Jedrt J. Furlan
FLIRTING
Twenty years in
dance is not little. If at this point I add 25
performances to it and eight, only the highest-rated
prizes, this might create a feeling that I am writing a
kind of necrologue to a vivid and concluded artistic
path. The reality is far from that. The prize of
Borštnikovo srečanje, of the Prešeren fund, Zlata
ptica, the Župančič prize, the prize in Bagnolet... All
honourable though at the same time, which of the
biggest still remains to Matjaž Farič? Perhaps the
cardinal Prešeren prize, perhaps this will take another
twenty years... Have the ones that have been won
assured Farič the space under Slovene sun which would
pronounce, for example, The Group of Matjaž Farič? This
tells a lot of the sense of belonging that the state of
Slovenia is assuring to contemporary dance. As the
situation gets observed from the doomed tower at
Maistrova 10 (seat of the Slovene Ministry of Culture),
not at all from the performances alone, dancers and
choreographers have the right to work and (only)
survive, somewhere on the margin of attention where the
brink between proffesionals and amateurs is hanging on
a narrow marionette thread.
He
was the first and is up to now the only one who was
appointed an artist in
residence of Cankarjev
dom, at the suggestion of the Ministry of Culture at
that time. As usually, that didn't last long. First
twenty active dance years of Matjaž Farič didn't mark
only the Slovene contemporary dance, it left its traces
on me as well. Without pathetic feelings. The
first, Solo,
then the second 3.oLo,
Le Sacre du
printemps,
Swan
Lake (and there is a
lot of it left) are the performances with which I
measure and weigh the superlative, discipline, vision
and essence in medias
res. Including
those performances of Farič which I didn't find
essential, which were too and at the same time not
enough thought over and I didn't really know where to
put them or do with them. For too long the Slovene
dance horizon was stuck in an expectation that Matjaž
Farič will as the first one among »contemporaries«
choreograph the ensemble of the Ljubljana Ballet. To
build a bridge and show that worlds are not two, that
there is only one. Truly, Temptation
happened but a
robust number of years later. Today, the worlds are
still two, in spite of being inhabited by more or less
the same people.
His
work was defined by investigating the dance medium,
with stories present but never quite the ones to tailor
or drive the artistic modus
vivendi. As he himself
says in the time of A circle in
the body – A square in the head, he is
intruiged by »pulsation of energies... I like it when
the sequence of movements unites in a long, endless
motion«. His opus is thus a ceaseless and neverending
story of dance. Dedication to that instinct brought a
number of performances of a »superbly« considered, into
dance compounded motion that demanded a complete
exclusion of any outer view; which was unable of
dealing with purity of fascination with the terminally
measured movement. Which is understandable since an
incessant collective fascination never leads to a
productive result. One of compliments and bows for
Farič is coded in controversial views and a multitude
of differing reactions raised. Every author deserves
them. As the first one, Matjaž Farič encountered with
new technological times, started to programme,
choreograph and plan performances on a computer. And
produced magic shows, a certain glory to humanity,
humaneness, to the charm of the mistakeable and
(im)perfect body.
He was also the
first one who thanked me for a merciful critique of one
of his last choreographies – which is quite rare in the
family circle of contemporary performing arts in
Ljubljana. With this and with the performances I
mentioned he has signed himself into my perception of
the world I care for as a devoted, knowingly
mistakeable and conscient author. If his stobbornness
is to be added to this, we get a profile of a
fullblooded author. What could be written to conclude
this than a wish for at least another twenty years of
dance, of curiousity and exploration. Let's discover,
get inspired, enthusiastic and amazed together.