Ecovideoperformance / dance performance/video performance / ecoperformance
YAGORIA is an ecovideoperformance interrogating our current collective
relationship with the environment, touching issues of abusive deforestation,
plastic waste & pollution in deltaic and forest ecosystems.
YAGORIA is an ecopoetic statement on the current collective relationship with
the environment. It explores themes of abusive deforestation, plastic waste &
pollution, challenging the dominating anthropocentric view.
Sourcing the mythopoetic figure of protector Baba Yaga, rooted in local traditions
of apotropaic practices and built on references to eco-spirituality and deep
ecology, Yagoria reclaims Ritual as a means to re-establish a more profound and
reflexive relationship with the “interconnected real”.
Three settings – the Urban Delta of Bucharest; Ulmet geomorphological site of
Trovants and exploited Snagov forest (in Romania) – become sites of tension
between pristine/natural systems and human intervention, where the body acts
as a territory for the inter-dance between equilibrium and disruption.
An ecopoetic statement on the collective relationship with the environment,
YAGORIA draws attention to abusive deforestation, plastic waste, and pollution.
Reinstantiating the figure of Baba Yaga and drawing from local traditions of
apotropaic practices and eco-spirituality, Yagoria reclaims Ritual as a means to
re-establish a more profound and reflexive relationship with the “interconnected
real”. It explores three sites of tension between pristine/natural systems and
abusive human intervention, where the body acts as a territory for the
inter-dance between equilibrium and disruption.
TECHNICAL DETAILS: 13’02” / 1080p HD
ONLINE LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=314mUZy2XU4
Produced by (C) Plastic Art Performance collective 2022 / Macaia Association
Alina Tofan – concept, choreographer, ecoperformer
Gabriel Durlan – cinematography
Alexandru Claudiu Maxim – video editor
Maria Mora, Aigul Cheosep, Răzvan Omotă – performers
Manuela Marchiș – music
Georgiana Vlahbei, Ecaterina Colasîz – costume & prop design
Răzvan Leucea – colorization
Alina Tofan is a multidisciplinary artist, actress & ecoperformer, and co-creator of
Plastic Art Performance Collective. She is a Visual Art Ph.D. student at the National
University of Arts Romania.
Alexandru Claudiu Maxim is a visual artist and video editor, engaged in new
media formats and immersive exhibitions.
Gabriel Durlan is a director, screenwriter, editor, and photographer. He
graduated in Film Directing and has a Documentary Filmmaking MA.
Georgiana Vlahbei is a visual creator and researcher operating in-between eco and ethnosphere, co-founder of Plastic Art Performance Collective.
Alina Tofan (RO) is a multidisciplinary artist, actress & ecoperformer, co-creator
of Plastic Art Performance Collective. She is also a PhD student at the National
University of Arts (UNArte) Romania – Visual Art. Her area of practice explores
unique ways of communicating with all the senses. Her goal is to express as
many feelings as possible through the body. She wants to sound the alarm on
plastic pollution and unsustainable consumption. Her art proposes symbolic
recycling of the remnants of globalizing capitalism (as it is felt in the
Romanian cultural and social context starting from the ‘90s until now); an x-ray
of the distance interposed by the plastic filter of consumption between people
and the natural environment. In her wider artistic practice, she also explores and
interconnects practices and territories ranging from art therapy, theatre of the
oppressed, living statues, labyrinth theater, and many other forms of movement
and performing.
Alexandru Claudiu Maxim (RO) is a visual artist and video editor. His
attractions gravitate towards the absurd, irony, and a wide range of dense
emotions generically termed under ”humanity”. His works follow three main
conceptual lines: the impossibility of avoiding death and how this has become
increasingly irrelevant in the contemporary imaginary, though only ideals have
changed; the passing of time and the choice to live between noise and
quietness, abundance, or nothingness – each of these concepts with their own
representations and inter-dances; Love as a means to be constantly present. He
is a strong presence in the Romanian art scene and a member of the artistic group
Pastila Roz (Pink Pill).
Gabriel Durlan (RO) is a director, screenwriter, editor, and photographer. He
graduated Film Directing at the Media University (2012) and Documentary
Filmmaking Master Degree at UNATC (2020). His photographic and video art
works were presented at ICR Paris, White Gallery Barcelona, Arcub, Elisabeta
Space, Kube Gallery, Carol 53, Avanpost, Rezidența BRD Scena9 in Bucharest.
His films were screened in various venues across Romania and selected at
festivals like Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival, Sehsüchte
International Student Film Festival, Cinemaiubit, Independent Producers
International Film Festival, Bucharest International Dance Film Festival, Moovy
Tanzfilmfestival, BUZZ International Film Festival, Filmul de Piatra, One World
Romania, Astra Film Festival. He is in a continuous search for concepts and
narrative structures that can generate new forms of cinematic language in the
documentary, fictional, experimental, and music video genres.
Georgiana Vlahbei (RO) has been practicing visual documentation in
ethnographic research/cultural anthropology for the last 10 years. Her
photographic career began in 2014, with street events and festivals. In 2020,
she had her first exhibition of conceptual photography. Since 2020, as part of
Plastic Art Performance collective (where she is a co-founder), she contributes to
immersive/performative event concepts, photo-video installations, creating
photographic concepts, exhibition in galleries in Bucharest and Constanța, being
published in several international magazines; Furthermore, during the past year
she has discovered an appetite for set and costume design/ scenography –
producing object art installations for the group’s performative interventions. In
parallel, she explores illustration and digital graphics, micro-videoart formats and
upcycling.
