BADco. on Theatre by Other Means at the Venice Biennale

Key facts

• BADco. is an international independent theatre collective based in Zagreb, emerging in the late 1990s as a reaction to nationalist cultural and political climate in Croatia.
• The collective has eight core members from dance, choreography, dramaturgy, computer programming, philosophy, and political theory.
• Their installation 'Responsibility for Things Seen: Tales in Negative Space' was presented at the Croatian Pavilion of the 2011 Venice Biennale, curated by What, How and for Whom.
• The installation features a duplicated gallery wall with a cracked door and three video screens, showing footage of the company, floor-plan choreographies, and live footage processed to erase and replace visitors.
• BADco. aims to create a 'choreography of attention' without forcing interaction, allowing visitors to observe and be observed.
• The collective coined 'theatre by other means' to describe their approach of retaining theatrical elements without live performers.
• They critique parametric architecture, citing Zaha Hadid's villas near Dubrovnik as an example of starchitecture serving private interests against local communities.
• BADco. notes the fragmentation of performing arts into smaller units due to increased education, mobility, and reduced funding, resembling visual arts production.
• The collective emphasizes collaboration as a counter-infrastructure to nationalist cultural policy in Croatia.
• The interview was conducted by Josefine Wikström and published on Afterall on 19 October 2011.