Nina Zivancevic
Elysian Fields of Power
—for Stephanette, Ivana eventually
So, Tiny Tom and Speedy Gonzales
Have had a Lab,
It was pretty much a physical thing,
They tried to outdo the topology of a body in space
From person A to person B ran the ‘power-field of
a person’, so, how would we envelope them
into our power-circle, if we were to say
‘I’m taking over a situation’?
then
You would say ’I don’t want to take a person
In my power-field, I want them to be free,
And besides, I’m not Pina Bausch or Vito Acconci’,
Documentation is more a referent than a remainder
And performance means
There’s an audience,
An event is an accident sometimes
And sometimes it’s steady and sleepy, like a video;
There may be people or not
A couple of technical by-products
But what always really counts is people
Who make decisions whether
to be there or not to be
as we’re making a private
out of their public space
and
not everyone can get it…
we are just trying to become these buildings
themselves, a part of the architectural landscape,
surroundings which are
the other
____
Statement of Homage
The poets/performers to whom I address and dedicate poems are simply the courageous forebearers of the avant-garde poetry and performance movements respectively in Belgrade, Serbia, and in France (for Stephanette Vander), and they are my brave, fearless women colleagues, whose intelligence, stamina, and courage I admire the best.
Stephanette Vander
Stephanette Vander founded the Theater Department with Philippe Tancelin at the Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis, where she was the head of the department until her retirement. A former member of the Living Theatre, she translated several books by Julian Beck and Judith Malina. Presently, she lives and works in La Grasse, near St Raphael in southern France.
Ivana Vujic
Ivana Vujic was born and raised in Belgrade, where she presently lives and is Director of the National Theatre in Serbia. She lived for a while in New York City, where she studied and worked with Richard Schechner and La Mama's director, Ellen Stewart. She is a member of many international theatre committees and teaches Performance and Theatre Studies at the Faculty of Drama Arts in Belgrade.
____
Nina Zivancevic is a poet, essayist, fiction writer, playwright, art critic, translator, and contributing editor to NY Arts magazine. Now a Parisian, Zivancevic is Serbian-born and has published 15 books of poetry. She has also written three books of short stories, two novels and a book of essays on Milosh Crnjanski (her doctoral thesis) published in Paris, New York, and Belgrade. The recipient of numerous literary awards, a former assistant and secretary to Allen Ginsberg, she has also edited and participated in numerous anthologies of contemporary world poetry. She has lectured at Naropa University, New York University, the Harriman Institute, and St. John’s University in the U.S., and has taught English language and literature at La Sorbonne ( Paris I and V) and the History of Avant-garde Theatre at Paris 8 in France and at numerous universities and colleges in Europe.