You can download the full version of the Book of Abstracts here: Balancing conflicts / conflictual balance
This year’s International Theatre Conference organized by the Theatre Faculty of Janáček Academy of Performing Arts is held for the 12th time. After two years of exploring the frontiers of the theatre and beyond, we return closer to the centre of performing arts, aiming to identify and explore various layers of the word CONFLICT in the world of contemporary theatre and audio‑visual creation (because both segments of the arts are inherent to the Theatre Faculty).
From our perspective, conflict is not always a purely negative phenomenon. We are interested in what role it plays in the contemporary performing arts and art as such. When is the conflict a mere necessity or a draining burden and when does it mean an opportunity to move on? At the conference, we will explore our subject of interest from different angles and at various levels.
An intimate insight into the creative work of an artist focused on the theme of a productive conflict (with oneself) will open our two-day gathering. Then we will look at our topic from a more institutional point of view. What frictional surfaces arise when creators from outside collaborate with a public institution, namely the Czech Television? What is the position of an individual theatre‑maker or performer in an institutionalised theatre company compared to uncertain independent work? And what have the sensitive and ethically problematic cases in Polish theatre institutions resulted in? Not only these questions will be raised within the first day of the conference which we close with a very specific point of view – how the war conflict in Ukraine translates into artwork and what unexpected issues it opens.
The second day of the conference will be focused on the presentations of our invited guests. We will explore in detail several unique artistic projects which reveal many layers of the object under our examination. Katrīna Dūka will speak about a cross-disciplinary piece titled In The Name of Love. Þóranna Dögg Björnsdóttir and Antonín Šilar will put the topic of this year’s conference in the context of cultural and historical conflicts depicted in the theatrical adaptation of the novel Moonstone. Our gathering will be closed with a presentation of a very special performance, Prompt Dancer, which was created for the conference itself and seeks to understand the implications of using AI tools in performing arts and especially in dance. Then, the authors’ collective António Baía Reis, Sára Solmošiová and Petr Vašků will reflect on their collaborative approach to the project and will be looking for an answer to the question of how this process goes beyond mediatized discourses, both utopian and dystopian, about AI taking over creative processes and the need for artists to rescue the humanity in creativity.
Looking forward to many inspiring meetings and fruitful discussions!
Hana Průchová
The Conference Board
