ITTA Director Art Director of the Croatian International New Theatre Art Festival, Gaudana Fonack
《Communication Opportunities between Chinese Drama and World Drama under the Development of Post-mainstream Drama》
I am from Croatia, Croatian for "Hrvatska", a small country at the confluence of Central Europe, South-Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean Sea. After the declaration of independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991, four years of war split Yugoslavia into several countries, two of which are now members of the European Union, of which Croatia is one. With a total population of less than 4.5 million, Croatia may only fill a block in a big city like Shanghai, Mumbai and Sao Paulo. Our capital, Zagreb, has a population of less than one million. Similarly, the capitals of many European countries, although larger than Zagreb, can be called small cities compared with many large cities in Asia.
As you may not know, Yugoslavia does not belong to the Eastern European plate affected by the former Soviet Union. Instead of standing behind the iron curtain, it tries to find and develop its own way between the planned economy and the capitalist economy. Politically, Yugoslavia also stands between the East and the West. Under the leadership of President Tito, the leader of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, Yugoslavia has been working to build a platform for the third world countries that do not want to align with the East or the West since the liberation of Yugoslavia from Germany after World War II and until Tito's death at the age of 80. Unlike other Eastern European countries, we have passports that allow us to travel around the world, allow us to start our own businesses and, to a certain extent, own private property. After Tietong's death, Tietoism aborted. Forty years ago, the former Yugoslavia was experiencing a violent upheaval and then plunged into a period of political disorientation. Art, including theatre, of course, tries to end this dispute by means of national homogenization or transnational symbolization. From the standpoint of the European Union, both views are a bit outdated, but for those who are trying to study this history, these are real.
It was precisely during that period that, in 1987, I started Eurokaz, the International New Theatre Festival. At that time, Croatia still belonged to the Communist Alliance, and "Eurokazi" was the only artistic platform in Eastern Europe to provide equal support for the new generation of artists in collaboration with Western countries. These artists played a vital role in changing the overall appearance of European theatres in the 1980s, which now seems a little older. Ulokatz helped some emerging theatre groups manage their initial business, and many of them later became stars in the new mainstream theatre, such as Rosas, La fura dels baus, Romeo Castrouch, Need Company, Sheep Fable, Royal de Luxe, forced entertainment, William Kentrich and so on.
Later, these "new dramas" eventually formed their own mainstream, rebelling logo-centric in the way of multimedia integration, and orienting theatres to science and technology, multimedia, visual art, dance and limbs. This theatre phenomenon began to appear in Western Europe and the United States, providing an example for the theory of "post-theatre" and soon became popular with the operation of theatre festivals and theatre markets. With the artists'tour performances and the spread of aesthetic ideas, the "New Mainstream Theatre" has quickly become a consensus picture of European theatre. The picture has not changed much to this day. The whole European theatre is in the same pace, but theatres around the world take place independently, but they are similar to each other: both Slovenian and Portuguese theatres show similar features. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the same thing happened in Eastern Europe. The commercial success of the "New Mainstream Theatre" led to the separation of the younger generation of theaters from the traditional ones.
In this context, in the early 1990s, Eurokatz developed and put forward the concept of "post-mainstream theatre", aiming at abandoning the concept of contemporary theatre's Eurocentrism, developing theatre into a multi-cultural environment and exploring the way to innovation.
"Post-mainstream Drama" will focus on theatre from the economic and cultural power centers of the West, such as Brussels, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, to the peripheral countries of Europe and a wider range of non-European cultures. We began to invite artists from Latin America, Asia and Africa, who proved that aesthetic ideas outside Europe and the United States have great vitality. In this group, there are also some new generations of theatrical directors from the former Yugoslavia who have developed a unique theatrical language that combines different styles and traditions - adding elements of the Balkan region to the directing and performing techniques, nourishing the Performing Arts with extremely rich cultural memory.
