The Politics of Artistic Direction in Slovenian Theatres

Symposium organised by the Association of Theatre Critics and Researchers of Slovenia

Theatre is a magical art that appears to its viewers in many forms. But its rich inner complexity and its inevitable external intertwining with the world is present not only in the gaze of the spectator, but is as such also manifested inside the theatre structure itself. Although a clear line between the external and internal world of the theatre in the form of the fourth wall is long gone, we often too simplistically, and consequently wrongly, imagine that the spectator alone is the voyager from reality into the world of theatre imagination. The road is open and supported also in the other direction. Theatre is not an end unto itself. Although the task of the artistic director is primarily the planning of the theatre programme, skilfully selecting from the different forms of theatre production and, finally, forming a coherent artistic vision in theatre, her or his activity cannot be limited only to the specific interior space of the theatre. The artistic director always works in a certain social, economic, cultural and political context, and therefore depends on it in many ways, but at the same time the work of the artistic director inside the theatre world is also a reflection of what is happening beyond its boundaries.

The symposium brings a series of debates and views about the activities, strategies and tactics of the artistic director in the current time – very turbulent and insecure for art and culture. The institution of the artistic director is under attack; from the fact that within the theatre it is practically pushed into the background, where it has to adapt daily to the economic logic of cultural management and the consumerist culture of late capitalism, to the fact that it is sentenced to operate in the absence of any kind of carefully devised cultural strategy by the political establishment. Is it possible that the role of the artistic director is slowly and irreversibly slipping towards the loss of its identity and demise? Perhaps. But, even though the current historic space might be emptied, it cannot at the same time be empty. Just like the new forms of functioning, the strategies and tactics of artistic direction of theatres cannot be empty if the institution of artistic director wishes to survive in this tension between the aesthetic, economic and political.    

Head of symposium: Tomaž Krpič, PhD