Matija Ferlin: Sad Sam Revisited (2004)

Ferlinov prvi samostalni performans odvija se kao niz antiakcija kojima dovodi svoje tijelo i um do samih granica. Uz pomoć minimalnih, a opet snažnih gesti, kao što je otvaranje usta na nostalgične pjesme  trljanje mikrofona o prsa dok mu koža ne pocrveni, Ferlinova prisutnost kreće se između jasne vidljivosti i djelomičnog skrivanja. Njegove koreografske odluke, uključujući ponavljajući obrazac hodanja i suzdržane geste, opiru se konvencionalnoj kategorizaciji plesa, istražujući intenzivnu usredotočenost na tjelesnu prisutnost i emocionalnu neposrednost. Scenografija stvara sirovu, introspektivnu atmosferu koja naglašava teme intime, izolacije i ranjivosti kroz suzdržane trenutke tjelesne autofiksacije.

This is the fortune of manhood.

Images and image.

Burning the calm fever of love.

I press the button.

He feels.

Fainting upon the obstacle of touching.

Nothing I care remains.

He took the silence.

I took the devotion of a staring fantasy.

I’ve made a comedy of becoming a man next to an animal.

Ferlin’s first solo piece Sad Sam Revisited goes back to the final year of his studies in Amsterdam. Sad Sam Revisited encapsulates the procedures of contemporary theatre and dance with unexpected maturity and boldly sets out to face the demanding performative non-acts of duration, of persisting in forming a state, albeit never wavering to interrupt the narrative. The palette of Ferlin’s performing corpus in Sad Sam Revisited already incorporates recognisable sequences of the physical procedures he commonly uses, as well as the skilful shifting between humour and dryness, which performatively plays with the poetic fragments by Katalina Mella in the field of contemporary dance (and theatre). 

Source: https://emanat.si/en/production/matija-ferlin--sad-sam-revisited/