Curriculum vitae

A short bio

Ana Vujanović (Berlin / Belgrade) is a cultural worker focused on bringing together critical theory and contemporary art. She holds Ph.D. in Humanities (Theatre Studies) and post-graduate diploma in Culture and Gender Studies.

Ana and Karl, 2011 madrid

She has lectured at various universities and was a guest professor at the Performance Studies Dpt. of the University Hamburg. Since 2016 she is a team member and mentor at SNDO, University of the Arts Amsterdam and since 2022 – a guest professor at HZT, University of the Arts Berlin. For many years, she was a member of the editorial collective of TkH [Walking Theory], a Belgrade-based theoretical-artistic platform, and editor-in-chief of the TkH Journal for Performing Arts Theory. She participates in artworks (performance, theatre, dance, and video/film), as a dramaturge and co-author with artists such as Marta Popivoda, Eszter Salamon, Christine de Smedt, Dragana Bulut etc., most recently documentary film Landscapes of Resistance dir. by M. Popivoda (2021). She has published a number of articles and authored and edited several books, most recently A Live Gathering: Performance and Politics in Contemporary Europe, ed. with L. Piazza (Berlin: b_books, 2019) and Toward a Transindividual Self: A Study in Social Dramaturgy, with B. Cvejic (Oslo: KHiO, 2022).

For free online versions of my texts see my profile at Academia.edu.

ANA VUJANOVIĆ
Born in 1975, in Belgrade; based in Berlin / Belgrade

BASIC EDUCATION

2004: Ph.D. at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts, University of Arts in Belgrade, Theatre Studies Dpt. Thesis: “Statuses and functions of theoretical practice in the performing arts world at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century”
2003: M.A. at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts, University of Arts in Belgrade, Theatre Studies Dpt. Thesis: “Post-structuralist materialist theory of performing arts”
2000-01: post-graduate program: Culture and Gender Studies, Alternative Academic Educational Network (AAOM), Belgrade
1999-2000: School for History and Theory of Art, Centre for Contemporary Art, Belgrade (CSUB)
1999: B.A. at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts, University of Arts in Belgrade, Theatre and Radio Production Dpt.

TEACHING AND RESEARCH EXPERIENCE (a selection)

University (and other) courses, seminars, workshops:

2022-24: Guest professor of Theory of dance, performance, and choreography at HZT – Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum Tanz Berlin: UDK – University of the Arts, Berlin
2020-21: Lecturer of Theatre and Globalisation at the Theatre Studies Dpt., University of Amsterdam (UvA)
2018: Performance and politics: A vicious circle; seminar. PARTS: School for contemporary dance, Brussels
2016- : Team member and mentor at SNDO – School for New Dance Development, Theatre and Dance Academy: Amsterdam University of the Arts
2016-17: Lecturer of Dance and performance theory at BA Tanz, Kontext, Choreographie at HZT – Hochschulübergreifende Zentrum Tanz Berlin, UDK
2016: Take It or Make it, with Marta Popivoda; workshop. Movimento Sur; Nave center for creation and residency, Santiago de Chile; Performance Practice and production of subjectivity on European contemporary performance scene; seminar. ArtEZ, Master of Theatre Practices, Arnhem
2015-17 & 2021-23: Mentor of Critical practice (Made in Yugoslavia), program in critical practice of contemporary dance and performance. Station, Belgrade / Locomotion, Skopje: Life Long Burning network
2015: Mentor at the Dpt. for Human Movement/Performance Studies, University Hamburg
2014: Performance and the Public; workshop. HafenCity Universität Hamburg, Kultur der metropole, Graduiertenkolleg “Versammlung und Teilhabe“, Hamburg
2012-14: International guest professor for Dramaturgy and Performance studies at the Dpt. for Human Movement / Performance Studies, University Hamburg
2011-12: Lecturer of Curating and performance; Master in International Performance Research (MAIPR). University of Amsterdam, Theatre Studies Dpt.
2011: Everybodys and Walking Theory propose: aesthetics & production and Everybodys encounters TKH: modes of production/ games and discussion, with Petra Sabisch; workshops. ID Frankfurt; University of Giessen, Frankfurt; Politicality of contemporary performance, with Jan Ritsema; workshop. The Institute of Music and Dance, Theatre Institute, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw; TkH: Critical education and self-organization, with Marta Popivoda; seminar at the curatorial studies program. École du Magasin, Grenoble
2010: Performance and/as (mis)communicational community; seminar at the Master Program in Performing Arts Practice and Visual Culture. Universidad de Alcalá (UAH); National Museum Reina Sofia, Madrid
2009-11: Methodological Games, with Saša Asentić; workshop; Tiger’s Leap into the Past – On contemporary dance in Serbia; lecture. Live Art Festival, Kampnagel, Hamburg. BilBak / ARTEA, Universidad del País Vasco, Bilbao; stadsfestival Brugge Centraal, Brugge; Dance & Politics, Giessen. Wiener Festwochen, Vienna; Off Europe, Leipzig; Personal Profile, Moscow; TransEurope, Hildesheim; Dance Theatre Workshop, New York
2009-10: Guest assistant professor of Theory of text/uality and Performance studies, course shared with Prof Aleksandra Jovićević. Interdisciplinary postgraduate studies: Ph.D. studies, University of Arts in Belgrade
2009: Politicality of Contemporary Performing Arts, with Marta Popivoda; workshop. Weld, Stockholm; StrataGames, led by Bad.co; workshop. SteirischerHerbst, Graz
2008-09: Lecturer at Nomad Dance Academy, The Balkan region
2008: Dramaturgy on the Move, with Bojana Cvejić, Rok Vevar; workshop. Knowledge Smuggling winter school. TkH, Belgrade
2007-08: Resonance: Dance laboratories, with Joanna Szymajda. Station dance service, Belgrade; Stary Browar Center for Performing Arts, Poznan
2003-09: University lecturer in Belgrade, courses: Performance studies, Epistemology of Art, Theory of digital art and culture, and Criticism of stage design, at the Interdisciplinary postgraduate studies, University of Arts; course Art as research, at the Faculty of Architecture; course Theory of performing arts, at the Faculty of Music

