Blueprint for Revolution / DFKH 2020

PERFORMED BY Mark Požlep, Gašper Piano
AUTHOR, SCENOGRAPHY Mark Požlep
TRANSLATION AND ADAPTATION Jure Novak
DRAMATURGE Diane Fourdrignier
MUSIC Gašper Piano
HEAD OF THE TECHNICAL TEAM AND LIGHT DESIGN Grega Mohorčič
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Barbara Poček
PRODUCTION Gledališče Glej
COPRODUCTION Contour Bienniale 9: Coltan as Cotton, Mechelen, Belgium AND HISK, Higher Institute for Fine Arts, Gent

Documentary performance by Mark Požlep.
Length of the performance: 60 mins

Mark Požlep first performed Blueprint for Revolution in New York 2017 when he did a circular navigation around the island of Manhattan in a canoe. One of the main goals of the project was to explore human reconciliation through conflicting notions of freedom. By the physical act of sailing, he activated ideas of fantasy, discovery, conquest and survival by confronting the island’s overwhelming capitalist system. In this performance his aims to nuance relationships with history, current political state of affairs, and social complexities of the island based on the dialogues he had with descendants of Native inhabitants of Manhattan.
Mark began his American adventure with Winnetou, a fictional hero devised by Karl May. Through May's books and mostly German-Yugoslavian film production, Winnetou became a symbol of an indigenous tribe for entire generations that grew up behind the Iron curtain. An image of a tribe that never really existed. What is the reality of colonized indigenous populations in North America? What have they endured so that the white American myth of freedom, that only really exists for the selected few, could be built? How are they resisting the rule of Capital today, when their land is no longer plundered by railway but by pipelines? And what is the role of all of us who grew up with nostalgic vision of a noble savage, without really establishing critical distance towards the colonial context of the United States and Karl May's writing?
In his latest project, Mark Požlep is continuing his research into Yugoslavian nostalgia and is mercilessly drawing a blueprint for some other revolution.

GLEJ THEATRE

Established in 1970, Glej Theatre is the oldest independent performing arts venue in Ljubljana. An important theatre production and education institution, Glej has been striving to explore theatrical practices in novel and daring ways ever since its early days. It remains a place open to unorthodox approaches and theatrical research, fore-fronting the upcoming generations of artists.