2021/22
Season 47:
Degrowth

One of the opportunities, the most important one probably, that the coronavirus pandemic brought was the possibility of realising how many things in the world we live in cannot be taken for granted. While the world has been searching its conscience, people reflected on slowing down, rethought consumption and production frameworks and asked questions about where our civilization is heading. The theme of return, the lifeline in the moment of sudden and profound instability, turned out to be no more than an effective marketing slogan for further acceleration. The reset was, actually, a return to disregarding limits set by the material world and our vulnerable bodies as well. The striving for GDP growth prevailed yet again over the expanding rifts in the ecosystem and the more and more alarming social inequalities. Art as a potential source of social imagination and a hunting ground for future possibilities failed on many occasions and rather passively joined the movement of a burst dam of performance by the rest of society. Care or sustainability are now only discussed at expert conferences. With the past years’ focus on quantity instead of quality and reporting performance instead of an honest search for meaning, such tendencies are twice as strong in the restarted society as they were. Art seems to have lost its ability to be the medium of otherness and has become an under-funded slave of uniformity. In response to the general acceleration, we decided to devote the new season to DEGROWTH. We see the imaginative concept of degrowth, based on several decades of interdisciplinary thinking and actions, as the most inspiring way of finding a way out of crisis, in which society puts economic laws above all other laws and GDP growth prevails over all other values, ignoring the complexity of the topic of quality of life. We do not see degrowth as resignation or inaction, we see it as a means to deepen our view of the world around us and improve our ability to find other goals than productivity. Degrowth invites us to remove things, to slow down, and, paradoxically, to gain more. We understand the concept as redirecting our focus from quantity to intensity and quality, from statuses to relationships and bonds. We would like to explore these principles during our work, while redefining the mission of restored theatre activities. How to create sustainably? What is the capacity of our consciousness for new pieces? What is the purpose of our activities? How to not drown in the flood of ‘Potemkin villages’ built to show productivity? How to create happily? How to rebel against the dictate of efforts to capitalise on everything? How can we avoid social disintegration and nature’s decline? How to be together? After a break of nearly one year, we decided to apply this season’s title Degrowth not only to the dramaturgy of potential new plays, but also to the functioning of our theatre, and, therefore, we will not produce any new plays for season 2021/22. Instead of constantly producing new things, we want to shift our focus onto our current plays, recontextualize them and deepen our perspective on these pieces. Imagine that you wouldn’t buy any new things for one year and would only explore new qualities of relationships to the things you already have. Therefore, we would like to invite creators who have already worked with us as well as members of our collective to join us for a season in which we will not produce new plays, but there will be a series of unique events such as discussions, lectures, happenings, paratheatrical events, hybrid genres, authors’ analyses of current pieces bringing a new perspective on old works. The instructions are simple: to create sustainably, with joy and as a community, to risk, to search, to come back, to build relationships. In addition to evening events planned in a brief time frame, spontaneously and without self-censorship, which is needed when requesting repetition, we will also organise two projects for season 2022/23 on a long-term basis and the degrowth season will feature their first chapters and pre-events. We see the new season’s concept as a journey which takes HaDivadlo from framing a classic repertory theatre towards a cultural institution, a laboratory for Utopian thinking, which, in addition to artistic activities and their multiplication, engages in erasing boundaries between art and society. Join us on this journey! Happiness matters more than productivity! Degrowth!One of the opportunities, the most important one probably, that the coronavirus pandemic brought was the possibility of realising how many things in the world we live in cannot be taken for granted. While the world has been searching its conscience, people reflected on slowing down, rethought consumption and production frameworks and asked questions about where our civilization is heading. The theme of return, the lifeline in the moment of sudden and profound instability, turned out to be no more than an effective marketing slogan for further acceleration. The reset was, actually, a return to disregarding limits set by the material world and our vulnerable bodies as well. The striving for GDP growth prevailed yet again over the expanding rifts in the ecosystem and the more and more alarming social inequalities. Art as a potential source of social imagination and a hunting ground for future possibilities failed on many occasions and rather passively joined the movement of a burst dam of performance by the rest of society. Care or sustainability are now only discussed at expert conferences. With the past years’ focus on quantity instead of quality and reporting performance instead of an honest search for meaning, such tendencies are twice as strong in the restarted society as they were. Art seems to have lost its ability to be the medium of otherness and has become an under-funded slave of uniformity. In response to the general acceleration, we decided to devote the new season