Camille
Livia Balazova/ Colectivo Priekopnik Vevericka (Slovakia)
28.07 | 21:30 | Mikis Theodorakis theatre
Tickets: 13€ regular – 10€ student, unemployed
Colectivo Priekopník Veverička (in Slovak: Pioneer Squirrels) was founded in 2015 by the Slovak Lívia Balážová MM and the Costa Rican Zebastián Méndez Marín, as a result of an inescapable artistic connection that began with Última Vez, a mythical company directed by Wim Vandekybus.
With the production of La Plancha (2019) the team grows by incorporating Rafa Ávalos and Vivian Rodríguez, professionals in the areas of production and communication, respectively.
We are an international collective oriented towards creation and learning. Based on our own language, we develop open source methodologies to access new and powerful forms of expression based on the celebration of diversity and cultural integration.
We model innovative alternatives for creative processes based on the game as an engine to break stereotypical visions of performers and spectators in the scenic event, pushing the limits of creation, leaving aside academic labels and putting empathy, respect and consensus first.
“Our energy and creative universes complemented each other so well that we decided to work together and develop our artistic vision to share with the world.”
Lívia Balážová MM (Co-funder Colectivo Priekopník Veverička)
She was trained in academies such as Konzervatórium J.L. Bellu Banská Bystrica (Slovakia), SEAD (Austria) and P.A.R.T.S. (Belgium).
She has participated in projects for Kubilai Khan Investigations (France), Rui Horta (Portugal) and Wim Vandekybus (Belgium).
From Colectivo Priekopník Veverička she has developed her own creations such as #whateveristrendingnow, PRACH / POLVO and La Plancha, while she has collaborated with international creations, such as: What the body does not remember and Speak low if you speak love (Ultima Vez), Este Barco (Luis Alfredo Sierra Chacon), DoDna and Millennial Magic Mirror (MimoOs), EU .GENUS (Honey and Dust Company), CRUSH (Marlyn Attie and Fundación Espacio Creativo), Čin and Punk Pajama Party (Divadlo Štúdio Tanca), Islas (R3M), Ženy 2020 (Move-you o.z), Nefotografie and Neistota (Divadlo K), Vnorená (Odivo), Walking songs (Divadlo Aréna).
The performance Čin won the Dosky 2019 award in the category extraordinary performance in dance theater, and the performance Vnorená received 3 nominations for the Dosky 2022.
She has taught workshops in Germany, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Slovakia, Hungary, Mexico, Nicaragua, New York, Panama, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Russia, Austria and Greece.
In the year 2020 co-founded the RED Movement Network online training platform.
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Coming from the country with strong folkloric roots, my formation path was very much influenced by it.
During my studies at conservatory J.L.Bellu, besides classical and folklore dance, I fell in love with contemporary dance style, which brought me to discover my authentic dynamic movement. I was lucky/blessed to explore this deeper at the international schools like SEAD and P.A.R.T.S.
I have always been a very energetic person with endless curiosity to look for different ways of expressing my artistic soul. Over the years performing, collaborating with different artistic companies, traveling and getting to know different cultures, I had the need to create my own playful training practice, to be able to share it with other movers, artists, people and like this keep on getting inspired by them. The adrenalin of the unknown in the new opportunities is what gives me the push to keep exploring my artistic spirit.
In 2018, the art group Honey and Dust created the complementary performance eu.genus, which oscillated between a studio, an open rehearsal, an educational concert, an installation and a performance. It involved a wide range of Slovak and international performers. Lívia MM Balážová remained fascinated by the experience of the creation process and the resulting work. She decided to pay closer attention to the life of the French sculptor Camille Claudel, who was one of the sources of inspiration when composing eu.genus.
Fragments of a woman, fragments of a body, fragments of a work. A constant balancing act between the materialization of a work and its destruction. The quote from Louise Bourgeois: “I do, I undo, I redo,” very accurately captures this cyclical nature of creation. It is a process of creation, destruction and remaking, which approximates Claudel’s own experience with art.
In her performance, Lívia MM Balážová works with the messages and imprints left by one woman straddled between reality and dream, work commitment and private tragedies, freedom and imprisonment in an institution. What was it like to be a woman artist in the past? What is it like today? How many times do I have to reshape and remold myself for satisfaction and fulfillment to come? And will it ever come? What is the line between work and personal? Is there one at all?
Camille Claudel (1864–1943) worked in the period at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, when female artists did not have the conditions to learn and present their work. She lived for a long time in the shadow of the famous sculptor Auguste Rodin, who was her mentor and collaborated on several of his works. Her love of art, creation, Rodin, the loss of an unborn child, and the difficult task of establishing herself in the artistic circles of the time led her to a psychological breakdown. Claudel’s delicate depictions of the human form resulted in sculptures that were censored by the authorities and the press of the time as too sensual and inappropriate. She destroyed approximately 90 of her sculptures and was haunted by paranoia. For more than half of her life, this talented artist was locked up in an institution for the mentally ill, where she eventually died in solitude. She lived her life in the shadows, and the essence and qualities of her work were discovered, named, and documented only after her death.
The Camille Claudel Museum is located in her hometown of Nogent-sur-Seine, and her other works are in the Rodin Museum and in collections around the world.
Concept and performance: Lívia MM Balážová
Dramaturgical cooperation: Monika Kováčová
Assistant director: Zebastián Méndez Marín
Producer: Rafa Ávalos
Scenography: Juraj Poliak
Music composition: Matej Sloboda
Technical cooperation: Lukáš Kubičina
The main partner of the project and supported by public funds was the Arts Support Fund (Fond na podporu umenia).
Residential partners: Divadlo Štúdio tanca (Dance Studio theater), Akadémia umení (Academy of Arts), Dance Days Chania (IP12 arthouse), Divadlo Pôtoň (Pôtoň Theater), Záhrada – centrum nezávislej kultúry (Garden – Center for Independent Culture).
28 July | 21:30 | Mikis Theodorakis theatre
Livia Balazova/ Colectivo Priekopnik Vevericka – Camille
