The documentary video WakEUp! comes into existence after a year of 48 Hours of Awakeness experience, an uninterrupted two days long performance, which has been on a permanent tour since December 2015 and took place in Belgrade, Berlin, Paris and Sarajevo.
The performance 48 Hours of Awakeness, a part of Heartefact’s multidisciplinary project WakEUp is made of uninterrupted public readings of hundreds of pages of texts: personal stories and other contents, assembled in the Red Book, all about the fates of refugees, from antiquity to the present day, revealing the misfortune of those who have been forced to leave their homes. The audience is invited to active listening, but also to direct participation, by sitting in front of the camera, taking the microphone and the responsibility of storytelling.
The video WakEUp! is a retrospective of the experience so far. It is made from cuts of 192 hours of performance recorded up to now in the four cities. The project took place for the first time in Belgrade in December 2015, as a spontaneous need to react to Europe’s biggest humanitarian crisis since the begging of the century.
A year later, in a moment when media are slowly losing any kind of interest to treat the question of refugees, except when it comes to spreading panic and fear, and when xenophobia is becoming one of the loudest voices in public space, 48 Hours of Awakeness has continued with waking up the collective conciseness about life conditions of those who are fleeing war, in cities around the continent – Berlin, Paris and Sarajevo - who had, each one in its own way, very specific relations and experiences with the question of refugees. As the performance is touring, those experiences are slowly becoming part of it. The personal stories of citizens are becoming a part of the Red Book, their voices are becoming a part of further contents, and their participation, just like the meaning they give to it, is becoming the starting point for rethinking the relation between contemporary art and political activism through individual and collective action.
concept and director: Andrej Nosov
editing and post-production: Bojan Kanačković
performance concept authors: Andrej Nosov & Srđan Ćešić
co-authors, performers: Janko Dimitrijević, Jelena Graovac, Marina Mišović
produced by: Heartefact fond / Heartefact Fund
technical support for live stream materials: Videonet
textual material contributors: Asylum Protection Center, Forum Refugies France
Heartefact (RS)
Heartefact was founded in 2009. Heartefact strengthens critical awareness and builds an open and free society in the region of the Western Balkans through creative, expert, and artistic exchange. Heartefact supports and encourages contemporary and engaged cultural and artistic creativity, and thus creates the conditions for producing a new generation of progressive individuals. Ever since its establishment Heartefact has been committed to creating a regional cultural space which is responsible towards the past and builds a secure future. Heartefact gives special attention in its work to marginalized and discriminated social groups, and has productions, a foundation, and an institute. So far, they have produced more than 50 art programmes in the theatrical and visual arts, published over twenty authors of contemporary drama, supported over 80 programmes through the foundation, and organised over 100 exchanges in the region.
Screenwriter and director Srđan Ćešić completed his studies in visual communication at the International College of Art and Sciences in Milan. He is the writer of satirical programmes Never Sorry, For unknown reasons, and UPS!. His political illustrations have been published in Intervju, Borba and NIN. As an art director, designer and film director he has worked on numerous marketing, political, and social engagement campaigns.
Theatre director Andrej Nosov founded the Youth Initiative for Human Rights and Heartefact, and he is the current director of Heartefact. He graduated from the Faculty of Drama, department of theatre and radio directing. He is engaged in initiatives for reconciliation in the Balkans. He worked as a journalist for Danas and Radio Free Europe. He has directed the plays Bent by Martin Sherman and Hinkemann: What must will be by Ernst Toller and Vuk Bošković. He is the project author of Hunger, Werther: either you have hope or you don’t, Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen, and Remains by Vuk Bošković.
Theatre producer Janko Dimitrijević graduated from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts, department of management and production in theatre, radio and culture. He has worked as an organizer and producer of the plays Hunger, Werther: either you have hope or you don’t, Hinkemann: what must be will be, This grave is too small for me, Tomb for Boris Davidovich, Dragon-killers, What is her fault, it is not her fault, Ghosts, and Remains.
Actress Jelena Graovac graduated from the Faculty of Acting and Media in Rijeka and took her master’s degree at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade in 2016. She has acted in plays in Serbia and in the region, including Werther: either you have hope or you don’t and Remains, under the direction of Andrej Nosov, No-one, under the direction of Milica Grujičić and Crnjanski, directed by Ivana Vujić. Since 2012 she is a member of Prostor Plus – studio of performing arts in Rijeka, Croatia. She was engaged in numerous workshops and projects in the domain of physical theatre, movement and contemporary dance, as well as vocal techniques trainings, including two years of kinesensic training with Deborah A. Kinghorn of the Lessac Training and Research Institute. In 2011 she got a degree from Centre for Women’s Studies, Zagreb, Croatia.
Marina Mišović graduated from the Faculty of Law and Political Science in Montpellier, department of politology. For two years she was creating contents for discussions and debates on European-related topics for local organisations in France. As an intern, she assisted the artistic program of the Cultural Centre REX for one year. Currently, she works in Heartefact Fund as a program assistant.
Contact: info@heartefact.org
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