This lecture analyses the notion of faction as a creative tool in site-based art, with a specific focus on physical space and the qualities it achieves or generates in this context. Starting from Meta Hočevar’s thought on the importance of space in believing the story in theatre (and vice versa), this lecture focuses on the relation between space and narrative in different spatially-oriented and site-related artworks. The physical space is understood through its narrative qualities, the textuality, performativity and dramaturgical potentials it carries, arguing that space is never a neutral envelope of an action, but rather can be experienced and used as an active protagonist of the (performative) event itself.
This active state of space is especially set in motion by creative re-interpretation of facts, which inevitably generates a new spatial layer – temporary quality relying on both facts and fiction. This spatial-textual construct, understood as faction, is seen as a specific spatial quality in site-specific art. The lecture analyses performances from the Hidden Cities trilogy, developed as a series of immersive audio-walks realized in Novi Sad (Serbia), Rijeka (Croatia), and Timișoara (Romania), which explore the liminal territory of a possible, alternative city.
Višnja Žugić, Ph.D., is an architect and a co-founder of Ephemera Collective and BAZA-Spatial Praxis Platform, both non-profit organizations of architects specialized in creative practices, interdisciplinary research and education in the field of Spatial Design. She is working as an Assistant Professor in Architecture, at the University of Novi Sad, Serbia, in the course lines of Architectural Design and Ephemeral Architecture. Her research interests are oriented towards spatial performativity, site-specific practices and interdisciplinary methods of exploring, understanding and articulation of space. She has led and executed projects, workshops and educational programs at the relevant international events in Wales, Taiwan, Czech Republic, China, Serbia, Romania, Scotland, Philippines and Finland.
Stories Behind Cities – Timisoara: https://behind.city/en/storytelling/timisoara/