Hijikata, The Samurai from the North
A performance by “Metheor”

19 March 2021 | 19:00 h. - cancelled
23 April 2021 | 19:00 h. - new date
Studio 1 of Radio Plovdiv, 8 Nayden Gerov Str
Admission is free with pre-registration at [email protected]

Director: Ani Vaseva
Theory: Boyan Manchev
Devices and digital programs: Stefan Donchev

With the participation of: Leonid Yovchev

"Hijikata, the Samurai from the North" is the next phase in the development of the show "Hijikata and his double", presented within the programme of Plovdiv 2019. It was a show dedicated to Tatsumi Hijikata, the legendary creator of the butoh - the avant-garde Japanese dance form that overturned the history of contemporary performing arts. This new version of the play focuses on the parallels between the biography and the fantastic plots in Hijikata's work, as well as on the strange connections between the figures of the choreographer Hijikata Tatsumi, the 19th century samurai Hijikata Toshizo, the writer Yukio Mishima, the Roman emperor Heliogabal and last but not least - Samurai from the Bulgarian North Leonid Yovchev.

The event will be held in compliance with all mandatory anti-epidemic measures (wearing masks, keeping distance, disinfection).

The Latin term "ex corpore" literally means "from/out of the body." The French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy used it to mark a body-derived speech, emphasizing the connection between speech and corporeality.

Ex corpore is a project, that includes an extensive research process and series of events. It is focused on the development of stage techniques based on the re-invention of the image-technique-body-speech-meaning relationship. It draws inspiration from and experiments with the physical techniques and their potential to produce visual and sound images, and it develops new digital technologies as an active stage partner and a participant in the in stage practice.

Ex corpore will be presented in Plovdiv in the period 14 - 19 March 2021 with a series of events: a performance, a performative lecture by Ani Vaseva and Boyan Manchev, an acting workshop by Leonid Yovchev, as well as a demonstration of techniques of the creation process of digital devices for stage use by Stefan Donchev. 

All events will be with free entrance and preliminary obligatory registration at [email protected]. Here are all the events:

• 14 and 15th March (Sunday from 14:00 to 19:00 and Monday from 18:00 to 21:00) - Acting workshop with Leonid Yovchev. Applications for participation in the workshop are accepted until March 6 at [email protected], the results are announced on March 8. Applications for participation are accepted only in case of confirmed attendance on both working days.
• 16th March (Tuesday) - 18:00 - Presentation of Stefan Donchev: "Digital cameras for stage use."
• 17th March (Wednesday) - 18:00 - Lecture by Boyan Manchev: "Art and its shadow: The dance of darkness and the revolution of the body" and 19:30 - Presentation of the new book by Boyan Manchev "Freedom In Spite of Everything", as well as a series of his books, published in the last year in Bulgarian, Japanese, French and English.
• 18th March (Thursday) - 19:00 - Ex corpore performance.
• 19th March (Friday) - 19:00 - Performance "Hijikata, The Samurai from the North".

All events take place in the Hall of First Studio of BNR Plovdiv and are with free access but an obligatory preliminary reservation at [email protected]

Ex corpore project, is implemented also with the financial support of the Culture Program of Sofia Municipality and the Ministry of Culture, and with the assistance of Swimming Pool, ETUD Gallery, HaHaHa Impro, ArtFest, Cinema House and DNK is part of the Legacy Programme of Plovdiv 2019 and is implemented by Metheor Association. 

Metheor is an art collective, working with stage, visual, textual artistic and critical forms, developing their radical poetics. The central figures of Metheor during its ten-year history are the playwright and director Ani Vaseva, the philosopher Boyan Manchev and the actor Leonid Yovchev. Metheor's projects include 15 written and staged theatre plays and performances, which toured internationally, realised in Sofia, Vienna, Plovdiv, Berlin, Porto, Leipzig etc. They are defined by the group and the interpreters of their work as "theatre of disorganization", "inhuman theatre" and "theatre oratorio" and are based on a strong idea of ​​theatre. Each performance of Metheor seeks to invent a unique form based on experimental work with text and productive critique of theatrical techniques.

http://plovdiv2019.eu/