On the ground

On Saturday, the performance will be followed by an audience discussion Zbor za publiko. 

“On the ground” is a stage creation of two artists, colleagues, and friends of many years, Alenka Marinič and Maja Dekleva Lapajne. It is a down to earth concert theatre piece that deals with the themes of precarious work, feminism, motherhood, and housing, in late capitalism. It is a witty music and theatre event that records the present and states the obvious, makes room for collective questioning rather than imposing solutions, and that looks for playfulness even in the darkest and toughest of times.

Using musical and theatrical materials, the creators explore different topics by playing around with the several meanings of the title (which literally means “on the ground” in the original). Through the metaphor of the ground, they touch upon the themes of exhaustion, despair, and hopelessness. Being on the ground as in being knocked down in the era of a brutal and intensifying capitalism, climate change, impossibly powerful corporations, and cuts in the field of social benefits. However, they also understand the ground as a supportive place where we are grounded, where we can firmly stand, and from where we can leap to rebel. Finally, the ground also symbolises the possibility of new life, the soil from which fresh ideas and places can sprout.

“On the ground” is the second part of a trilogy by Maja Dekleva Lapanje and Alenka Marinič. In 2017, they launched into the performance and music album “Underwater” (Pod vodo) which they soon followed up with the collaborative trilogy comprised of “Underwater,” “On the ground”, and “In the Air” (V zraku). They also dream of creating an epilogue titled “Underground” (Pod zemljo), to be carried out by only one of them or even without the physical presence of either in this world.

Concept and performing: Maja Dekleva Lapajne, Alenka Marinič; costume and set design: Katarina Zalar; artistic counseling for movement: DISCOllective; artistic counseling for voice: Irena Tomažin; technical directing and light design: Špela Škulj/Borut Cajnko; English translation: Jedrt Maležič; executive producer: Urška Jež/Eva Prodan; production: City of Women; co-production: CUK Kino Šiška, DU Narobov. co-funded by: Ministry of Culture, Municipality of Ljubljana.