Reconstituirea ’68 – a digital theater project developed at the "Marin Sorescu" National Theater in Craiova
In an effort to recover recent histories and to integrate virtual scenographies into the contemporary theater performance, the director Catinca Drăgănescu with the artist Ciprian Făcăeru, will stage at the National Theater in Craiova"Reconstituirea ’68", part of the European project ACuTe (Culture Testbeds for Performing Arts and New Technology), a large-scale project in which the "Marin Sorescu" National Theater from Craiova is a partner.
Starting from the movie "Reconstruction” directed by Lucian Pintilie and considered by several critics to be the best in the history of Romanian cinema, the project “Reconstituirea ’68” will follow an experimental research model that explores new creative tools and processes, language forms and artistic expressions facilitated by emerging technologies
The "Marin Sorescu" National Theater in Craiova is currently developing a series of artistic collaborations to bring the young audience closer to the stage and involve them in the process of creation and development of the performances. The integration of technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality and other phenomena contribute to this link between artistic projects and active young people, connected to the virtual world. And "Reconsituirea" is a representative film, a story of some young people from the 60s, with which the public can resonate and which proposes the idea that art can and must have the force of a moral electro-shock in a sedated society where reality is hijacked at every step.
At the beginning of 2023, Ciprian Făcăeru, the co-founder and creative director of the studio Augmented Space Agency and research assistant within CINETic UNATC held a series of meetings with actors, technicians and the young audience, pupils and students from Craiova at the "Marin Sorescu" National Theatre. Following these discussions, 10 directors from Romania who explore in their performances the new technologies for which the spectators showed interest were invited to propose a project to be realized by the middle of 2024.
„Reconstituirea ’68” proposes an exploration of the evolution of the media technological phenomenon in relation to society and started from the young people's perception of the theater as a portal to other times, a bridge between worlds. It is a project with roots in recent history and strong reverberations in the present.
„The media mirage of new technologies can often mislead us in our desire to innovate and explore the future. In this context it is important to explore dimensions of the past in order to outline a critical spirit on the present and develop models of innovation that interrogate the polarizing tendencies of new technologies", said Ciprian Făcăeru, creative explorer of new media technologies.
„My proposal seeks to recover Lucian Pintilie's "Reconstitution" by placing it in the context of the era, i.e. the year 1968 - a landmark year for an entire generation. How much and how did this context influence the making of the film? What symbolic force did the historical moment give to the artistic act? How does the relationship between artists and power work? But between artists and society? What role does art assume in such an incendiary historical context? How does revolution play on the table? The Russians invade Czechoslovakia, Ceaușescu gives an epic speech sanctioning this invasion and positioning himself heroically against the USSR, French students occupy the universities of Paris and Pintilie makes the most modern, caustic and revealing Romanian film before 1989.” - Catinca Drăgănescu, director and author of the doctorate on "Lucian Pintilie - the anti-model as a model.
„Reconstituirea ’68” is part of the project ACuTe, co-financed by the Creative Europe Program of the European Union, a project that brings together 14 leading European organizations in the field of theater and research, with the aim of developing experimental theater productions, using pioneering technologies.
Following the model of other sectors, ACuTe will create a "TESTBED for the cultural zone". This process, an interdisciplinary integration of digital technology and co-creation, will lead to the testing and prototyping of new technologies within the three key themes of the project: new dramaturgies, stage design and audience engagement. These will be innovations in how we tell stories on stage, how they are produced and how audiences interact with them. In this sense, the artistic team "Reconstituirea ’68” will participate from September 19-29, 2023 in a creative residency at Azkuna Zentroa Bilbao to prototype the proposed solution.
During the development of the project, in order to maintain active contact with the public, director Catinca Drăgănescu, digital architect Ciprian Făcăeru, together with Marina Hanganu, director and cultural manager, Alex Zlăvog, creator of digital content and George Albert Costea, actor and coordinator of the ACuTe project will be present on July 5, from 12.00, at Theater Networking Talents, for a dialogue on the theme "Theatre 2.0. The community of the future". The discussion will be moderated by journalist Iulia Popovici.
The key element of the project will be finding co-creation ways to reach new audiences and help the sector become more resilient and viable post-Covid. Similarly, ACuTe aims to provide a structured approach to digital development in this sector, which has been sporadic until now.
The 14 organizations involved in the ACuTe project are leading theaters, universities and creative arts organizations in Europe: • OULU University of Applied Sciences (Finland) • Ars Electronica (Austria) • European Theater Convention (Germany) • Azkuna Zentroa-Alhóndiga Bilbao ( Spain) • Estonian Academy of Arts (Estonia) • Saxion University of Applied Sciences (Netherlands) • Théâtre de Liège (Belgium) • Landestheater Linz (Austria) • De Toneelmakerij (Netherlands) • Slovenian National Theater Nova Gorica (Slovenia) • Det Norske Teatret (Norway) • Academy for Theater and Digitality (Germany) • Schauspielhaus Graz (Austria) • "Marin Sorescu" National Theater in Craiova (Romania).
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