Jurišič, Mala Kline, Vania Rovisco, Mike Winter
Space, costumes, light: Petra Veber
Sound: Sašo Kalan
Live music: Davor Herceg
Dramaturgy: Simona Semenič
Assistance: Anna Nowicka
Technical director: Andrej Petrovčič
Executive producers: Žiga Predan, Irena Silič
Production: Mercedes Klein
Coproduction: Bunker Ljubljana, Španski borci / EN-KNAP, Transforma, Maska, Društvo Pekinpah *King Kong
Support: Ministry of Culture and the Municipality of Ljubljana – Department for Culture
With an outstanding team of performers, Mala Kline has succeeded to stage a complexly structured dance theatre performance, in which she thoughtfully deals with ways of representation, and, on the content level, cracks of subjectivity, with which she also gives particular answers to the initial question on the purpose of art. (M.Kumerdej, DELO, M. Kumerdej, DELO eng)
If anywhere, the meaning could be found in Bliss itself, in the insanity of the stage, in the intensity of each individual moment produced. … The meaning of theatre and art, which this performance tries to grasp, lies precisely in the quest for those rare moments that affect you, those moments of “bliss”. (P. Brezavscek, RADIO STUDENT, P. Brezavscek, RADIO STUDENT eng)
What is the purpose of art in a time, when also art is subjected to laws of supply and demand? (A. Rozman, RASlo, A. Rozman, RASlo eng)
Threading fragmented, loosely connected and simultaneous scenes with the help of four brilliant performers Mala Kline playfully displays different possible answers, while each of them constantly suspends all others. By way of deduction of manifest meaning Bliss compels the viewer to give sense to it through one’s own comprehension of ‘bliss’ provided through this artistic experience. (K. Cicigoj, SiGledal)
How much longer will artists still feed us with this alleged vampire fixed relationship of the viewer who wants blood and the narcissistic-masochistic actor who is willing to give it. How many more singing men in female glitter dresses will remind us of the evasiveness of our gender identities and what can the countless imitations of MM standing over the shaft in a white dress still tell us? (T. Pucko, DNEVNIK)
The feverish quest for truth often leads to insanity, a frantic search for meaning, order and answers that result in chaos, zaum, and silence. Art asks questions because it is already ‘from the other side’. In the performance Bliss by a Slovenian dancer, choreographer and author, all these elements are mixed. The collective of very diverse performers, ranging from the stand-up comedian who isn’t, to the drag queen who would very much like to be, to the dancer who is more interested in why she is dancing than how, is connected by the need to be in a system without rules, where they can express themselves in the best, or only, way. (Perforacije)