Original choreographic research, 2026
The project Cracks of Space and Body in the Vertical (Pukotine prostora i tijela u vertikali) explores the relationship between the body and architecture in spaces that were never meant for performance. The fire staircase, passageways, walls, verticals and voids of the Rector's Palace and the Providur's Palace become the performer's active partners, and the choreographic material grows out of a direct bodily reading of the space.
From 1 March to 25 August 2026, the research developed through rehearsals held in the gaps between the building's programmes – at moments when nothing else was taking place there. A process that had been growing "in the shadows" for months was opened to the public in two public presentations in June 2026.
The process develops an approach that could be described as interior somatic cartography: the body records touch, distance, support, emptiness, the transfer of weight, light and the rhythm of the architecture. The space is not used as a stage set; it is read through the experience of the body.
The research gave rise to the cycle Fragments 1–6 – six photographic and bodily thoughts:
- Every wall remembers a touch.
- Every body remembers a fall.
- Some cracks an X-ray cannot see.
- There is a time that does not heal wounds.
- There is a scream that speaks through silence.
- There is an architecture that breathes in rhythm.
The photographic documentation did not remain mere proof that the project took place; it became a new interpretative layer of the work. The result is not a single, closed choreographic piece but a way of working in which choreography arises from the relationship between body and architecture. Places you pass through become places to stay; the periphery becomes the centre, and emptiness becomes a partner.
Project details
- Author, choreographer and performer: Marija Šćekić
- Production: Histeria Nova
- Photography: Božidar Šćekić
- Location: Rector's Palace and Providur's Palace, Zadar
- Period: 1 March – 25 August 2026
With financial support from the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia and the support of the City of Zadar.
