Natasha Tripney interviews Agata Tomšič, “Café Europa”, January 24 2024

Risky business: European theatre makers on the right to fail
Theatre makers from Romania, Italy, Kosovo and Serbia on success, failure and artistic freedom
Natasha Tripney, “Café Europa”,January 24th 2024
https://natashatripney.substack.com/p/risky-business-european-theatre-makers

For her newsletter dedicated to European theater, Natasha Tripney interviewed a few European theater makers on the topic of the right to fail.
Among these theater makers, in addition to Agata Tomšič, there are: Jeton Neziraj, Patrik Lazić and Andreea Iacob.

Here is an extract from Agata Tomšič’s intervention:
“I start from the premise that for me culture, and in particular art, is a public good and as such should be supported economically by our societies, made accessible to the entire population and protected from censorship and political interference. I also believe that art should be supported by public taxpayers’ money and be free in content and form, free therefore to experiment and “fail”, and then do it and do it again. I therefore believe there is a great political responsibility behind this right and freedom, which should not be underestimated.

The continuous cuts that the performing arts sector in Italy has suffered started several decades ago with the Berlusconi governments, following the belief that the performing arts sector has to deal with the market.^. The current Meloni government has not made cuts, but they are very concerned about the “cultural hegemony of the left” and we are all waiting to find out what they will do to address their fears.

I believe that the political and democratic crisis that Europe is experiencing is linked to the growing disinterest of politics in investing in art. This is a boomerang. There are less and less voters, and if the ruling class has the primary goal of maintaining its position of power through more voters, it often chooses the easiest way to reach as many people as possible: commercial entertainment, which is also economically “more sustainable”. Over the long term, however, in this way, spectator-voters stop developing any form of critical and civic thinking, and therefore no longer feel the need to do their duty as citizens (go to vote, pay taxes, etc.), nor do they develop the necessary tools to distinguish an art product from a commercial product, a professional performance from an amateur work, to understand the value of risk and fragility in the artistic field.”