to DEGROWTH. We see the imaginative concept of degrowth, based on several decades of interdisciplinary thinking and actions, as the most inspiring way of finding a way out of crisis, in which society puts economic laws above all other laws and GDP growth prevails over all other values, ignoring the complexity of the topic of quality of life. We do not see degrowth as resignation or inaction, we see it as a means to deepen our view of the world around us and improve our ability to find other goals than productivity. Degrowth invites us to remove things, to slow down, and, paradoxically, to gain more. We understand the concept as redirecting our focus from quantity to intensity and quality, from statuses to relationships and bonds. We would like to explore these principles during our work, while redefining the mission of restored theatre activities. How to create sustainably? What is the capacity of our consciousness for new pieces? What is the purpose of our activities? How to not drown in the flood of ‘Potemkin villages’ built to show productivity? How to create happily? How to rebel against the dictate of efforts to capitalise on everything? How can we avoid social disintegration and nature’s decline? How to be together? After a break of nearly one year, we decided to apply this season’s title Degrowth not only to the dramaturgy of potential new plays, but also to the functioning of our theatre, and, therefore, we will not produce any new plays for season 2021/22. Instead of constantly producing new things, we want to shift our focus onto our current plays, recontextualize them and deepen our perspective on these pieces. Imagine that you wouldn’t buy any new things for one year and would only explore new qualities of relationships to the things you already have. Therefore, we would like to invite creators who have already worked with us as well as members of our collective to join us for a season in which we will not produce new plays, but there will be a series of unique events such as discussions, lectures, happenings, paratheatrical events, hybrid genres, authors’ analyses of current pieces bringing a new perspective on old works. The instructions are simple: to create sustainably, with joy and as a community, to risk, to search, to come back, to build relationships. In addition to evening events planned in a brief time frame, spontaneously and without self-censorship, which is needed when requesting repetition, we will also organise two projects for season 2022/23 on a long-term basis and the degrowth season will feature their first chapters and pre-events. We see the new season’s concept as a journey which takes HaDivadlo from framing a classic repertory theatre towards a cultural institution, a laboratory for Utopian thinking, which, in addition to artistic activities and their multiplication, engages in erasing boundaries between art and society. Join us on this journey! Happiness matters more than productivity! Degrowth!One of the opportunities, the most important one probably, that the coronavirus pandemic brought was the possibility of realising how many things in the world we live in cannot be taken for granted. While the world has been searching its conscience, people reflected on slowing down, rethought consumption and production frameworks and asked questions about where our civilization is heading. The theme of return, the lifeline in the moment of sudden and profound instability, turned out to be no more than an effective marketing slogan for further acceleration. The reset was, actually, a return to disregarding limits set by the material world and our vulnerable bodies as well. The striving for GDP growth prevailed yet again over the expanding rifts in the ecosystem and the more and more alarming social inequalities. Art as a potential source of social imagination and a hunting ground for future possibilities failed on many occasions and rather passively joined the movement of a burst dam of performance by the rest of society. Care or sustainability are now only discussed at expert conferences. With the past years’ focus on quantity instead of quality and reporting performance instead of an honest search for meaning, such tendencies are twice as strong in the restarted society as they were. Art seems to have lost its ability to be the medium of otherness and has become an under-funded slave of uniformity. In response to the general acceleration, we decided to devote the new season to DEGROWTH. We see the imaginative concept of degrowth, based on several decades of interdisciplinary thinking and actions, as the most inspiring way of finding a way out of crisis, in which society puts economic laws above all other laws and GDP growth prevails over all other values, ignoring the complexity of the topic of quality of life. We do not see degrowth as resignation or inaction, we see it as a means to deepen our view of the world around us and improve our ability to find other goals than productivity. Degrowth invites us to remove things, to slow down, and, paradoxically, to gain more. We understand the concept as redirecting our focus from quantity to intensity and quality, from statuses to relationships and bonds. We would like to explore these principles during our work, while redefining the mission of restored theatre activities. How to create sustainably? What is the capacity of our consciousness for new pieces? What is the purpose of our activities? How to not drown in the flood of ‘Potemkin villages’ built to show productivity? How to create happily? How to rebel against the dictate of efforts to capitalise on everything? How can we avoid social disintegration and nature’s decline? How to be together? After a break of nearly one year, we decided to apply this season’s title Degrowth not only to the dramaturgy of potential new plays, but also to the functioning of our theatre, and, therefore, we will not produce any new plays for season 2021/22. Instead of constantly producing new