Samtale/debatt
From Stage To Rehearsal / Learning from Zagreb
Culture, art and higher education are under pressure all over Europe. Funding cuts and threats from increasingly conservative politics have pushed many in the arts into a defensive position, searching for strategies to formulate a response.
In Zagreb, a political party called MOŽEMO! (We Can!), consisting largely of activists and cultural workers, was founded in 2019, and after the 2021 local elections they became the largest party in the Zagreb assembly, running on an green-left agenda.
Among other things, MOŽEMO! has tripled investments in cultural projects and institutions. Goran Sergej Pristaš, Professor of Dramaturgy at the Academy of Dramatic Arts, University of Zagreb and former Head of the Working Group for Cultural Strategy and Cultural Development of the City of Zagreb, comes to KHiO for an open conversation to discuss art, education, politics — and what is to be done.
A conversation between Goran Sergej Pristaš and Prorector Manuel Pelmus.
Goran Sergej Pristaš
Dramaturge, member of CO2...a couple of artists together with Nikolina Pristaš; co-founder and member of BADco. (www.badco.hr), a performing arts collective.
Professor of Dramaturgy at the Academy of Dramatic Arts, University of Zagreb. Head of the Working group for Cultural Strategy and Cultural Development of the City of Zagreb.
As researcher and curator at the Centre for Drama Art (CDU), one of the initiators of the project Zagreb - Cultural Kapital of Europe 3000.
With his projects and collaborations (BADco., Frakcija) he participated at Venice Biennale 2011 and 2016, Documenta 12, ARCO and numerous festivals and conferences.
Mentoring and teaching courses in performance dramaturgy, writing for performance, analytical writing, dramaturgy and choreography, collaborative practices at Uniarts (Stockholm), JLU (Giessen), Statens Scenekunstskole (Copenhagen), P.A.R.T.S. (Brussels), KHiO Oslo etc.
First editor-in-chief (1996-2007) of Frakcija, a magazine for the performing arts.
His latest book is Exploded Gaze (Multimedia Institute, Zagreb 2018).