eastern bloc

eastern bloc

– catwalk concert –

about

The Eastern Bloc catwalk concert explores the socialist-communist past of Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland in an international co-production. Featuring extravagant costumes and vocal music accompanied by electronics, the performance gives a glimpse into a full day of a fictional country's only national TV channel on a special national holiday, Unification Day.

Catwalk concerts are a new performing arts genre somewhere between theatre, choral concert and extreme fashion show. The performances are themed and feature a group of performers who present vibrant, innovative, storytelling costumes on a catwalk-like stage, while singing contemporary compositions written for the scenes. In this way, the music and the costumes themselves become the two main art forms that dominate the stage, creating a new arena for theatre.

The Eastern Bloc draws on aspects of the social, aesthetic and everyday life of the communist-socialist era in the various Visegrad countries. Together with the artists from each country, we have created a project that speaks of our common past, with reference to the societies of the present and even the future. The aim is not to evoke nostalgia for the socialist era, but to initiate a dialogue between countries and different generations - who have very different memories of this period - and to reflect on how our common heritage lives on in our present and raises relevant questions for our lives today.

 

Catwalk Concert Productions proposes a brand-new concept created in 2015 by costume designer Fruzsina Nagy and music composer and conductor Dóra Halas to define the collaborative performances that do not strictly fit into any of the consecrated categories of the performing arts. In Hungary, the artist duo collaborates with the experimental choir Soharóza. Soharóza improvises with the human voice, language and movement, exploring different areas from folk music to composed pieces, constantly searching for new forms and sounds.

 

magyar nyelvű leírás

 

A Keleti blokk egy fiktív közép-kelet-európai országban játszódik, valamikor a jövőben - ám ez a jövő néha nagyon is emlékeztet a jól ismert múltra. Az egyetlen TV-csatorna ünnepi műsort sugároz, amelynek kincstári derűje mögül néha fel-felsejlik a kevésbé idealisztikus valóság. Az extravagáns jelmezeket és elektronikával kísért vokális zenét a Soharóza kórus tagjai vezetik elő, rendezők: Halas Dóra és Nagy Fruzsina.

Catwalk koncert, amely Magyarország, Szlovákia, Csehország és Lengyelország szocialista-kommunista múltját dolgozza fel egy olyan nemzetközi koprodukció keretében, amelyet az említett korszak társadalmi, esztétikai és mindennapi életének ízei és hangulatai inspiráltak. Ennek érdekében a Catwalk Concert Productions és a Soharóza kórus a Visegrádi Négyek országaiból hívott meg művészeket (jelmeztervezőket, énekeseket, zenészeket, írókat, egy fénytervezőt és egy koreográfust), hogy együtt hozzanak létre egy olyan projektet, amely a közös múltunkról szól, utalva a jelen, sőt a jövő társadalmaira is. A cél nem a szocialista korszak hangulatának nosztalgikus felidézése, hanem párbeszéd kezdeményezése az országok és a különböző generációk között – akiknek nagyon eltérő emlékei vannak erről az időszakról –, valamint annak átgondolása, hogy közös örökségünk hogyan él tovább a jelenünkben, és milyen módon vet fel releváns kérdéseket a mai életünkre nézve.

A catwalk koncert egy műfaj megnevezése, amelyet Nagy Fruzsina jelmeztervező és Halas Dóra zenész 2015-ben alkottak meg, hogy meghatározzák az együttműködésükből született előadásokat, amelyek nem illeszkednek szigorúan az előadóművészet egyetlen felszentelt kategóriájába sem. A catwalk concertek valójában új műfajt képviselnek valahol a színház, a kóruskoncert és az extrém divatbemutató között. Magyarországon a művész duó a Soharóza kísérleti kórussal szokott együttműködni. A Soharóza az emberi hanggal, a nyelvvel és a mozgással improvizál, és a népzenétől a megkomponált darabokig különböző területeket fedez fel, folyamatosan új formákat és hangzásokat keresve.

