How to Reconstruct Dead Chicken? On Theatre Reconstructions in Slovenia
How to Reconstruct Dead Chicken? On Theatre Reconstructions in Slovenia

Summary/Abstract: Reconstructions of anthological performances of the Russian avantgarde, Bauhaus theatre experiments, and other avant-garde movements of the early 20th century became a popular practice, or even a trend, in European and North American theatre in 1980s. Later on, reconstructions of neo-avant-garde performances from the 1960s (sometimes described also as theatrical 're-enactments') gained a considerable interest of theatre practitioners as well as theatre theoreticians and historiographers. Nowadays the notion of theatre reconstruction is still in the air and it calls for a critical examination. Is it a 'legitimate' aesthetic practice (that takes past theatrical events as a starting point for a completely new artistic vision) or is it just one among many other methods of historicizing theatre performances through 'performing' preserved documents, recorded memories and other archival materials? The author of the paper was involved in these discussions and was especially focused on theoretical and historical aspects of the reconstruction of a neo-avant-garde performance Pupilija, Papa Pupilo and the Pupilcheks. An extensive and a long-lasting research of documents regarding the performance, preserved in collections of several specialized institutions (theatre institute, theatre academy, archive of the national television, etc.) The paper presents, on one hand, the most interesting results of the research process and, on the other hand, contextualizes this 'case-study' within a more general discussion on the very concept of reconstruction in theatre.

• Details
• Contents