Mateja Bucar
DUM
BROTHERS KARAMAZOV

Bratje Karamazovi - Volume 1

idea and choreography: Mateja Bucar
choreographers and dancers: Alexander Andriyashkin, Eduard Gabia, Diego Invernizzi, Katja Kosi, Manca Krnel, Sandro Mabellini, Julia Morawietz, Rebecca Murgi, Paolo Ottoboni, Giusy Quattrone, Virpi Pahkinen, Snjezana Premus, Andreja Rauch, Daisuke Sakaki, Tomaz Simatovic, Goran Tatar, Natasa Zivkovic

theory and philosophy: Robert Pfaller, Renata Salecl
visual concept: Vadim Fishkin
music: Borut Savski
light: Andrej Hajdinjak
production: DUM - Association of Artists
co-production: Fabbrica Europa;
PTL, Ljubljana
supported by: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and Municipality of Ljubljana

Brothers Karamazov - Volume 1 is a performance resulting from a process that finds and collects the Brothers Karamazov  to be found in the world today.It is possible to picture 'Ivans', 'Aljoshas', 'Mityas' and 'Smrdyakovs' living everywhere... perhaps above all among performers, choreographers, actors, dancers and theorists ...
It is possible to picture them making daily choices about their professional lives in much the same way as the heroes of the Dostoevsky novel search to make choices, contemplate their existence and form their own ideas and identity. To find these present day 'Brothers Karamazov', auditions were held in Ljubljana, Florence, Moscow and  Hong Kong. In an audition that also functioned as a performance (to provide a reflection of the concept of the audition itself), we invited performers, dancers, actors, artists and thinkers to choose for themselves a "role" either as one of the Brothers Karamazov or another character from the book. During the audition we asked them to present this role in the form of a short dissertation or performance.
The result was many Brothers Karamazov - each of them re-approaching him or herself through the book and the existential points of view that it questions.

By selecting twenty of them, we brought together just some of the Karamazovs that we encountered. Through them, we intend to create an performance that focuses on and reflects the dilemmas of modern subjectivity:
Today's individual is more and more under pressure to choose
an identity and figure him or herself as an artist who creates
a work of art out of his or her own life. The performance
Brothers Karamazov  questions what happens to the individual
who is in some way forced to choose who he or she is: how he
or she chooses a sexual, national, or religious identity;
how he or she takes on a role of father, son, brother and/or
artist. The performance also scrutinizes the role of choice in
artistic production. What happens when the dancer rather than
the choreographer decides which role that dancer will take in
the performance? Can dance relinquish the authority of the
choreographer? Can an audition in which dancers make choices
really work?     Renata Salecl

The performance Brothers Karamazov has been created with  twenty choreographers and performing artists from Slovenia, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Germany, France, Netherlands, Romania and Sweden, who have been invited to Ljubljana for two weeks
in December 2006. Based on the work  each of them has already contributed in the course of the auditions, they further elaborated their choices in the presence of each other in order to devise a "side-by-side" Brothers Karamazov performance event.