Barbara Matijević and Giuseppe Chico: Screenagers vol. II (2022)

In the DIY musical Screenagers II, the two artists, who captivated the audience at the 2017 CoFestival with their duet for dancer and screen Forecasting, now address the contradictory relations between the digital and the material world, where the neurotic production of the imagination struggles to create images that can provide emotional relief for the individual.

The opus of the Matijević – Chico tandem is special because it combines a range of artistic skills belonging to different media (from storytelling, dramaturgy, technology, performance and choreography) in unpredictable and refreshing combinations that make the ways of contemporary life and the use of available contemporary technologies visible in different relations in a surprising, humorous and ironic manner. Like the absurd objects that the estrangement effects put on display.

Screenagers II is the second performance in the series in which the Matijević – Chico tandem approaches the World Wide Web and its tools in an »archaeological« and »anthropological« way. By unearthing abandoned tools and studying the traces they left on concrete lives at different points in time, which is especially fun given that we tend to associate these two sciences with the material, the tangible and the vital. In a performance in the form of a reflective and DIY musical, the performer presents a collection of songs about her vague, blurred emotions without being able to name them properly. Through her songs, she attempts to capture the pain, demons, vibrations, joy and cravings that wander through the wilderness of her psychological landscape and, in a peculiar way, resemble the digital online horizon, which takes shape on stage in the form of QR codes, chat-bots and seductive green screens. Given that pop music songs have usually served as a kind of repository of shared experiences, a building of social consciousness, as Mark Fisher argues in an essay, and also as bridges between generations, Screenagers II proposes a collection of highly idiosyncratic folk music as the equivalent of the digital age: a kind of world in which everything collapses and submerges into everything else, in the manner of a chaotic flood and in accordance with the online life. In doing so, the creators ask what has happened to our psyche and imagination that we seem to be able to swallow it all and keep browsing.

Barbara Matijević studied languages, literature and stage acting in Zagreb, and in parallel she worked in dance and performance (Boris Charmatz, Joris Lacoste, Bojan Jablanovec). Giuseppe Chico was introduced to theatre in Bari, Italy, through a series of theatre education phases, and later in Paris, where he collaborated with Joao Fiadeiro, Vera Montero, Julyen Hamilton, Mark Tompkins, etc. He also performed for several years with the Mille Plateaux Associés. Ten years ago, Matijević and Chico started their collaboration with Premier Stratageme in Paris and had a series of performances that enjoyed major international success.

Concept, direction and text: Giuseppe Chico & Barbara Matijević
Performance: Barbara Matijević
Music: Nenad Kovačić
Technical direction: Viktor Krasnić
Lighting design: Marino Frankola
Lighting technician: Saša Fistrić
Animation: Martina Livović & Giuseppe Chico
Video: Giuseppe Chico
Concept and development of digital application: Pierre-Erick Lefebvre
Coding: Dubravka Špoljarić
Voice coach: Fabijan Komljenović
Executive production, distribution: Silvija Stipanov
Administration, production and distribution: Bureau de production Retors particulier
Development and management: Margot Quénéhervé
Production: Artistic organisation OMNIBUS•Premier Stratagème
Co-production: Theatre and Cinema Choisy-le-Roi

Organised by: Kino Šiška and NDA Slovenia in collaboration with the Ljubljana Puppet Theatre

Sunday, 27th of November 2022 at 6:00 p.m.
Ljubljana Puppet Theatre, Stage under the stars
Intermedia performance

Duration: 75 min
Entry: 7/9 EUR

The guest appearance in Slovenia was made possible with the support of TEATROSKOP, a regional program for performing arts initiated by the French Institute and the French Ministry of Culture.