Landscape of Desire is a drama-dance performance that addresses the problem of materializing female desire in patriarchy. Is it possible to represent or perform female desire in contexts that are always limited and shaped by male perspectives? What does it mean to perform desire through speech, and how is it performed physically in space and time? Dimitrije Kokanov and Igor Koruga continue to develop their choreographic-dramaturgical collaboration in the field of exploring the performer’s relationship between text and body within the representational practices of acting (previous project How to Explain the Body to a Man, 2021). Collaborators on this project include actresses Marta Bjelica and Jelena Ilić. A key part of the critical reflection on “desire” in this performance is the fact that both authors identify as men. The idea to consciously critique the inert male gaze, language, and dominance, in the hope of rejecting them, was methodologically explored during the creative process, focusing on negotiating positions between the authors and collaborators. Negotiating the meaning of individual elements of the performance between the four artists resulted in a deliberate distancing from the usual principles of constructing narratives and organizing elements within traditional dramaturgical frameworks. The freedom to deviate from traditional storytelling and the classic mode of observing performance were some of the approaches to diminish the “male gaze” and self-satisfied erotic totalitarianism.
Darling, I’ll show you hysteria! I’ll show you the uncontrolled, crazy, perverted, excessive, emotional, pre-menstrual, irrational woman who has resolutely rejected control, because no one controls my body! I control my desire and consciously surrender to pleasures.
Paraphrase of Karen Finley’s text "It’s My Body"
From the album From a Certain Level of Denial.