In this way, we have come up with the concept of "vertical multiculturalism", despite the current concept of "interculturalism". In 1994 and 1995, the concept was clearly elaborated at the Symposium on "Post-mainstream Drama" in Yulokaz. The distinction between the concepts of "vertical multiculturalism" and "horizontal multiculturalism" should help to clarify the mist of "multiculturalism" that has hovered over Western Europe since Peter Brooke. "Horizontal Cultural Pluralism" refers to focusing on minorities and applying traditional cultural styles outside Europe to drama with decorative elements, such as Peter Brooke, Eugenio Barba, Alian Monuxukin's many works, mixing a little Indian make-up, gorgeous Japanese costumes, or the long whistle of some black actors, in an attempt to convince us. This work is interoperable with other parts of the world, and in fact, this way of composing elements is essentially Western-centric. Vertical multiculturalism opposes this concept and claims that they lead to cultural pluralism in a "colonial way". Unlike the former, "vertical multiculturalists" stand at the intersection of different cultures, trying to penetrate and penetrate different cultural concepts, and construct a unique and innovative artistic paradigm in a way of "schizophrenic analysis". The actors who work in this way try to combine the dramatic traditions of different cultures with the dramatic programs and create a unified psychological basis. At the same time, the modern theatre posture emanating from the actor's body provides another dimension of observation for the inherent ritualized elements and the stylized concept of time, which is dazzling.
These works reinterpret the tradition and create programs with atypical dramas, such as the combination of image theatre and ritual theatre, the combination of high-tech and traditional forms, etc., which is impossible in the concept of post-modernist drama. Unlike other European theatres and dances, these works not only focus on the exploration of body mechanization and physics, but also pay more attention to the emotional experience of human commonness touched by the body itself.
Returning to the concept of "post-mainstream drama" of "Yulokaz", audiences in the 1990s were most concerned about the traditional forms of Asia, such as Japanese Nengju and Madhya, and Indian Katakali, which had never been seen before in Croatia, and they were shocked by the modernity of classical content. If we were connected with China at that time, I believe that Chinese opera would have a place in it.
The history of contemporary art often regards the traditional art of cultures outside Europe as a national phenomenon, ignoring the ideological fact that their styles can be related to modern art. Despite many examples in visual art, in theatre, traditional artistic styles have inspired many theatre directors in Europe and the United States, such as Brecht and Grotowski. These different Asian traditional theatrical forms abandon the typical European individualism and European experimentalism. As you know, individualism and experimentalism in European theatrical concepts are now degenerating into a circle (elements) that is closely linked and under complete control. In this circle, today's very popular art processes such as self-reference, audience participation, interaction... All kinds of cliches are so predictable that they become very boring.
On the other hand, in traditional Asian dramas, we can feel spectacular and amazing visual experience, such as elaborate costumes and masks, subjectivity erased in the use of symbols, noble and magnificent artificial traces in the sense described by Gordon Craig and Alto, and part of myth. In traditional Asian theatre, theatrical stage can be regarded as a manifestation of a more orderly world, and theatrical actors have acquired a more powerful manifestation of life than individual life, which may have appeared only in the ancient Greek stage in the context of European theatre.
When it comes to traditional art forms, we always talk about their protection. However, from another point of view, they can also be regarded as the source of inspiration for contemporary theatre workers to create new theatre languages that are different from traditional theatre languages, using these still vibrant Asian cultural traditions as resources. I don't know much about Chinese opera, but maybe this perspective can also be applied to the situation in China. Can Chinese contemporary theatre develop its unique and original theatrical model? Instead of seeking inspiration from the West.
When we are discussing the communication process between Chinese drama and world drama, we should not forget a crucial topic. China needs to fully recognize the precious value of its own traditional theatrical forms of origin. Similarly, it should actively understand and grasp the changes of contemporary performing arts in other countries. In this way, under the premise that the platform itself is equal, communication can be realized. In the future, creating space for feedback and dialogue will be an important task, and the International Theatre Town Alliance may be an excellent way to communicate.
For me, Festival projects always have a deeper meaning: a strong declaration, a statement about the world, theatre and art, or, more precisely, a forum for the analysis of important theatrical phenomena, a gathering of artists and thinkers. This is not an easy task, nor is it a small goal. Planners need to invest a great deal of time, energy and energy in finding and researching exciting drama treasures in a corner of the world on a long and lonely journey, although they may not necessarily bring profits in the theatre market. Planners should focus on the authenticity of the project and preserve a promised place for differentiation and diversity in the vast ocean of market rules.
Ms. Gaudana Faulkner Accepted the ITTA Appointment
(These contents are from the tape recordings of the speaker.）