things, we want to shift our focus onto our current plays, recontextualize them and deepen our perspective on these pieces. Imagine that you wouldn’t buy any new things for one year and would only explore new qualities of relationships to the things you already have. Therefore, we would like to invite creators who have already worked with us as well as members of our collective to join us for a season in which we will not produce new plays, but there will be a series of unique events such as discussions, lectures, happenings, paratheatrical events, hybrid genres, authors’ analyses of current pieces bringing a new perspective on old works. The instructions are simple: to create sustainably, with joy and as a community, to risk, to search, to come back, to build relationships. In addition to evening events planned in a brief time frame, spontaneously and without self-censorship, which is needed when requesting repetition, we will also organise two projects for season 2022/23 on a long-term basis and the degrowth season will feature their first chapters and pre-events. We see the new season’s concept as a journey which takes HaDivadlo from framing a classic repertory theatre towards a cultural institution, a laboratory for Utopian thinking, which, in addition to artistic activities and their multiplication, engages in erasing boundaries between art and society. Join us on this journey! Happiness matters more than productivity! Degrowth!One of the opportunities, the most important one probably, that the coronavirus pandemic brought was the possibility of realising how many things in the world we live in cannot be taken for granted. While the world has been searching its conscience, people reflected on slowing down, rethought consumption and production frameworks and asked questions about where our civilization is heading. The theme of return, the lifeline in the moment of sudden and profound instability, turned out to be no more than an effective marketing slogan for further acceleration. The reset was, actually, a return to disregarding limits set by the material world and our vulnerable bodies as well. The striving for GDP growth prevailed yet again over the expanding rifts in the ecosystem and the more and more alarming social inequalities. Art as a potential source of social imagination and a hunting ground for future possibilities failed on many occasions and rather passively joined the movement of a burst dam of performance by the rest of society. Care or sustainability are now only discussed at expert conferences. With the past years’ focus on quantity instead of quality and reporting performance instead of an honest search for meaning, such tendencies are twice as strong in the restarted society as they were. Art seems to have lost its ability to be the medium of otherness and has become an under-funded slave of uniformity. In response to the general acceleration, we decided to devote the new season to DEGROWTH. We see the imaginative concept of degrowth, based on several decades of interdisciplinary thinking and actions, as the most inspiring way of finding a way out of crisis, in which society puts economic laws above all other laws and GDP growth prevails over all other values, ignoring the complexity of the topic of quality of life. We do not see degrowth as resignation or inaction, we see it as a means to deepen our view of the world around us and improve our ability to find other goals than productivity. Degrowth invites us to remove things, to slow down, and, paradoxically, to gain more. We understand the concept as redirecting our focus from quantity to intensity and quality, from statuses to relationships and bonds. We would like to explore these principles during our work, while redefining the mission of restored theatre activities. How to create sustainably? What is the capacity of our consciousness for new pieces? What is the purpose of our activities? How to not drown in the flood of ‘Potemkin villages’ built to show productivity? How to create happily? How to rebel against the dictate of efforts to capitalise on everything? How can we avoid social disintegration and nature’s decline? How to be together? After a break of nearly one year, we decided to apply this season’s title Degrowth not only to the dramaturgy of potential new plays, but also to the functioning of our theatre, and, therefore, we will not produce any new plays for season 2021/22. Instead of constantly producing new things, we want to shift our focus onto our current plays, recontextualize them and deepen our perspective on these pieces. Imagine that you wouldn’t buy any new things for one year and would only explore new qualities of relationships to the things you already have. Therefore, we would like to invite creators who have already worked with us as well as members of our collective to join us for a season in which we will not produce new plays, but there will be a series of unique events such as discussions, lectures, happenings, paratheatrical events, hybrid genres, authors’ analyses of current pieces bringing a new perspective on old works. The instructions are simple: to create sustainably, with joy and as a community, to risk, to search, to come back, to build relationships. In addition to evening events planned in a brief time frame, spontaneously and without self-censorship, which is needed when requesting repetition, we will also organise two projects for season 2022/23 on a long-term basis and the degrowth season will feature their first chapters and pre-events. We see the new season’s concept as a journey which takes HaDivadlo from framing a classic repertory theatre towards a cultural institution, a laboratory for Utopian thinking, which, in addition to artistic activities and their multiplication, engages in erasing boundaries between art and society. Join us on this journey! Happiness matters more than productivity! Degrowth!

Creative Interventions – Season 47: Degrowth (Czech) Dům kultury a naděje