 

 

- összezár -

cast

Performers:

TV announcer, singer: Kata Pető

Members of Soharóza:

Petra Al-Farman / Fanni Eckhard

Szaffi Asbóth / Luca Perényi

Judit Biksz / Borbála Tamási

Ilona Liliána Birtalan / Dóra Rácz

Tamás Bogdán / Máté Szilvay

Sarolta Eörsi / Lilla Nagy

Dániel Jankó / András Sipos

Roland Karosi / Lóránt Kégl

Endre Kertész / Tamás Tárnoki

Ákos Lokody

Sarolta Majkut / Zsófia Nagy

Kata Nagy / Júlia Simon

Zsófia Remes / Anna Sebők

László Somogyi / Bálint Szalontai

Soharóza Cloud Choir

Live camera - Elek Judit Sára
Children: Abigél Gál, Sebestyén Gál, Julianna Nagy

Music: Dóra Halas, Ákos Lovász

Sound design: Ákos Lovász

Text: Sarolta Eörsi, Dora Kaplarova (CZ), Orsolya Matejčuk (SK), Anna Veress, Agnieszka Wolny-Hamkalo (PL)

Dramaturge: Anna Veress

Costume designers: Zuzu Hudek (SK), Dorota Kuźniarska (PL), Fruzsina Nagy, Simona Rybakova (CZ)

MAII. students of the Scenography Department – Hungarian University of Fine Arts:

Hanna Erős, Réka Fülöpp, Betti Király, Alíz Kovács, Zsófi Jákóhalmi, Panna Kárpáti, Kata Dorka Bense

Assistants to the Costume designers: Veronika Keresztesová, Grzegorz Łabuda (PL), Dominika Mészáros

Set designer: Juli Balázs

Assistant to the Set designer: Luca Kata Fehér

Choreography: Joanna Jaworska-Maciaszek (PL)

Media design: Máté Bredán, Šimon Caban (CZ)

Light designer: Ján Ptačin (SK)

Technical director: Tibor Kiefer

Assistant to the Technical director: Lóránt Kégl

Sound: Dávid Kovács

Communication: András Sipos

Assistant to the Directors: Diána Laky

Manager: Alina Karnics

Directed by Dóra Halas & Fruzsina Nagy

Producer: Catwalk Concert Productions | Project partners: Action Group (PL), Pro Scena (SK), COSDAT (CZ)

Supported by: Visegrad Fund, i-Portunus, Magyar Telekom, LIBERTY Creative Europe Programme, NKA, Memento Park, Trafó

photos

videos

artists

DÓRA HALAS

more about Dóra Halas

Dóra Halas, leader of the Soharóza choral ensemble, a Rezső Lantos-awarded conductor, received her doctorate (DLA) at the Liszt Academy of Budapest in 2013. Together with her earlier choirs she is the winner of several international choir competitions and conductor prizes and has also participated at such events as member of the jury. The theme of her DLA dissertation was choral improvisation, from which her current research topic arose: experimenting with collective choral composition and as such expanding the limits of traditional choir music. Her main artistic interest lies in multidisciplinary performances, where she can combine the elements and values of her choral ensemble with that of other arts. As conductor, singer and composer she has worked in numerous theatre and dance productions, among them under the direction of Róbert Alföldi (Hungarian National Theatre), Árpád Schilling (Krétakör), Viktor Bodó (Szputnyik Theatre Company), Roland Rába (Radnóti Theatre), Gábor Goda (Artus). She has also founded and led several avantgarde singing groups. She was the Music Office Manager of the Europa Cantat International Choral Festival at Pécs in 2015. She currently lives in Vienna, but continues to work on a regular basis with her choir and colleagues in Budapest.

FRUZSINA NAGY

more about Fruzsina Nagy

Fruzsina Nagy started her career in alternative theatre productions and over the past decade she has directed several individual performances using costumes as the ”main characters” on stage. She has worked with Árpád Schilling at the Krétakör theatre company, Róbert Alföldi at the Hungarian National Theater, Tamás Ascher and Gábor Máté at the József Katona Theatre, Viktor Bodó at the Szputnyik Theatre Company and many others, including international performances in Graz, Basel, Cologne, Vienna, Zurich and Heidelberg. She is highly interested in the relationship between the human body and its surrounding world, working with costumes, masks, make-up, fashion and visuals. She gained “Best Costume and Mask Award” at the Hungarian POSzT festival in 2009 and 2013 and was chosen "Costume Designer of the Year" in 2016 with her Taboo Collection costumes.

DOROTA KUŹNIARSKA

more about Dorota Kuźniarska

Visual artist, fashion and costume designer, researcher and lecturer at the Abakanowicz University of the Arts Poznan and Fashion School in Poznan. Studied at UAP (Poland) and Marmara University in Istanbul (Turkey). Multiple scholarship holder of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Minister of Science and Higher Education, Marshal of the Lublin Voivodship. She works mainly in costume, fashion, textile, 3D pen, upcycled objects, and painting. She has presented her works at over 35 art and design exhibitions and many fashion shows. She created costumes for 17 film and theater projects. She is a member of OISTAT Costume Design subcommission.

