UTOPIAS LOST AND FOUND
The personal journey of An international group of artists through the utopias that shaped each of them, in Scandinavia, Great Britain and the former Yougoslavia.
UTOPIAS LOST AND FOUND led the audience on a journey through the utopias that shaped and still shapes us: From the era of the post WWII expansive, optimistic, visions for society based on ideas of equality, solidarity and justice, through the focus on individuality and competition in the last couple of decades, to the present day where many has lost faith in that change is even possible.
In a vibrant, experimental universe, that mixed live-music, documentary, physical imagery and object-animation UTOPIAS LOST AND FOUND examined the importance of utopias, for the lives we live, and the world we build. And asked questions like: What happens, when the utopic dream, meets reality? When the utopia you took for granted, ceases to exist? Can we live without the faith in the future and power of change that utopian projects offer? The performance was created by seven performing artists from five different countries in Scandinavia, Great Britain and the former Yugoslavia. Based on the artists own longings, lost ideals, struggles, and dreams for the future. From very different cultural and geographical backgrounds, and through their voices, contrasting images of Europe then and now, where lined up- from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, to Scandinavian welfare-models and Brexit.
Credit list:
Performers: Rebekah Caputo, Kathleen Yore, Matko Botić, Matias Hedegård Andersen, Petra Kovačić Pavlina & Igor Vasiljev
Musicians & Composers: Matko Botić, Igor Vasiljev, Kathleen Yore & Matias Hedegård Andersen
Idea & Concept: Petra Berg
Directors: Petra Kovačić Pavlina & Petra Berg
Scenographer & Costumedesigner: Igor Vasiljev
Dramaturges: Matko Botić & Lisbeth Sonne Andersen
Lightdesign: Clementine Waldelius
Productionleader, Builder & executer: Peder Flarup
Assistent: Babette Hejlskov McPhillips
Photo: Anna Marin & Igor Vasiljev
Producer: Gitte Nielsen
By ABER DABEI in co-production with Bora Bora
Premiered: 31st.of August 2019, at Bora Bora, Aarhus & 5th. ofseptember 2019, at Literaturhaus, Cobenhagen
Supported by: Statens Kunstfond, Knud Højgaards Fond, Oticon Fonden, Aarhus Kommune & Københavns Kommune
Aber Dabei creates imaginative and inspiring images of utopia and dystopia, in their flickering, deeply musical collage Utopias Lost & Found Aber Dabei last visited Copenhagen in 2015 with the delicate wandering performance “På vej” (On the way) (…) “På vej” was based on interviews, and Utopias Lost & Found also uses this connection to reality. Here however more directly with movie-sequences with people from Europe who isn’t talking directly about utopias, but about their specific stories like the woman, who as a young girl helped building Yugoslavia after second world war and the man who participated in the mining-strikes in England in the 80’s. His story carries, like many other features, both utopia and its opposition dystopia, within itself.
(…) the casts background is Danish, English and former Yugoslavian, which gives their narration a cacophonic, but also very dynamic tone.
The narration (…) has the immense quality, that it grants an aesthetic form to the intercultural premise, that intrigues us by communicating intelligent and engaged to all senses.le sanser.
Aber Dabei skaber fantasifulde og fantasiskabende billeder af utopi og dystopi i deres flimrende, dybt musikalske collage Utopias Lost & Found.
Aber Dabei besøgte senest København i 2015 med den fine vandreforestilling På vej […] På vej var baseret på interviews, og Utopias Lost & Found anvender også denne kobling til virkeligheden. Her dog mere direkte med filmsekvenser af mennesker fra Europa, der ikke taler direkte om utopier, men om deres konkrete historier som kvinden, der som ung pige var med til at opbygge Jugoslavien efter Anden Verdenskrig, og manden, der var med i minestrejkerne i 80’ernes England. Hans historie bærer, som flere andre indslag, både utopi og modsætningen dystopi i sig.
[…] de medvirkende har dansk, engelsk og ex-jugoslavisk baggrund, hvilket giver en kakofonisk, men også meget dynamisk tone til deres fortælling. Forestillingen […] har den helt store kvalitet, at den giver tidens interkulturelle præmis en æstetiseret form, der gør os nysgerrige ved at tale intelligent og engageret til alle sanser.