NEWS

Two productions on the 26^th Flora programme – this year focused on female authors – touch on the Marian cult. Choreographer Johana Pocková with her solo To the Madonna with Rust and Swiss performer Teresa Vittuci with her solo Hate Me Tender both form their definite opinion on the ideal of womanhood as a compassionate, passive woman and devoted mother and comment on it in their own way…

Johana Pocková, who choreographed The Lion's Den and Treatment of Remembering at the last two editions of Flora, was inspired to create her solo miniature by the memory of an unexpected encounter with a picture of the Virgin Mary in a dilapidated chapel. Movementally, visually and musically compact, the impression To the Madonna with Rust, dealing with questions of spirituality and the transcendence of ordinary human existence, will enliven the imposing Baroque interior of the Kostel Panny Marie Sněžné (the Church of the Virgin Mary of the Snows) for two evenings (16 and 17 May).
„In the diverse layers of the work, we can also find something pagan – the confident, playful feminine energy and its various values. These positions are far removed from the compassionate, suffering figure of the Virgin Mary as she is stereotypically presented. There is a step towards the development of a broader theme of the contemporary experience and liberation of womanhood, a kind of discussion with female passivity and torment,“ appreciated critic Jana Návratová (Dance Actuality).

The archetype of the Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, is also revisited in Teresa Vittucci's performance Hate Me Tender: Solo For Future Feminism, which presents an ironic, queer-feminist interpretation of the untouchable ideal of femininity and the cult of virginity, which still significantly shapes our society and which Vittucci challenges and deconstructs with her associative imagery. In a provocative solo, the Schweizer Kulturpreis jury highlighted the „systematic deconstruction of political themes“ – we wrote about it here.

Both impressive works – moreover performed on the same day – make a stimulating contribution to the discussion about the position of women in society.

The question of the depiction of religious figures and the limits of artistic freedom is also raised by Jiří Havelka and Divadlo Husa na provázku ensemble's „furiously cathartic stage ritual“ Smokeout, which responds to the scandal surrounding production of Frljić's Our Violence and Your Violence five years ago in Brno.

 

On the 26 Flora programme – click for tickets (ticket sale from 11 April at 12 noon):

Tue 16 May at 5 pm | kostel Panny Marie Sněžné
Johana Pocková & POCKetART TO THE MADONNA WITH RUST (16 May)

Wed 17 May at 5 pm | kostel Panny Marie Sněžné
Johana Pocková & POCKetART TO THE MADONNA WITH RUST (17 May)

Wed 17 May at 8 pm | S-klub
Teresa Vittucci HATE ME, TENDER: Solo for Future Feminism + discussion on the following day

photo Kristýna Padrtová / Radek Herold / Yoshiko Kusano