Zuhause INVITES: Burja Podlesnik

Four times a year, Zuhause invites makers from outside the house to present new work. Not established names, but work in the now: ideas in motion that are eager to meet an audience. For us, it’s a way to discover new voices; for makers, it’s a chance to test and develop their work in front of a live audience.

Zuhause INVITES: Burja Podlesnik

For the very first edition of Zuhause INVITES, we welcome Burja Podlesnik, a young maker who recently graduated from ArtEZ. During this edition she premieres her latest work, Two Men in Underwear.

"Two Men in Underwear", a tender wrestling match with two winners, explores the tension between our inherent need for vulnerability and the barriers that protect us from it. On the stage, transformed into a quiet arena, the performers pass through subtle lifts, falls and deconstructed movement patterns, where flying limbs rearrange their intertwined bodies - like a moving pile of flesh eager for collision. Their transforming relation seeks to answer the question “Is it more difficult to build a wall or to break it?”, highlighting the thin line between pain and pleasure, love and hate. By drawing our attention to the problematic notions of traditional male gender roles, the piece serves as an invitation to perceive strength not as the absence of vulnerability, but as the courage to embrace it.

• Concept, choreography: Burja Podlesnik
• Co-created and performed by: Oscar Magnusson, Koen Kaya Eye
• Dramaturgy: Maša Radi Buh
• Mentorship: Danielle Dietz
• Light design: Veronika Hana Grubič
• Photography: Nada Žgank
• Executive production: Tamara Pepelnik

Two Men in Underwear is supported by:

• Emanat, Institute for Development and Affirmation of Dance and Contemporary Art
• Cankarjev dom
• NEFCD New Education for Contemporary Dance, Performing Arts STUDIO
• Härnösands folkhögskola
• Festival Velenje
• Ministry of Culture RS, City of Ljubljana
• Zuhause