Staying alive, the latest work of choreographer Jasna L. Vinovrski, reflects upon the issues
of order and control in migration of human and non human entities. It questions how the
juridical apparatus of the law, which today has a crucial role in the control of the migration
processes, has been affected and perpetuated by the production of knowledge and
discourse around the subject of migration. Throughout this process, the I-pad as a personal
technological device, has had a very important role as an agent of control over the
performers body. Gradually the body enters the state of stress, which persists and increases
throughout the whole piece. Constantly, fragile and precarious situations are re-produced for
the performer, reflecting a permanent state of emergency‘:
The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the ‘state of emergency’ in which we live is
not an exception but the rule. We must attain a conception of history that is in keeping with
this insight. – Walter Benjamin
This work was created within the larger project “Migrant Bodies”, which was supported by
the programme EU Culture 2007-2013.
Credits:
Idea, choreography & performance: Jasna L. Vinovrški
Collaborators: Mini I Pad, the books
Music: Bee Gees “staying alive”
Photos: Ginelle Chanon
This production is part of the project “Migrant Bodies”, which is supported by the programme
EU Culture 2007-2013.
Press, critics: https://jasnavinovrski.com/text/press/staying-alive
Spectacle: MIGRANT BODIES – Staying alive, IdÈe, chorÈgraphie et performance: Jasna L. Virnovrski, Musique: Bee Gees, Dans le cadre de la Biennale de Danse du Val-de-Marne, Lieu: La Briqueterie, Vitry-sur-Seine, le 21/03/2015
JASNA L. VINOVRŠKI
Jasna is a performance artist, choreographer and lecturer who grew up in Zagreb and has
emigrated since the collapse of Yugoslavia. She came to study at the Folkwang School in
Essen in the early 1990s. After graduating, she worked for twelve years as a dancer and
performer with various European choreographers. At the same time, she developed her own
short pieces, one of which, “Which Club?”, won several awards. In 2008, she moved to
Berlin, where she founded cie Public in Private with her partner Clément Layes; under this
umbrella, the two create works in their own unique style in close artistic and practical
collaboration. Jasna has been invited to many European countries, Canada and the USA
with her works “Staying Alive”, “Lady justice” and “Healers”. Her work focuses on the
relationship between the individual and social structures. The majority of her work deals with
questions of bureaucratic mechanisms in dealing with the migration of people. In addition to
her artistic work, Jasna Kultur is politically engaged through volunteer work in the ZTB
(Zeitgenössische Tanz Berlin), in the Workgroup Tanz und Elternschaft, the Workgroup
Dance funding as well as in community work by organising the event series 3AM, Montag
Modus Klimata and Flutgraben Performances, which have hosted over 150 Berlin artists and
reached large number of audience.
Website: www.jasnavinovrski.com
Public in Private is a Berlin-based dance company and the umbrella under which the works
of Clément Layes and Jasna L. Vinovrški are produced. Since its foundation in 2008, the Cie
has collaborated with hundreds of venues across Europe and North America, including the
most prestigious ones such as “Theatre de la Ville” (France), “Kaai Theater” (Belgium),
“Walker Art Center” (UeA) or the “Venice Biennale” (Italy).
In Berlin, they have worked with the Sophiensaele, Tanzfabrik and Tanznacht and have
performed in Potsdam, Bremen, Hamburg, Chemnitz and many other places in Germany.
Public in Private has been funded by the Berlin Senate or the HKF since 2012 for dance
projects such as “Things That surrounds Us”, “Dreamed Apparatus”, “Allege”, “Modal Verbs”
and “Healers”. From 2017 until the end of 2021, Public in Private received “basic funding”
which only a few extraordinary companies in Berlin can receive. In 2011, the Comoanie also
installed a dance studio at Flutgraben, the PIP Studio, which was used for rehearsals, but
also became a venue for events and residencies for other artists with other rooms at
Flutgraben. Since 2020, the studio has hosted a residency program funded by the Berlin
Senate: Flutgraben Residences. Both artists regularly teach in Germany and international
contexts. In 2020, the publication 12 Years Public in Private was released.
www.publicinprivate.com