1987–2013
The International Festival of New Theatre Eurokaz is considered one of the most important cultural events in this part of Europe. After the first edition in 1987, which was part of the Zagreb Universiade`s (World University Games) cultural programme, the festival became an annual event, taking place in Zagreb in the second half of June. It has featured numerous artists and companies from all over the world, and thanks to the authenticity of its selection which contributed to its international reputation, its role has been crucial for Croatian presence on the theatrical map of Europe for more than a quarter of a century. The concept behind the programme emphasises the impulses that change our habits of perception and push with innovative procedures the developments in theatre forward.
In the beginnings, during the now-distant 1980s, Eurokaz was one of the first festivals to create a platform for a new generation of artists, who stirred up Europe and initiated a number of bold impulses that had arrived from the fields of technology and science, visual arts, new media, dance and movement, also rejecting a prevailing logo-centric order of the time, – all of which would become a dominant aesthetic in the following decades. The Zagreb audience had the privilege of witnessing the groundwork being laid for the performing arts of the 21st century (Rosas, La Fura dels Baus, Societas Raffaello Sanzio, Needcompany, Jan Fabre, G. B. Corsetti, Ilotopie, Royal de Luxe, Station House Opera), whose influence on the youngest generations is still felt today. The festival`s second edition in 1988 featured artists from the United States as well, most of them for the first time in Europe: from the creators of technological theatre (Soon 3, Survival Research Laboratory, Nightletter Theater) to choreographers and performance artists (Joe Goode, Liz Lerman, Nancy Karp, Rachel Rosenthal) who started the so-called American theme, which continued in the following years with names such as John Jesurun, John Jasperse or more recently Cynthia Hopkins, Goat Island and Nature Theater of Oklahoma.
During the war and postwar years, Eurokaz recognised impulses from the European periphery and non-European cultures as independent theatrical and choreographic idioms with a complex cultural background. The concepts of post-mainstream and vertical multiculturalism were defined and articulated at Eurokaz, and the selection was expanded to Asia (Saburo Teshigawara, Gekidan Kaitaisha, Op. Eklekt) and South America (Athanor Danza, Diquis Tiquis, Integro Grupo de Arte, Grupo Teatro Libre). At that time Eurokaz also promoted a generation of innovative European directors: from the former Yugoslavia (Dragan Živadinov, Branko Brezovec, Vito Taufer, Haris Pašović), Russia (Roman Viktjuk, Vladimir Klimenko, Popmehanika, Derevo), France (François Tanguy, Stanislas Nordey, François-Michel Pesenti, Jean-Michel Bruyère, François Verret), Denmark (Hotel Pro Forma, Von Heiduck, Teatret Cantabile). Slovenian theatre and dance was strongly represented, first during its most creative period in the beginning of the 1990s and later by the younger generation (Matjaž Berger, Emil Hrvatin, Tomaž Štrucl, Matjaž Pograjc, Bojana Kunst, Marko Peljhan). The phenomenon of the new Italian theatre (Fanny & Alexander, Motus, Teatrino Clandestino) was subsequently presented in a similar way.
In 1990 Eurokaz hosted a plenary conference of the theatre network IETM (Informal European Theatre Meeting), the first such gathering held in an Eastern European country.
In a multitude of aesthetic movements that appeared in the 1990s and at the turn of the millennium, Eurokaz strived to identify contemporary performing arts phenomena in order to create an appropriate context of their presentation. It was here that the idea of iconoclastic theatre was articulated, and the festival followed it from its “heroic“ phase in the 1980s (Societas Raffaello Sanzio, Ivan Stanev, Branko Brezovec, Baktruppen, Goat Island, Forced Entertainment) to the second and third generation (Jacob Wren, Showcase Beat Le Mot, L&O, Gob Squad, Philippe Quesne).
In 1997 the festival featured the most radical representatives of body art (Ron Athey, Lawrence Steger, Annie Sprinkle, Franko B, Stelarc, Orlan), and in 2003 it introduced Croatia to new circus (Acrobat, Happy Sideshow) and its variants (Aurélien Bory, Philippe Decouflé).
In recent years Eurokaz has explored themes such as: theatre and neighbourhood (Emma Dante, Béla Pintér, Arne Sierens, Abou Lagraa), innovation in the space of theatre conservatism (innovation as a term that need not necessarily employ new genres and media in order to confirm itself as being innovative), theatre of intimacy (Felix Ruckert, Via Negativa, Stan's Café), new forms of political theatre (topic: Tito), theatre and death (Hotel Modern, Peter Halasz, Nicolas Varchausky/Eduardo Molinari – a site specific project at the Mirogoj cemetery), musical gestus in theatre (Roysten Abel / Manganiyar musicians, Cynthia Hopkins, Pierre Rigal, Israel Galván) and many other.
Non-European artists who participated in the themes mentioned above remained an important part of the programme: William Kentridge from South Africa, Alajotas and Femi Kuti from Nigeria, Daksha Sheth from India, Kim Itoh from Japan, Raiz di Polon from the Cape Verde islands, Brasilians Bruno Beltrao and Deborah Colker, Lebanese Walid Raad, Living Dance Studio from China, Faustin Linyekula from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. An entire theme in 1998 was dedicated to traditional Asian forms (Japanese Noh theatre and Kodo drummers, Indian Kathakali)
Eurokaz has tried to explore the complexity of artistic risks, ranging from independent companies to established names such as Robert Wilson, The Wooster Group, Achim Freyer, H.-J. Syberberg and Edith Clever, Gerald Thomas, Sasha Waltz, or Akram Khan, as well as the productions of major state theatres (Viennese Burgtheater, Berlin`s Schaubühne, Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, Théâtre Gerard Philippe de Saint-Denis from Paris).
The local scene has also been regularly followed, from independent productions (early works of Montažstroj, Željko Zorica, performances of Ivana Popović, Schmrtz Theatre, Kugla, Labin Art Express, Boris Bakal, Dalibor Martinis...) to innovative productions by national and city theatres, giving special attention to directors who hold their own on the international scene: Branko Brezovec and Bobo Jelčić / Nataša Rajković.
In 2001 Eurokaz started its publishing activity; in 2006 it began producing and co-producing projects with local and international artists and partners, creating a long-time collaboration with Zagreb institutions: the Museum of Contemporary Art, The Academy of Dramatic Art and &TD Theatre.
The festival`s programme often includes discussions, symposiums, screenings, workshops, concerts and exhibitions. Five years ago Eurokaz Saloon – a series of regular monthly public debates about current cultural issues – was launched.
Eurokaz has been conceived from the start as a project open to production transformations but critical of established social and political values. In 2013 it will mark its last year as a festival.
For many years, as a rare Croatian theatre window into the world, Eurokaz has been moving away from a presentational and informative function in order to support creative efforts from the fringes of youthful insecurity, as well as a vehemence that is unable to adapt to local topography with visible social utility – in order to encourage responsible contemplation about theatre whose style possesses modes of artistic perception, the politics of observation, instead of the increasingly unbearable observation of politics.
With Croatia`s entry into the European Union, and thus its formal and probably conscious arrival to the threshold of European cultural benevolence, Eurokaz as a festival has fullfiled its mission and feels relieved of the initial conspicuousness of its self-assertive content: on July 1, 2013, during its 27th edition, the festival will reach its symbolic saturation.
Promoting a sorely needed de-festivalisation of cultural life, in the forthcoming years Eurokaz will reconsider its achievements and strategic goals and completely transform into a production house, still open to all the changes in theatre and cultural space, organisational necessities, Brechtian mountains and plains, stylistic, genre and media flows, the production of presence.
Gordana Vnuk