Dance Floor 2022

On the Croatian island of Krk stands the now dilapidated brutalist hotel Haludovo Palace.The history of its concrete walls mirrors the tumultuous changes that took place in the former Yugoslavia, as is the case with many other buildings in the former Eastern Bloc. But Halud's Palace stands out in some ways: it was a lavish investment to the tune of 45 million dollars from the pocket of Bob Guccione, the American founder of the world-famous porn magazine Penthouse. Money tainted by a sick and patriarchy-distorted view of the female body and sexuality. What can feminist dramaturgy do with such a place, in literal ruins of capitalism?

The production Dance Floor 2022 is a kind of documentary and at the same time the subjective erotic research of three artists (Ana Dubljević, Kasia Kania, Marja Christians), whose main aim is to transform the stereotypical perception of the body and to put it into new contexts, into a feminist “porn landscape”. Their work poses many questions while getting this former socialist luxury dancefloor moving again – in a totally new spirit.

The day after the performance, Ana Dubljević will lead the Feminist Pornscapes reading group event as part of our project Sharing Courageous Practices.

Ana Dubljević, Kasia Kania, Marja Christians met during their “Choreography and Performance” Masters studies at the Justus-Liebig-University in Gießen. In the performance Tender Fights 2020, and later- “Dance Floor 2022”, they continued with their studies of the body from a queer-feminist perspective, which they developed together and in other constellations, e.g. as part of the christians//schwenk collective. With humour and analytical acumen, the artists use the power of performance to queer familiar patterns of perception and customary images of the body, as they seek to draw attention to power structures.