PILLARS OF SOCIETY – PROLOGUE FOR UOMO

The concept of the performance was created by Ljubinka Stojanović, and it will be performed by Ljubinka Stojanović and Donatello Fumarola.

The performance reimagines the “pillars of society” – not as institutions, but as people, as all of us, with our names and surnames. It raises the question of how politics lives within an individual, whether as an activist or as an observer, in a time when the very foundations of social order are being questioned. Through the dialogue of image, body, and voice, it explores the intersections of politics, history, and collective memory.

It is inspired by the cinematic poetics of Béla Tarr, Yervant Gianikian, and Angela Ricci Lucchi, as well as by the title of Heinrich Mann’s satirical novel. An important conceptual context of the performance is also found in the work of Darko Bratina, sociologist, film critic, politician, and founder of Kinoatelje, after whom the award presented this year by Kinoatelje to Gianikian and Tarr is named. The “pillars of society” thus become not only a symbol of stability, but also a provocation: who actually carries them – the institutions, or the people themselves?

About the artist:

Ljubinka Stojanović is a dramaturge, screenwriter, and PhD in Multimedia Arts. She is an Associate Professor and Head of the Master’s Programme at the Academy of Arts in Belgrade. She is also a member of the Slovenian Association of Dramatic Artists (ZDUS), a member of the Board of the Serbian Screenwriters’ Association (USS), a member of the Serbian Association of Dramatic Artists (UDUS), and a member of the International Screenwriters’ Association (ISA).

Her plays have been staged and awarded at numerous regional and international theatre and film festivals. Her work focuses on the themes of contemporary human identity, the exploration of the phenomenon of hypermodern societies and newly emerged institutions in relation to post-memory, social and cultural practices, the relationship between the body and new media, as well as the (female) body and its boundaries in the process of artistic creation.

Participation in the event is free of charge.

The event is part of the GO! STUDIO project, co-funded by the European Union through the Small Projects Fund GO! 2025 of the Interreg VI-A Italy–Slovenia 2021–2027 Programme, managed by EGTC GO, and included in the official programme of the European Capital of Culture GO! 2025.