Research experience:

2017– : Lanscapes of Revolution; with Marta Popivoda. artistic-theoretical research
2015-2020: Performing the Self in the 21st Century. research project with Bojana Cvejic, in collaboration with Marta Popivoda. supported by the Sarma platform, Brussels; Dance service Station, Belgrade; Akademie der Künste der Welt, Köln; Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart; Skogen, Gothenburg; Lokomotiva, Skopje, Brain Store Project, Sofia
2011-12: Performance and the Public Sphere. research project with Bojana Cvejic and Marta Popivoda. Les laboratoires d’Aubervillier; Escenas discursivas: Critical discourses on the performing arts scene in Madrid, research project with Marta Popivoda. Matadero – El Ranchito, Madrid
2011: Limbo: A collective individual, with Saša Asentić; artistic-theoretical research. New York Live Arts, NYC
2010-12: How to do things by theory. research project by TkH. Les laboratoires d’Aubervilliers, Paris
2005-07: Self-managed educational systems in art; research and working group. TkH & Kontekst Gallery, Belgrade
2000-17: TkH [Walking Theory / Teorija koja hoda], theoretical-artistic platform, Belgrade

Invited / commissioned public talks and lectures:

2021: “Methods of Deschooling” – a lecture at the symposium The Art of the Lecture, Kunsthafen Rhenania, Cologne
2020: “Landscape dramaturgy: On time and temporality”, Cullberg Ballet, Stockholm
2019: “Conviviality? An Attempt at Breaking the Spell (A proposition on how to prefigure the institutions of arts and culture in Europe today)” – an opening key note lecture. Imaginary school for the future of the (art) institutions, Institute for Applied Theatre Studies, Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen
2018: “Theatre as a transnational re(s)publica” – key note lecture, IFTR World Congress 2018, Belgrade
2017: “On contemporary aesthetics in dance”, a dialogue with Ligia Lewis, Tanznacht Forum Unsettled landscape, Tanzfabrik, Uferstudios, Berlin; “Labour and Politics: On a political dimension of the cultural work”, Violence of Inscriptions, HAU, Berlin
2016: “Transindividuality in Contemporary Dance and Performance”, HZT, Berlin; “Social Dramaturgy of Ideology: Social choreography and social drama“, Movimento Sur, Nave, Santiago de Chile
2015: “Notes on Social Dramaturgy“, AGRFT, Ljubljana
2014: “The Public Good Will Not Be Curated“, program Spatial Confessions, Tate Modern, London
2013: “Vita performactiva“ and “Performance and Performativity“, pARTisan platform, Minks
2012: “Social Choreography and Social Drama”, with Bojana Cvejić. Gallery Volt, B-open, Bergen; “(In) the Person of the Author”. University of Amsterdam, Theatre Studies Dpt., Amsterdam
2011: “A Tiger’s Leap: A Method of ‘Reloading’ Minoritarian Histories (of Performance)”. University of Amsterdam, Theatre Studies Dpt., Amsterdam; “TkH: Self-organized critical education and collective self-education”, with Marta Popivoda. Think lab Deschooling theatre; Heimspiel Festival, Cologne
2010: “Performance and/as (mis)communicational community”. National Museum Reina Sofia in collaboration with the Universidad de Alcalá (UAH), Madrid; “TkH: How to Do Things by Theory and [illegal_cinema]”, with Marta Popivoda. École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris

