A few months ago we posted about the premiere of "Pavane for Antigone" by Hanna Preuss. It was the first date in Ljubljana. Now the duo on stage composed by Antonella Bukovaz (poetry and acting) and Antonio Della Marina (saxophone) is ready for the Italian premiere in Trieste, on January 21. Here you have further details about the event that will take place at "Teatro Instabile Miela" in the calendar of "Trieste Film Festival". As we already remembered while welcoming the first date of this project, we wish to remark again that "Pavane
for Antigone is a kaleidoscope of intimate artistic confessions expressing the
longing of modern man for peace with one’s self and the world, for the ending
of social discord and perpetual conflict that have all but exhausted humanity.
The performance marks 100 years since the First World War. Through the
universal aesthetics of sound and light, the Sonorous theatre transcends
the boundaries of language." Today we are pleased to offer to our readers a text by Maria Campitelli, extract from the catalogue of "Trieste Film Festival". [Photo credits: Nada Zgank]
 |
| Antonella Bukovaz |
Pavane for Antigone
by Maria
Campitelli
This is a
complex performance that makes use of different languages to create an
extraordinary evocative and poetic metaphor, in which myth and modernity
intertwine to express a yearning for peace that still pervades man today despite
the widespread unrest that surrounds us. It is a work that springs from the
idea of commemorating the 100 years since the outbreak of World War I: the
setting of the video supporting the event introduces us into a tunnel at the
foot of the hills near Nova Gorica; in other words, into the actual area where
the tragedy unfolded on the Italian front. It provides a point of reference but
the aim is not to offer a precise, concrete one, because the narrative of the
performance is marked by an abstract concept that touches things without
illustrating them, progressing by allusion, at times illuminated with stretches
of enchanting landscape, offset by the darkness of tunnels; it is in this
process that the story of the multiplicity and sometimes
conflicting feelings passing through the human soul unfolds.
 |
| Antonio Della Marina and Antonella Bukovaz on the stage |
Destructive
feelings mixed with explorations of the nature of the soul in an attempt to
overcome the eternal status of discord that prostrates humanity: this is the
thread that runs through the expansive yet detailed work of Hanna Preuss. The
aspiration is peace with ourselves and with the world around us, and the
reference to Antigone, with her rebellion against acceptance of the right of
power to subvert the consecrated natural and divine rules, intertwines with
potentially explosive latter-day feelings of
justice within well-structured social situations. Antigone’s impossibility of
action combines with the current constraints of a society of superficiality and
artificiality that reduces one’s freedom and autonomy of behaviour, producing a
globalised conformism. Hanna Preuss’s investigation – which has produced a
concept and a sound environment for the piece that reaches epic dimensions –
becomes a universal symbol of a human condition that has ancient roots. It is
rendered topical by the specificity of the contemporary world through the
instruments of unstoppable technological progress which, in the creation of the
performance, enables an aural-visual co-penetration, an expressive power of
image, sound and word that derives from long experience and the striving of an
artist with a broad vision of the world. And she has poured her skills and
knowledge into the Vodnikova domačija (Vodnik Manor) Sonorous Arts Centre of
Ljubljana, of which she is the artistic director. With this formidable
intellectual and technological equipment, and in this case supported by
numerous international collaborations, Hanna Preuss has, with Pavane for
Antigone, blended myth, history, present and a future projection. The story,
nourished by poetic abstraction, unfolds with actress Antonella Bukovaz
(recently appearing in Topolò) who is also the author. She recites in Italian
and Slovene, accompanied by a trilingual text. She also appears in the video,
walking into the tunnels with a lamp in her hand, a new Diogenes, to lighten
the darkness of the place and of knowledge, and appears on stage, overlaying
reality and fiction in a combination of great theatrical impact, while the live
saxophone played by Antonio della Marina, rips across the stage with its
tearing sound. This live-fiction becomes the paradigm of current existential
modes. But what prevails is a vibrant sense of poetry, which, through solitude
– “only alone, lost, silent, on foot, can I recognise things” (P.P. Pasolini) –
through time, through the unraveling of descents and with them the acquisition
of good and evil, opens in the end to love.
PAVANA ZA ANTIGONO
PAVANA PER ANTIGONE / PAVANE FOR ANTIGONE
Slovenia
2014, length: 40’
Original Concept & Soundscape: Hanna Preuss
Poetry & Acting: Antonella Bukovaz
Saxophone: Antonio Della Marina
Video: Hanna Slak
Motiongraphy: Luka Umek
Light design: Jaka Šimenc
Sound Engineering: Marko Trstenjak
Sound Technician: Jan Turk
Set Designer: Tomaž Primožič
Costume Designer: Jožica Trstenjak
Technical Assistance: Domen Bertoncelj
Graphic Design: Jaro Jelovac
Photography: Nada Žgank
Translations: Jeremi Slak
Organization: Nadja Šimnovec
Public Relations & Executive Producer: Marko Ipavec
Produced by: Hanna’s Atelier for Sonorous Arts
Supported by: Centro di arti sonore Vodnikova domačija (Lubiana), Ministero della Cultura della Repubblica Slovena, Comune di Lubiana, Trieste Film Festival, Teatro Miela (Trieste), Centro per il Film sloveno.
