The jury selected following applicants to be participants of the second programme cycle of Critical practice (Made in Yugoslavia):
- Ida Daniel (Bulgaria)
- Kristof Farkas (Hungary)
- Shir Hacham (Israel)
- Livia Andrea Piazza (Italy / Germany)
- Aisling Marks (UK / Netherlands)
- Stina Nyrberg (Sweden)
- Ana Schnabl (Slovenia)
The names are listed in alphabetical order.
///
An explanation of the selection process and criteria:
By 10 February 2015, we received 50 complete applications. The jury found most of them very good, which made the work of the jury members—Marijana Cvetković, Angelina Georgieva, Biljana Tanurovska Kjulavkovski, and Ana Vujanović—exciting but delicate as well.
What guided us through the selection procedure this year was, firstly, candidates’ clear motivations to apply to the Critical Practice programme as well as their critical writing skills, in terms of articulating theses, developing arguments, acknowledging the materiality of analysed performances, expressing concerns, and positioning oneself as writer. Since in more than seven cases we recognised all these qualities in the writing samples, the jury—especially through the interviews—attempted then to infer who could benefit from our programme most and whose participation could be of as big as possible benefit to our programme and the future group of participants.
Given the abovementioned evaluation process, the criteria that determined our final decisions were defined in terms of:
- the quality of critical writing, which is not reduced to high academic standards but includes clear concerns and an awareness of art’s social position as well,
- participants’ experience and/or realistic expectations of collaborative, non-hierarchical working structures, as well as a proactive approach to the challenges they bring,
- participants’ concerns in their local scenes and social contexts,
- a potentially significant contribution to the professional development of participants in the current state of their formation and career,
- a projected structure of the future group of participants, who come from various contexts and with different backgrounds, yet share an interest in critical reflections on and in performing arts; as well as
- a possibility to enhance participants’ collaboration with colleagues coming from other contexts, which should help a sustainable future platform for critical practices at the contemporary international performing arts scenes.
What played only a smaller role in the selection process were working biographies and academic achievements alone, while the contexts from which the candidates come featured to an extent in some cases but were not decisive.
