It's a few days into 2021, and as your corespondent was occupied with other things - like trying to get out of Australia somehow - now is the first opportunity I've had to reflect on the amazing experience that was 2020's Faki Festival in the digitized space of Zagreb, Croatia.
I've written a few times now about the devastating impacts of the pandemic on culture. Culture is the best protection against authoritarianism, and so the removal of culture and its associated rituals of assembly, togetherness, and live spectatorship are extremely threatening, in a context where there are already neo-fascist and white supremacist roots growing in the United States and across Europe (for example). The COVID-19 pandemic comes at a moment of extreme geopolitical vulnerability, accelerating and widening inequalities, power systems, and hegemonies. New racisms, class antagonisms and gender aggressions have materialised over the course of the pandemic, and these will inevitably grow as it continues.
As a self-organised and autonomous festival, Faki normally has an important role to play in initiating inclusiveness, togetherness, and connection. That seemed like an impossible task this year, and yet, paradoxically, this made it also more necessary. Over the course of one week, 15 unique works from 10 countries were presented over the festival's unique online platform - the Zone of Control - as well as 3 open workshops. These performances - actually video performance works - were streamed to a global live audience, who were able to interact using live commentary. Following nearly every performance, a Q&A with the artist was presented by me and my critic colleague Jana Perković, taking live questions from the audience about the works they had just seen, and feeding them to the artists themselves.
Screenshot of the 'Zone of Control' open-format online platform. Pictured: Artists Carlota Berzal (ES) and Pablo Cernadas (ARG), Jana Perković in Berlin, and Richard -1 in Ballarat, Australia. Photo: Vedran Gligo
