Dragan Živadinov's Zero-Gravity Theatre

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2021.2.591

Keywords:

Dragan Živadinov, post-gravitational theatre, Noordung: 1995–2045, technological substitute, culturalisation of cosmos, cosmisation of art

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss the idea of creating a zero-gravity theatre, pioneered by Dragan Živadinov, a Slovenian conceptual artist. In order to do so, the author turns to Russian philosophical (N. Fyodorov, K. Tsiolkovsky, A Chizhevsky) and artistic sources (K. Malevich), as well as the space exploration envisioned by Slovenian scientist Herman Potocnik Noordung, who influenced Živadinov's cosmokinetic art. Resisting the legacy of cosmists and supremacists, Živadinov designs his objectless antimimetic theatre with a void actor, freed from weight and expected to be replaced by a technical substitute, which emits the actor’s memory from near-equatorial orbit. This article examines the foundations of post-gravity theatre, which are based on three algorithms with the digital memory of the actor: biological (recording of body coordinates), biographical (recording of professional biography), and biomechatronic (recording of genetic structure). These will be controlled by the “umbot” both on stage and in space after the death of the actors. The author focuses on the Biomechanics Noordung production, performed in the stratosphere on board an IL‑76 MDK aircraft. Due to sudden free-fall moments, the performers experienced a state of weightlessness, interpreted as a rehearsal for the future liberation of the body from gravity. In conditions which made it possible to create a dozen modes of weightlessness, the actors could perform in a state of levitation, which was perceived as a unique abstract theatrical performance. Combining Meyerhold’s theory of biomechanics, conceived in the 1920s as a system of exercises for the actor’s body, with Noordung’s research on gravity and ways to overcome it, represented by drawings of a rotating space station, Živadinov realised the idea of theatricalising the cosmos. With this performance, Živadinov shows that an abstract work of art can become truly abstract only if it triumphs over gravity, i. e. if it loses its gravitational orientation (up, down, left, right) and manifests itself in zero gravity.

Author Biography

Kornelija Ičin

Dr. Hab. (Philology), Professor, University of Belgrade.

1, Student Sq., 11000, Belgrade, Serbia.

ORCID 0000-0002-0943-4660

kornelijaicin@gmail.com

References

Biryukov, Yu. (2003). Osnovopolagayushchii vklad K. E. Tsiolkovskogo v razvitie teoreticheskoi kosmonavtiki [K. E. Tsiolkovsky’s Fundamental Contribution to the Development of Theoretical Cosmonautics]. In K. E. Tsiolkovskij – sovremennyi vzglyad na ego tvorchestvo (k 145-letiyu so dnya rozhdeniya). Moscow, Institut istorii estestvoznaniya i tekhniki imeni S. I. Vavilova, pp. 56–67.

Chizhevskii, A. (1977). Stranitsy vospominanij o K. E. Tsiolkovskom [Pages from Memoirs about K. E. Tsiolkovsky]. In Khimiya i zhizn’. No. 1, pp. 23–32.

Fyodorov, N. (1906). Filosofiya obshchego dela v 2 t. [Common Cause Philosophy. 2 Vols.]. Vol. 1. Vernyj, Tipografiya Semirechenskogo oblastnogo pravleniya. 731 p. (1913). Vol. 2. Moscow, Pechatnya A. I. Snegirevoi. 473 p.

Gacheva, A. (1990). Russkii pokhoronnyi obryad i uchenie N. F. Fedorova [The Russian Funeral Rite and the Teaching of N. F. Fyodorov]. In Obshchee delo. Sbornik dokladov, predstavlennyj na I Vsesoyuznye Fedorovskie chteniya. Moscow, Komitet kosmonavtiki DOSAAF SSSR, pp. 205–220.

Hrvatin, Е. (2002). Biomechanics in Weightlessness. In PAJ: A J. of Performance and Art. Vol. 24. No. 2, pp. 102–107.

Kabakov, I., Groys, B. (2010). Dialogi [Dialogues]. Vologda, Biblioteka Moskovskogo kontseptualizma Germana Titova. 346 p.

Kazyutinskii, V. (2003). Kosmicheskaya filosofiya K. E. Tsiolkovskogo: za i protiv [The Cosmic Philosophy of K. E. Tsiolkovsky: Pro et Contra]. In K. E. Tsiolkovskii – sovremennyi vzglyad na ego tvorchestvo (k 145-letiyu so dnya rozhdeniya). Moscow, Institut istorii estestvoznaniya i tekhniki imeni S. I. Vavilova, pp. 77–92.

