choreograpchoreography: Mateja Bučar, stage: Vadim Fishkin , sound: Tomaž Grom (tovarna sploh), dramaturgy: Katarina Pejovič
dance: Valentina Čabro, Nataša Kos, Marinka Ribič, Mateja Rebolj

“We no longer believe in a primordial totality that once existed, or in a final totality that awaits us at some future date. We no longer believe in the dull grey outlines of a dreary, colourless dialectic of evolution, aimed at forming a harmonious whole out of heterogeneous bits by rounding off their rough edges. We believe only in totalities that are peripheral.” *

Telborg is an abbreviation. It derives from “Body without Organs”. The expression was forged by Antonin Artaud to mark in flesh his rebellious outcry against Western theatre; Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari built a theory around it, giving it an aura of extremity, very appropriate and trendy for the epoque we live in. Many followed.

Telborg is, however, removed from particularities. It is not a space, nor is it in space. It is “a special state of matter-energy information; a flowing reality animated from within by self-organising processes constituting a veritable non-organic life.” ** It renounces organisation and systematisation, but doesn’t relapse into chaos. It takes away role and function but it obeys the inner logic of the elements that constitute it. It abolishes the linearity of time-space dimension: every moment of its existence is at once.

The figure that connects us most directly to the notion of non-linearity is the spiral. Spiral grows continuously without ever changing its shape: it is a never-ending polygon for exploring all forms and principles of accelerated organic growth. The performance Telborg is examining three of such principles. They are separate entities, yet each represents one aspect of exploration which, at the stage of symbiosis with spirals, is stratified.

The existence is stable and predictable. Time and space are measured from an outside point: symbiosis and its confirmation depend on the endurance of form. The point of exhaustion of the form lies in its core. When exhaustion announces itself, symbiosis is dismembered: the state of stratification is over. Or is beginning.

Entities are in the stage of vacuum. Space and time are in their negation. All possibilities and impossibilities are condensed. To overcome that state, severe discipline is needed. Limitation and reduction are the key to the new level of exploration – or stratification.

The zero stage is inhabited by the quintessence of the three entities. The form of existence is unknown. Time and space are to be determined. The influence of the spiral form is strong and reappears as an echo (or anticipation). Yet, there are so many new possibilities to be explored: limbs, spines, heads, torsos – separately and together, they serve as tools and guidances in looking for the new balance. The awareness on inter-dependence simultaneously arises. The form of existence calls for another kind of symbiosis. In the process of looking for the form, there are natural relapses into the stratification mode. The desire for order is a powerful impulse. But, it cannot provide a stable form. What is sought is the stability of the unstable, a flow of intensities that doesn’t necessarily need to get into any kind of shape. The entities are heading towards the acceptance of the undefined state in which they will be able to live their integrity in a different way, constantly swinging between the stratifying impulse and the catalyst for freeing it. Thus they create Telborg. Or dismantle it.

Embarking on this journey which is the search for Telborg, what seems essential is to adopt non-linearity as the principle of perceiving and understanding. Cause and consequence evolve both ways. The beginning contains the conclusion. The end encompasses the introduction. The flow between them is constant and articulated at every stage and every stage comprises all the other stages.

This is not an easy task for our perception, still determined by the three-dimensional limit. In fact, it is impossible to fulfil it without falling into the classical trap of spectatorship: pretending, projecting, imagining. There is, however, another option, perhaps more abstract, but also more true to what non-linear perception might be. Remember the Sphinx’s riddle; forget about the time component and take yourself as the human being described in it. Then merge the child, the (wo)man and the old (wo)man. Do not imagine it. Be it. And if that is not possible, try to realise its mere possibility.

Katarina Pejovic

* Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari: “A Thousand Plateaus”, University of Minnesota, 1987 * Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari: “A Thousand Plateaus”, University of Minnesota, 198
**Manuel De Landa: “A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History”, Swerve Editions, New York, 1997