JOHANNA JAWORSKA MACIASZEK

more about Joanna Jaworska Maciaszek

Dancer, qualified choreographer, dance and movement teacher, freelancer. Working in contemporary dance techniques, dance improvisation, choreography and dance composition. Took part in projects and performances shown and awarded at International Dance Festivals. Fascinated by working with the body at the therapeutic levels, using the tools of dance therapy, somatic aspects, choreo-therapy. Teacher of traditional Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga.

SIMONA RYBÁKOVÁ Ph.D.

more about Simona Rybáková Ph.D.

Czech costume designer and independent researcher who studied at the University of Applied Arts in Prague, Helsinki and at the RISD in Providence USA. Her work includes designs for an opera, drama, dance, film, TV, special events and multimedia. Currently she is the head of Costume Design subcommssion OISTAT and member of Czech and European film Academy. She curated the Extreme Costumes exhibition at PQ11. She was awarded the Swarovski Award ‘96, PQ ‘99 Golden Triga and a prize for best costumes in WSD 2013 Cardiff , Taipei 2017 and Calgary 2022. She is working, lecturing and exhibiting own work internationally.

ZUZU HUDEK

more about Zuzu Hudek

Stage and costume designer, visual artist. Studied in Bratislava (SK), Krakow (Poland) and Groningen (NL). During her career Zuzu Hudek applied for several grants to create small independent projects and art installations where she proved herself for being a writer, director and artist in the same time. Nowadays she works as a freelancer in stage and costume design, teaches art lessons and leads different creative workshops for youngsters and children. Zuzu Hudek likes to work with challenges and experimental costumes. She works as a general manager for Slovak OISTAT centre PRO SCENA and is a member of the costume design group.

LOVÁSZ ÁKOS

more about Lovász Ákos

Electroacoustic music composer from Hungary. He studies electroacoustic composing and multimedia M.A. at Liszt Ferenc Academy. Any kind of sound that can be aurally perceived and captured through sound recording or synthesised electronically, can become the constructive material of his sound-based work of art. From 2022 he is working at House of Music Hungary, where he can dive more deeply in a sound dome, to get experience with immersive 3D audiovisual processing.

MÁTÉ BREDÁN

more about Máté Bredán

Visual designer working primarily with independent theatre companies and freelance event-technician. He graduated from Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (Budapest) with Media Design BA and is currently based in Hamburg. During the last ten years developing the visuality of performances provided him plenty of opportunities to experiment with space and lights - combining this experience with creative coding he seeks new paths to create immersive multimedia pieces for performances and installations.

"I really liked the performance, every moment of it was of superbly high standards."

Ascher, Tamás

- theatre director -

"I am lucky to live in a country where such things as this performance are born."

Alföldi, Róbert

- actor, theatre director -

"It was heart-breaking and elevating at the same time, very extraordinary indeed."

Fekete, Katalin

- secretariat of Alföldi -

"The best thing about it is that the choir members, besides carrying out even the most extreme tasks professionally, still remain completely human full of soul!"

Herczku, Ágnes

- singer -

"The French have Gaultier who does such extreme things visually, but this was even more than that."

Csonka, András

- programme manager of Liszt Academy -

"I am charmed, it was brilliant, smart, cruel, beautiful, sarcastic and sour. "

Csanádi, Judit

- rector at University of Fine Arts -

"You stretched the boundaries of genre; the costumes and the scenery were in my opinion world-class, it was free and artistic in an exemplary way!"

Zeke, Edit

- head of scenery-costume department at University of Fine Arts -

"...you could fill up the well-known, ‘stereotype’ format of the catwalk with such rich content and experience..."

Lökös, Ildikó

- playreader -

"It was simply just marvelous theatre. Top of Europe! "

Sándor, Erzsi

- journalist -

"I have seen many theatre plays, but I rarely felt the urge to run backstage to talk with the makers."

Somogyi, Gábor

- interior decorator -

"You are the most decisive vanguards of the heart chakra society that I have seen so far."

Liska, János

- yoga instructor, philosophy of science researcher -

press

taboo collection

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shows

Taboo Collection in Vienna | 03 June 2018 | Musiktheatertage Wien, Werk X

03 June 2018

Musiktheatertage Wien, Werk X | Oswaldgasse 35A, 1120 Vienna

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