Boklansering, Seminar

Bojana Cvejić: Dramaturgy at Work

In the period 2022-24, Cvejić wrote the book on dramaturgy based on her practice as dramaturg in dance and theater in Europe since 2000, often in dialogue with other artforms. The invitation of Pil Hansen, editor of the Expanded Dramaturgy book series at Routledge followed from a series of lectures and workshops, which Bojana taught at Dansens Hus in Oslo (2022-2024), but also in Brussels, Amsterdam, Gothenburg, Stockholm, Madrid, Lisbon, Belgrade, Zagreb, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Toubab Dialaw in the period 2006-2022.

Books are made to be read and used; not only interpreted, but also commented and tweaked. Snelle Hall, Mette Edvardsen, Nikhil Vettukattil, Nora Frizzi Auerbach and Fredrik Floen will pick out passages from the book and respond to them from the perspective of their own work as artists, dramaturges or educators.

Participation is free of charge, but you need to register at Dansens Hus.

About the book

Starting out from the author’s extensive practice as a dramaturg and educator, Dramaturgy at Work: Threading through Experimental Dance, Performance and Theater (Routledge 2026)identifies and elucidates the varied selection of dramaturgical tools that have been used in the experimental practices of contemporary dance, theater, and performance in Europe since the early 2000s.

In order to trace the elements of dramaturgy that are at work in the creation and production of a performance, this book focuses on how performances “work” dramaturgically. It illuminates questions, work processes, situations, and decision‑making through stories that unravel the making of a performance. Drawing on scenes across various contexts in Europe and beyond, with their self‑organized platforms, magazines, and workshops, this book ventriloquizes a multiplicity of voices, of more than 40 dance‑makers and theater makers, performers, dramaturgs, and artists from other disciplines. It understands dramaturgy as larger, more informal and diffuse than the work of the dramaturg alone. Structured around four dramaturgical clusters—material, methods and procedures, operations, and social relations—this book proposes a nonlinear framework through which creation processes can be examined. These clusters address material resistance, heuristic inquiry, audience‑probing operations, and the dramatization of social relations in collaborative work.

The book is a result of prof. Bojana Cvejić’s KUF work.

Biographies

Bojana Cvejić is author of nine books, among them Dramaturgy at Work (Routledge, 2026), Toward a Transindividual Self (co-written with Ana Vujanović Archive books, 2023), and Choreographing Problems (Palgrave, 2015). As a practicing dramaturg, performer or director, she has co-created many performances that have toured extensively internationally. Bojana has been active in the self-organization of collective platforms for experimental artistic production, critical theory, research and self-education in Europe and former Yugoslavia (Performing Arts Forum, Saint-Erme since 2005; TkH/Walking Theory 2001-17), which have informed her research in social choreography, transindividuality, and anti-fascist political solidarity. Since 2017, she is Professor at Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KhIO). Her current research Choreographing Antifascism (supported by KhIO) has evolved in three chapters of a public study program for Kaaitheater (Figures of Fascism and Antifascist Solidarity 1), in collaboration with P.A.R.T.S. Brussels (Figures of Fascism and Antifascist Solidarities 2) and Kanal Pompidou Brussels (upcoming Figures of Fascism and Antifascist Solidarities 3), including the study and performance program for Dansens Hus Oslo (Choreographing Antifascism March 2026).

Snelle Ingrid Hall, dance artist, theater scholar, associate professor. Has worked as a dance artist for more than 30 years, primarily in the free dance field, and especially through the constellation Siri&Snelle. Has worked for many years as a teacher of dance composition and dance theory, also worked as a writer and dramaturg/eye from the outside. Currently dean of the Dance department, Oslo Academy of the Arts.

Mette Edvardsen is a performer and choreographer working with language, voice and writing as material for her pieces. Alongside her live works she has developed a publishing practice, both within her own artistic work as well as an independent small press (Varamo Press). Since 2021, she runs Norma T - a project room, an occasional bookshop and a fictional friend, in her workspace in Oslo. An onsite library collection of her long-term project Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine (2010 – ongoing), where a group of people learn books by heart and together form a library of living books, is hosted at Norma T and contains the paper copies of all the memorized books, a shadow library and a reference library. She holds a Phd in artistic research from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts with the title Writing in space and time.

Nikhil Vettukattil (b. 1990, Bengaluru, India) is an artist and writer who lives and works in Oslo. Using a range of media such as sound, installation, performance, text, sculpture, and video, his practice questions modes of representation and image-making processes in their relation to lived experiences. Recent solo exhibitions include ‘Speculation’, Beau Travail, Stockholm (2026); ‘AGIT’, Berlin (2024); ‘Sparebankstiftelsen DNB stipendutstilling’, Oslo Kunstforening (2024) and ‘Kurant Visningsrom’, Tromsø (2024); ‘Hothouse Flowers’, Podium, Oslo (2024); ‘Postproduction’, Studiengalerie 1.357, Frankfurt (2024), among others. Selected group exhibitions include ‘Four Dilations’, MoMA PS1, New York (2025); ‘Ring of Fire’, Kistefos Museum, Jevnaker, Norway (2025); ‘designsofthetimes’, Le Bourgeois/3236RLS, London (2025); ‘ProtoZone 16: Hallucinogenesis’, Shedhalle, Zurich (2024); ‘The Institute for Scene Experiments Part VIII’, Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt (2023); ‘The Institute for Scene Experiments Part V’, Camden Arts Centre, London (2023), among others.

Fredrik Floen (b. 1988, Bergen; raised in Gausdal; based in Oslo) is an artist and designer working in the intersection of clothing and costume design. His visual practice spans various media, including garments, wigs, books, performance, scenography, drawing, and sculptural installations. He is an Associate Professor at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO), where he leads the BA program in Clothing and Costume. Floen’s work evokes a vibrant yet melancholic world, characterized by a colorful maximalism that explores visual culture through the lens of the gay male experience—incorporating themes of self-sabotage, human fallibility, and clothing as both a language and a system. His work has been presented at venues and festivals including the Munch Museum, Black Box teater, Dansens Hus, Palais de Tokyo, Stockholm City Theatre, Stamsund Theatre Festival, and the Bergen Dramaturgy Festival. In 2023, he represented Norway at the Prague Quadrennial. Through flamboyant responses to existing frameworks, he seeks to create new forms and dramaturgies, often aiming to situate his work outside of traditional production platforms. This approach facilitates the exploration and reimagining of silhouettes and concepts within the realms of experimental fashion and performance design. www.friedrichfloen.com

Nora Frizzi Auerbach works as a dramaturge, performance maker and author between Berlin, Oslo and Frankfurt. She studied Comparative Dramaturgy and Performance Research at the Hessian Theatre Academy and the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. Drawing on feminist approaches and practices of memory, as well as choreographic methods, she explores the points of friction between dance, performance, and theatre. She imagines the stage as a space for reflection, dreaming, and experimentation. She has written for various magazines and collections of essays and is a co-founder of SEDIMENTS. Festival for Dramaturgies. Responding to the current political climate, she is writing a series on cultural policy under right-wing governments for the theatre magazine Norsk Shakespeare Tidsskrift. She has also worked as a researcher and jurist for several years, focusing on social security for artists and anti-discrimination policies in cultural institutions.