History: the devil in us, in me, in you. – Peter Handke: Storm Still; MandićCircus, role no.63

If the original Mandić Machine (2011), was a parade of his acting creations (37 in the period 1996-2010), MandićCircus does not want to be an extension of this living museum of theater and staging aesthetics. Although Circus follows the conceptual starting point of the Machine (actor as a machine for producing emotions, actor as a medium of identification, actor as a body of fascination), MandićCircus is not a continuation of acting quotes – Circus is a consequence of Mandić as a machine.

MandićCircus is a subjectivized history as loaded and soaked in the memory and consciousness of an actor and performer who thinks with body and presence, who manipulates the emotion and fascination, and who is kept alive by his obsession with theater. Mandić in Circus brutally confronts the actor and performer, the artist and egocentric, the exhibitionist and voyeur, the divine and the banal, the pathology of ambition and the misery of success… He is as unforgiving to himself as to his viewer – both establish and enable a Faustian theatrical consensus that internalizes, mythizes and subjectivizes the dominant ideology, regardless of whether it criticizes or affirms. This schizophrenic loop, which is tightened around the neck of an individual in the name of society, inclusiveness, political correctness, etc., squirting out of soloist Mandic as well.

In the Circus of egomaniac subjectivization, Marko selectively appropriates everything he has ever said on stage and in performances – regardless of who, when and why wrote it. Everything he has ever said, performed, played, screamed, recited, chanted, sweated, internalized or extracted – all this has formed his unique habitus, and all this erupts on the spectacular surface of the Circus. The only objective fact that remains the conceptual foundation of the project is Mandić’s biography, which includes 91 acting creations in the period 1996-2021. MandićCircus strictly follows the chronology of their creation.

Performed by Marko Mandić

Stage design: Matej Stupica
Music: Samo Kutin
Video: Matej Stupica, Stella Ivšek, Jure Lavrin
Sound design: Eduardo Raon
Lighting design: Bojan Jablanovec, Mojca Sarjaš
Stage workers: Robi Laznik, David Potočnik, Viktor Čuk, Marko Kržič, Tomislav Samardžija, Aleš Anžič
Prompter: Gaja Pöschl
Producer: Špela Trošt

Financial support: Ministry of Culture of RS and the City of Ljubljana

*Ticket price: 750 RSD (reduced price: 500 RSD)*

Photos: Peter Uhan

Duration: 01:40

Gallery