Inventor on Earth
Inventor on
Earth
PH Zack Sievers ©
Inventor on
Earth
I remember
as clear
as the existence
of God
is heaven: roughly I cheered
the funnel of spewed
hatred
of the globe
and restless as I was
I sat
deeply considerate
the cemetery of devil’s masses.
Passionately I kissed the insane flow
of rotten hair.
Inventor on Earth is the poem of Anton Podbevšek, whose poetry is associated with the beginning of the historical avant-garde movement in Slovenia. By tracing the internal tension of his poetry, Inventor on Earth seeks to stage Podbevšek's "cosmic anarchism", expressing the force of endless expansion of the edge of possibility. If this force in the title song manifests itself in the desire to liberate the potentials that are suppressed by the unjust regulation of human society, the image of a man who is a prisoner of the universe itself is sketched in cosmic space after overstepping the bounds of the horizon. What could give rise to the liberation from this captivity?
Inventor on Earth
The Performance
A performance by Bara Kolenc
Anton Podbevšek Teater, Novo Mesto, Slovenia, November 2018
Performed and co-created by: Andraž Jug, Leja Jurišić, Urban Kuntarič, Jelena Rusjan, Pavle Ravnohrib, Sašo Vollmaier, Marina Džukljev
Text: Anton Podbevšek
Assistant Director: Ana Laura Richter
Dramaturgy: Miklavž Komelj
Sound Design: Matevž Kolenc
Adaptation of the piano compositions by Marij Kogoj (Malenkosti): Matevž Kolenc and Sašo Vollmaier
Piano player: Marina Džukljev
Set Design: Marko Japelj
Video and Photo: Zack Sievers
Light Design: Simon Žižek
Tone Design: Uroš Bon
Costume Design: Špela Ema Veble and Nina Jagodic
Proudced by: Anton Podbevšek Teater
Financial support: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, City of Novo Mesto, Krka
But my back, already bent like a bony palm tree, stretched like a broken bow, I grabbed as in a dream the silver whistle and put it in my trembling mouth. With whistling, which went through the brain and the bones, the furious and sloughing snakes began to dance – they were wrapping around me, stretching their blown necks, which only seconds ago were wading in my blood and hissing with their long, split tongues. And I also in front of me in burning flames giant crocodiles, gasping for me, feasting on my flesh and my bones – gushes of my blood were falling on poppy fields – and myself, as if shot, always higher and higher rising. From my head condors, eagles, falcons, nightingales, larks and the entire flock of birds began to fly. And I said to myself: “These are my thoughts!”
(They covered the sky above me.)
And the clouds were swarming in their loose clothes like herds of rabid elephants, strong thunder began to hit and I saw the darkness above me densely scattered with fire arrows.
(It seemed as if the worlds were tumbling down. Some birds started coming to the ground, others were flying in airy distances as if haunted.)
In fairy tale mountains – lit by a red half-moon which seemed like a bent dagger, sprayed with blood – I sang as crazy about myself, Atwood’s parachute.
(in my 17th year)
When
I
went
to
the
promised
land
Kanaan
in
my
dreams
I
saw
a
Neronian,
satanic
and
hyenic
grinning,
familiar
face:
As
you
sing
in
the
middle
of
the
globe,
one
sings
in
the
far
north,
south,
east
and
west.
The
devil
stretched
with
a
black
smile
his
polyp
hands
after
me
and
I
felt
him
drilling
my
falcon
eyes
-
even
more
drilled
his
rattlesnake
tail.
But
I
was
only
freezing
cold.
Me,
an
iceberg
in
the
Atlantic
sea,
with
a
sphynx-like
face
I
lit
my
torch
next to his
and the landscape
in
front
of
me
burnt
in
a
hazy,
red
light
in
which
scabietic
humans
crawled
and
walked
all
over
each other:
As
you
sing
in
the
middle
of
the
globe,
one
sings
in
the
far
north,
south,
east
and
west!
© 2014 Design by Atej Tutta
PH Zack Sievers ©