MEMEMEME
ABOUT
MEMEMEME (2019) is the space of a community's flow of association, a clash of an infinite number of memes* and their reverberations. Through the performers' bodies, their mobile phones and digital video and sound references and associations, the performance layers gestures, movements, images and expressions. Its performative score plays with and around the mechanics and aesthetics of internet memes. As a living mimetic organism, the stage actions are multiplied and repeated, diversified and mutated to open up the potential semantic splits and gaps that reflect the fragmented and alienated nature of modern communication and the internet society.
*A meme is any idea that is, despite its potential randomness or nonsense, repeated and multiplied through variation and selection. The term meme (from Ancient Greek mimeme, 'imitated thing') was coined by biologist Richard Dawkins as a cultural equivalent of a gene to designate language, stories, knowledges, habits, styles and behaviour that is transmitted through imitation. As a consequence of the near universal use of the internet in the digital age, the most widespread, flexible, resilient, and circulated are precisely (viral) internet memes.
photo: Nada Žgank
CREDITS
Concept, direction & choreography: Jan Rozman
Performers and co-creators: Peter Frankl, Kaja Janjic, Julija Pecnikar, Daniel Petkovic
Dramaturgy: Varja Hrvatin
Sound and video: Vid Merlak
Costume design: Tanja Pađan (Kiss The Future)
Light design: Urska Vohar
Set design advice: Dan Pikalo
Graphic design: Matija Medved
Video documentation: Hana Vodeb
Photo documentation: Nada Zgank
Executive producer: Sabina Potocki
Producer: Emanat
Partners: Bunker / Old Power Station, Ljubljana, Mediterranean Dance Center, Svetvincenat, Croatia
In collaboration with: CoFestival 2019, Ljubljana
“THE INTERNET IS A STAGE AND THE PEOPLE MERELY MEMES”
“When Jan invited me to work with himon this performance, I literally gasped for air when I saw its working title *gasps* in the application. The concept seemed topical both in terms of subject matter as well as methodology, while delineating a certain contemporary mode of performing I foundquite interesting, so I quickly warmed up to the idea of collaboration. But soon I had to ask myself “how the hell” do you make a performance about memes. With living bodies. Using movement. Aiming beyond some basic illustration of the format or listing astring of references and associations. How to address a relevant theme through the problematisation of memes in a way that it doesn't end up totally banal and random? This radically bold idea, which at the time had me wondering how it would develop, was a real thrill and, as it happens, still is a source of excitement, two weeks prior to the premiere as I am typing these words.” Varja Hrvatin (You can find the whole essay here!)REVIEWS
“Are memes our modus operandi? Are memes the pinnacle of our generation's creativity? Are memes our rebellion? Are memes an expression of our egoistic engagement with ourselves? Are memes the communication codes of our generation? Also, Jan Rozman doesn't deal with that (too much). And (luckily) he does not moralize. He simply imitates. He chooses mimesis as the main driver / method and makes a show where the half the audience under 35 laughs out loud and the other half wonders what they are really looking at and what is the point of all of this. And what does HALP mean.”
Decber 2019, Kriterij.si, Memememe mememe meme me m e, Klara Drnovsek Solina
“The performance manages to establish the stage as a space sui generis and through this capturing the alienation of social media. It doesn’t try to articulate something in a discursive way and in this way ease the problem, making it less painful and therefore more acceptable. It doesn’t hide the hysteria of the current situation. (…) Stage, this most obvious civilizational place of observation becomes a space of intimacy into which we can voyeuristically peek while the screen becomes the new surface of observation.”
27.11.2019, Kriterij.si, You don’t hate Mondays, you hate capitalism, Muanis Sinanovic
Decber 2019, Kriterij.si, Memememe mememe meme me m e, Klara Drnovsek Solina
“The performance manages to establish the stage as a space sui generis and through this capturing the alienation of social media. It doesn’t try to articulate something in a discursive way and in this way ease the problem, making it less painful and therefore more acceptable. It doesn’t hide the hysteria of the current situation. (…) Stage, this most obvious civilizational place of observation becomes a space of intimacy into which we can voyeuristically peek while the screen becomes the new surface of observation.”
27.11.2019, Kriterij.si, You don’t hate Mondays, you hate capitalism, Muanis Sinanovic
"The millennial generation might be the first one with the software already woven into their synapses, therefore it could say something about that. Perhaps to the boomers, who still think that the young generation itself is responsible for their attention disorders, narcissistic tendencies and world-weariness and that they can simply shut down their computers and smart phones.”
3.12.2019, Neodvisni, Dance of the Millenials, Pia Brezavscek
“With a humorous statement in a diverse set of performers, MEMEMEME brings a fresh breeze to the Slovenian contemporary dance scene. Choreographer Jan Rozman's project is pleasantly ambitious both in terms of the theme and the production scope, even though it may crumble here and there under the weight of ambition. (…) Yet, like written here, these cracks between the social, the personal in the corporeal are productive, opening up questions of our incorporation of the social.”
21.2.2020, Radio Študent, Where is my self?, Samo Oleami
21.2.2020, Radio Študent, Where is my self?, Samo Oleami