PAPERS AT CONFERENCES (a selection)

2020: “Precarity or self-management as an enthymeme”. conference Precarity or Self-Management, Maska, Ljubljana
2018: “Curating performance in Belgrade during the Cold War”. Podium discussion Bitef Fine Arts programe, Bitef theatre, Belgrade
2017: “Transindividuality in contemporary dance and performance”. Conference Metabolic Rifts, Prospections, Porto; “Landscape dramaturgy: Echoing dance and performance in the museum”. podium discussion In the Expanded Field, International Short Film Festival Oberhausen
2016: “The Transindividual and Performing the Self”. Symposium (re-)combining the in-between – Concepts of ‘in-between’ in Contemporary Choreographic Practice, Joint Adventures, Munich
2014: “Community Between the Commons and Undercommons“. International conference The Public Commons and the Undercommons of Art, Education and Labor, Frankfurt Lab, Frankfurt
2013: “Performing Ideology: Communitas and immunitas in today’s neoliberal democratic society“. International seminar There is no other poetry than action, Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid
2012: “Vita performactiva, on the Stage of Neoliberal Capitalist Democratic Society?”. Performance Studies international #18, Leeds
2011: “Critical Performance Studies – A necessity of having methodology”. International conference On the Threshold of Practice: Reflections on Performance Studies as an Academic Programme. Performance Studies Dpt.; K3; Hamburg; “A Tiger’s Leap: A Method of ‘Reloading’ Minoritarian Histories (of Performance)”. Performance Studies international #17, Utrecht
2010: “Politics of Dance: Subject, media and procedures of work”. International symposium Dance, Politics & Co-Immunity. CuP Dpt., Giessen; “From Theoretical Practice to Theoretical Mass-Production”; “A Lexicon of Inverted Notions: Parallel Slalom, by EDA”. Performance Studies international #15 follow up, Rijeka
2009: “Second-Hand Knowledge”. Performance Studies international #15, Zagreb
2007: “Contemporary Dance Scene in Serbia”. Annual conference of Mediterranean Dance Network (DBM), Istanbul; “Self-Management, Self-Education, Self-Organization”, with Jan Ritsema, Marta Popivoda, Nicolas Siepen. Summit of Non-Aligned Educational Initiatives in Culture. Multitude e.V., Goldsmiths College, London University, Witte de With Rotterdam, Berlin

ARTWORKS AND PERFORMANCES (a selection)

