de facto: Monuments
[POGONATOR] Monuments is an interdisciplinary performance, merging contemporary dance and experimental electronic music in an artistic exploration of Yugoslav history, architecture, and sculpture under the creative direction of Zagreb-based composer N/OBE and choreographer Saša Božić.
Developed as part of a transmedial extension of N/OBE’s yet-unreleased eponymous album of contemporary club music, the performance is conceived around six Yugoslav socialist monuments to the Partisan Revolution.
The selected monuments’ sculptural and architectural characteristics are interpreted through movement and sound, juxtaposing the formal and symbolic futuristic tendencies of Yugoslav high modernism with the stylistic mutations of experimental music and contemporary dance.
During the residency in Pogon, as part of the Pogonator program, authors Nikola Krgović N/OBE and Ivan Lušičić Liik will develop audiovisual materials for the performance, and the program will result in their presentation in the Great Hall of Unity on October 31.
Entrance is free.
Nikola Krgović N/OBE is a Zagreb-based electronic music composer, DJ, producer, promoter, and radio host. His music is marked by detailed production values, complex rhythmic formations, and a textured, dramatic intensity, often employing orchestral strings and Balkan ethnic instruments. His work has so far been released by the German label Kaer’Uiks and Italian imprint Early Reflex, and his tracks have been supported by numerous world-renowned artists and played on radio stations worldwide, including NTS and Rinse FM. As a DJ, he has performed throughout the Balkans, Italy, and Hungary, as well as at a Boiler Room event. He is a co-founder of the club music collective VOLTA, which has since matured into one of Zagreb’s most respected electronic underground crews, and has hosted two music shows on the FM-broadcast radio station Radio Student. He works as a media composer in Zagreb, scoring for theatre, dance, short films, and gallery installations, having collaborated with some of Croatia’s leading drama artists.
Saša Božić is a Croatian theatre director and dramaturg present in the field of European contemporary dance. His interests lie mainly in the widening of the performing arts field – working on a thin line between theatre, dance and performance, examining the porosity of their frames, and the position of the performer within the disparate modes of performing. As such, his work rarely fits neatly into the category of choreography or directing, as his distinctive combination of movement materials, visual imagery and texts follows the transformations between his multidisciplinary roles of choreographer, director and dramaturge. His work has been performed at every major theatre and performance venue in the Balkans, as well as at a multitude of European festivals and production houses. Among his national and international accolades are two nominations for best director of the year by the Croatian Society of Theatre Artists and a Jardin d’Europe prize at Impulstanz festival in Vienna. He is associate professor of theatre directing at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb, and is the founder of Croatian performance production company de facto.
de facto is an artistic organization that encourages the production activity and development of authors' projects, as well as the collaboration and co-production of works by international artists who share similar interests in the field of performing arts. De facto projects explore the fine line between theatre, dance and performance, questioning the permeability of their frameworks and the constitution of performers within disparate modes of performing regimes.