Kutyrev, V. A. (1997). Noosfera kak utopiya i kak real’nost’ [The Noosphere as Utopia and as Reality]. In Strategiya vyzhivaniya: kosmizm i ekologiya. Moscow, Editorial URSS, pp. 169–178.

Leiderman, Yu. (1995). Kosmokineticheskii Kabinet Noordung [Cosmokinetic Office Noordung]. In Khudozhestvennyi zhurnal [website]. No. 8. URL: http://moscowartmagazine.com/issue/65/article/1404 (accessed: 08.12.2020).

Linnik, Yu. (1995). Russkii kosmizm i russkii avangard [Russian Cosmism and Russian Avant-Garde]. Petrozavodsk, Svyatoi ostrov. 82 p.

Malevich o sebe. Sovremenniki o sebe. Pis’ma. Dokumenty. Vospominaniya. Kritika v 2 t. [Malevich about Himself. Contemporaries about Him. Letters. Documents. Memories. Criticism. 2 Vols.]. (2004). Moscow, RA. Vol. 1. 584 p.

Malevich, K. (1995–2004). Bog ne skinut. Iskusstvo, tserkov’, fabrika [God Will Not Be Overthrown. Art, Church, Factory]. In Malevich, K. Sobranie sochinenii v 5 t. Moscow, Gileya. Vol. 1. Stat’i, manifesty, teoreticheskie sochineniya i drugie raboty. 1913–1929, pp. 236–265.

Malevich, K. (1995–2004). Suprematizm. 34 risunka [Suprematism. 34 Patterns]. In Malevich, K. Sobranie sochinenii v 5 t. Moscow, Gileya. Vol. 1. Stat’i, manifesty, teoreticheskie sochineniya i drugie raboty. 1913–1929, pp. 185–189.

Proshechkin, E. (1990). Russkii kosmizm Fedorova i Tsiolkovskogo: protivorechiya i skhodstvo [The Russian Cosmism of Fedorov and Tsiolkovsky: Contradictions and Similarities]. In Obshchee delo. Sbornik dokladov, predstavlennyi na I Vsesoyuznye Fedorovskie chteniya. Moscow, Komitet kosmonavtiki DOSAAF SSSR, pp. 167–170.

Subetto, A. (1997). Russkii kosmizm i sfernoe uchenie [Russian Cosmology and Sphere Teachings]. In Strategiya vyzhivaniya: kosmizm i ekologiya. Moscow, Editorial URSS, pp. 42–55.

Tsiolkovsky, K. (1928). Volya vselennoi [The Will of the Universe]. Kaluga, publ. by the author. 23 p.

Tsiolkovsky, K. (1929). Rastenie budushchego. Zhivotnoe kosmosa. Samozarozhdenie [The Plant of the Future. The Animal of Space. Spontaneous Generation]. Kaluga, publ. by the author. 32 p.

Tsiolkovsky, K. (1930). Nauchnaya etika [Scientific Ethics]. Kaluga, Tipografiya Oblastnogo soveta narodnogo khozyaistva. 70 p.

Tsiolkovsky, K. (2001). Ocherki o Vselennoi [Essays on the Universe]. Kaluga, Zolotaya alleya. 384 p.

Uspensky, P. (1911). Tertium organum. Klyuch k zagadkam mira [Tertium organum. А Key to the Mysteries of the World]. St Petersburg, Tipografiya “Trud”. 264 p.

Vernadsky, V. (1978). Zhivoe veshchestvo [Living Substance]. Moscow, Nauka. 358 p.

Živadinov, D. (2010a). Kozmizem/transhumanizem. In Živadinov, D. 50 koordinat postgravitacijske umetnosti. In Scribd [internet-portal]. URL: https://www.scribd.com/document/31097592/50-kordinat (accessed: 08.12.2020).

Živadinov, D. (2010b). Postgravitacijska umetnost. In Živadinov, D. 50 koordinat postgravitacijske umetnosti. In Scribd [internet-portal]. URL: https://www.scribd.com/document/31097592/50-kordinat (accessed: 08.12.2020).

Published

2021-06-21

How to Cite

Ičin, K. (2021). Dragan Živadinov’s Zero-Gravity Theatre. Quaestio Rossica, 9(2), 487–501. https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2021.2.591

Issue

Section

Problema voluminis