2021: feature documentary Landscapes of Resistance, dir. M. Popivoda; script-cowriter, dramaturgy. Theory at Work, Belgrade; Bocalupo Films, Paris; ARTE TV France
a performative video Quiet water wears down mountains (An eco-feminist meditation), with M. Popivoda, in collaboration with H. Erdman & L. Dahl; Cullberg Ballet, Stockholm
2020: performance Future Fortune, by D. Bulut; dramaturgy. HAU, Berlin
2019: dance / choreography Slow Dance, chor. L. Dahl and H. L. Erdman; dramaturgy. MTD, Stockholm
2018: performance / installation Freedom Landscapes. concept and dramaturgy, co-author with Marta Popivoda. Slovensko mladinsko gledalisce, Ljubljana
2017-2020: experimental documentary Landscapes of Resistance. dir. Marta Popivoda; script-cowriter, dramaturge. Teorija na delu, Belgrade, Bocalupo Films, Paris, ARTE TV France (in post-production)
2016-18: performance Happyology; by Dragana Bulut. dramaturgy. Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin
2016: performance Take It or Make It; concept, artistic supervisor. Teatr Polsky, Bydgoszcz
2015: performance installation Cabinet of Political Wonders; concept, co-author with Sasa Asentic, Sinisa Ilic and Marta Popivoda. Kampnagel, Hamburg; Teatr Polski, Bydgoszcz
2014: dance performance Monument 0: Haunted by Wars (1913-2013); artistic direction Eszter Salamon. collaboration on dramaturgy. Kampnagel, Hamburg; HAU, Berlin; Centre Pompidou, Paris
2013-15: video series Mass ornaments; by Marta Popivoda, co-author of the concept, dramaturgy; dance performances Have You Meet the Zombie? and Return of the Zombie; by Dragana Bulut. dramaturgy. Station – Dance Service, Belgrade
2012-13: experimental documentary Yugoslavia, how ideology moved our collective body; dir. Marta Popivoda. co-writer of the script. TkH, Belgrade; Les laboratoires d’Aubervilliers, Paris; UdK Berlin, Berlin; joon film, Berlin;
2012: performance / choreography Examining Communitas: On Trial Together, with Saša Asentić. co-author, text. TkH, Belgrade; Per Art; Serbian National Theatre, Novi Sad; visual-textual artwork Dull Smart Mobs, with Siniša Ilić. co-author, text. Les laboratoires d’Aubervilliers, Paris; TkH, Belgrade; dance lecture-performance Pass It On (Auction). by Dragana Bulut. mentor & dramaturgy. SODA – HZT, Berlin
2011: dance / performance Four Choreographic Portraits: A Woman with a Diamond. by Christine de Smedt. artistic collaboration, dramaturgy. Les ballets C de la B, Ghent
2010: dance Made in China. by Dragana Bulut, Milka Djordjevich. dramaturgical advice. DTW, New York; Fabrik, Potsdam; visual-textual artwork Consequences / Causes, with Siniša Ilić. co-author, text. TkH, Belgrade
2009: opera Les enfants terribles. by Phillip Glass; dir. B. Djordjev. co-author of the concept, dramaturg. Little theatre Dusko Radovic, Belgrade; lecture performance TkH: The last theoretical performance – Générique. co-author, performer. TkH, Belgrade; Koelnischer Kunstverein, Cologne
2008: video installation Video Kosov@ – Opinions, where do they come from?. by Marta Popivoda. co-author of the concept. October Salon; Belgrade Cultural Centre, Belgrade; opera Don Giovanni. by Mozart; dir. Bojana Cvejić. collaboration on text and dramaturgy. Jugokoncert; Bitef festival, Belgrade
2007: lecture-performance My Private Bio-politics. by Saša Asentić. collaboration on text, theoretical support, dramaturgy. Per.Art, Novi Sad; ready-made theatre Boxing Match. co-author, dramaturg. TkH; CZKD, Belgrade; theatre Europe – Rio Bar. by Ivana Sajko; dir. Bojan Djordjev. dramaturgy. CZKD; Belgrade Drama Theatre, Belgrade

CURATED / EDITED / ORGANIZED PROGRAMS AND PLATFORMS (a selection)

2020-22: Member of the jury of Tanzplattform Deutschland 2022, HAU, Berlin
2012-14: Member of the board of Performance Studies international (PSi)
2011-12: Performance and the Public: Open Days. co-editor. #3, Tanzfabrik, Berlin; #2, Les laboratoires d’Aubervilliers, Paris; #1, Hetveem Theatre, Amsterdam
2010: Public Editing: discussing and working sessions on immaterial labor in performance. co-editor. Les laboratoires d’Aubervilliers, Paris
2009-12: Deschooling Classroom: Collective self-education in art and culture, regional project. co-author, editor. TkH, Belgrade; Kontrapunkt, Skopje
2008: Performance: Technology, Body, and Politics, one-year theoretical-educational programme. editor. Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina, Novi Sad; Walking Critique, school for contemporary criticism. co-editor. Bitef, Belgrade; Summit of Non-Aligned CCs, regional conference of independent cultural centres. co-editor. Magacin; Clubture – regional initiative, Belgrade
2007-09: Balkan Dance Platform, biennial festival. co-selector. Athens; Novi Sad
2005-12: The Other Scene, initiative of the independent cultural-artistic scene. co-founder, member. Belgrade
2005-07: Coaching in practical / interdisciplinary dramaturgy. co-editor. THe FaMa; Theorem Network, Belgrade, Zagreb, Ljubljana, Tallinn, Dubrovnik
2001-13: curating / organizing numerous lectures, talks, presentations, workshops in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Skopje, Vienna, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin (mostly within TkH’s activities) by: Isabell Lorey, Nicolas Siepen, Antonia Baehr, Sigmar Zacharias, Ole Frahm, Torsten Michaelsen, Dana Yahalomi, Julie Heintz, Vanessa Theodoropoulou, Franck Leibovici, Maurizio Lazzarato, Gerald Raunig, Matteo Pasquinelli, Peter McLaren, Dmitry Vilensky, Florian Schneider, Aldo Milohnic, Jan Ritsema, Bojana Cvejic, Bojana Kunst, Emil Hrvatin, Goran Sergej Pristas, Bad.co, Marina Grzinic, Emina Visnic, Igor Stromajer, Isabel de Naveran, Tomislav Medak, Davide Grassi, Zoran Todorovic, Igor Dobričić, Sigrid Merx, etc. etc.
2000-17: TkH: Walking Theory [Teorija koja hoda], theoretical-artistic platform. initiator, co-founder, member of editorial collective. Belgrade