INTRODUCTION

We named CoFestival 2024 The International Festival of Contemporary Dance, with a phrase by the neo-avant-garde poet Vujica Rešin Tucić: »We are beings of human origin.« It is about the articulation of a difference, a certain ethical and ideological distance, from which the poet distances himself because it turns him into a »visitor« in his own environment. The CoFestival curatorial team felt that Tucić’s lucid reflection was a good starting point to consider our own position in a world that is turning into something we hardly belong to, and at the same time a fertile proposal to reflect on contemporary dance art, which confronts us with worlds beyond the screens of the body, bodies that operate beyond the obvious and require us to consider the »beings« we are turning into when we come into contact with the more than human.

The art of contemporary dance is captivating precisely because it directs our gaze towards bodies that do things beyond the obvious with each other or with themselves. The phenomenon of mimicry, which blends the body into the background, has a particular function in ecology or everyday life, either to hide from view and lessen exposure, or to chase the curious gaze away by means of »attack,« optically overloading them. In contemporary dance, it becomes something else: it removes the optical surface or has a tactical effect that allows one to look beyond it. This is the typical task associated with the role of a spectator. If we perform it successfully, we begin to perceive the body with our senses, which must be included in the reflections if the bodily meanings in front of our eyes are to have any effect. This is how »beings of human origin« emerge in our gaze, exhibiting an expanded perception that distinguishes them from the purely operational and functional aspects of everyday life.

This edition of CoFestival once again invites us to such a kind of spectatorial engagement. Some of the curatorial interests that we have already embraced in previous editions of the festival will be complemented by new works. Choreographic works that address the inability to form language include choreographies by Sylvain Huc Sujets (2018) and Sanja Nešković Peršin The Moment Before (2024), as well as Tomaž Grom’s experimental film Don’t Think It Will Ever Pass (2023) and Jefta van Dinther’s extraordinary choreo-vocal work Unearth (2022). Sonja Pregrad’s O (2024) and Jan Rozman’s (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻ screamage (2023) are developed from the concept of »object oriented ontology« and the interest in matter beyond the anthropomorphic, an aesthetic shift that contemporary dance has recently been dealing with in more detail and which the CoFestival curatorial team is very interested in due to its (eco)choreographic potential. The documentary choreographic works Necropolis (2019) by Arkadi Zaides and .G Rito (2023) by Piny take the spectatorial act to an extreme experience with a kind of contemporary version of ritual forms of the stage arts, as does Michael Turinsky, who pushes us to the limits of the relationship between body, movement and environment in Precarious Moves.

Additionally, three projects developed by artists in collaboration with engineers and technologists within the European project MODINA (of which Kino Šiška is a partner) will be presented. These projects address the relationship between choreography and artificial intelligence. Jorge Guevara and Naoto Hieda created SFDCANBAC++, Simona Deaconescu and Grigore Burloiu created Collective Cadence and Chris Ziegler and Christine Bonansea created Yugen. The programme will be accompanied by a seminar session that will historically and methodologically frame the use of technology in the field of contemporary dance.

Pre-festival events include the première of Mateja Bučar’s Hurry-Scurry, Stay in Line, which our esteemed collaborator will be presenting with a local contemporary dance cast at the Cukrarna Gallery, and the opening of the exhibition Dancing, Resisting, (Un)Working – Aspects of Dance as a Cultural, Political, and Art Work in Yugoslavia and After, which the regional contemporary dance network Nomad Dance Academy is opening at the Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb as part of the European project (Non)Aligned Movements, and Open Studio, which we are making available for contemporary dance work to our local artistic community during the festival to raise the alarm about the lack of professional infrastructure. Furthermore, Jasmina Založnik and Alexandra Baybutt will present their most recent publications on dance and performative art practices in the context of socialist Yugoslavia and beyond.

We, the creators of CoFestival, wish that you will enjoy and share a wonderful experience during our 13th festival programme.

Team of CoFestival