Brothers Karamazov / Made in China

volume 2 / contemporary dance

premiere: 30., 31. January, 1., 2. February 2008 at 20.00 Stara mestna elektrarna - Elektro Ljubljana, Slomskova 18, Ljubljana, Slovenija

idea & choreography: Mateja Bucar, dance & choreography: I-Fen Lin, Mu-Yi Kuo, Pei-Jen Tsai, Reb-Di Reb, visual concept: Vadim Fiskin, music: Borut Savski, producer: Sanja Kuveljic

production: DUM - Drustvo Umetnikov / DUM - Association of Artists , co-production:Zavod Bunker / Stara mestna elektrarna – Elektro Ljubljana
Project is supported by: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia , Cultural Department of the City of Ljubljana

Brothers Karamazov -volume 2 - Made in China, falls in the field of "GEOPOETICS" , that is when geographical, religious, ideological matters are approached to in a poetic way, in the sense as artists Jury Leiderman once explained :
“It is the idea that politics, races, people are essentially transformed into in existent objects, like small ovals, boxes, lumps, closets. Then their status can become very flexible and unpredictable: a real character, a real people representative, but in fact just a representative of the corners near plinths or a representative of coffee stains…”, Y. L.
Leiderman's geopoetics is so quite different from the well-known geopoetics of Kenneth White and his followers. It does not presuppose a peaceful nomadic existence in the harmony between literature and exact sciences, but it rather remains within a perverse and liberated relationship with geopolitics. It sucks the energy of collective consciousness and historical memories and annihilates them into something “purely formal”.

MADE IN CHINA
"Today it is not just that most of our consumer objects are in fact Chinese: China has presented us with far more radical changes in social and family organizations. With its "one child" policy, China has shown that sibling relationships can be eradicated. In China we thus do not have brothers and sisters anymore. The lack of sibling rivalry, however, does not necessary bring contentment to people. The Chinese worry is that one-child families are creating "The Child Emperors" – narcissistic boys over-indulged by parental love who have problems forming social relationships.
China is also opening new ways of thinking through people's beliefs in authorities and religion. Dostoevski in his "Brothers Karamazov" famously concluded that if God does not exist everything becomes permitted. Jaques Lacan, however, reversed this saying into: "If God does not exist nothing is permitted any longer." China has created its own gods to escape this dilemma. The God of the Communist Party seems to thrive together with the God of Capitalism. A strange new brotherhood "Made in China" is emerging today. "

Renata Salecl