Premiere: 11 September 2020, SĽUK, Bratislava

Credits
Concept, Script, Director and Performer: Sláva Daubnerová
Stage and Costume Design: Sláva Daubnerová
Choreography: Andrej Petrovič
Music: Martin Burlas
Video: Jakub Gulyás, Jakub Pišek
Light and Sound Design: Milan Slama
Voiceover: Michaela Vrábová
Producer: P.A.T. Platform for Contemporary Theatre
Production: Mana, s.r.o.

About the work
Masterpiece is a solo physical-visual performance about the inner anxiety of the artist: isolation, the creative process, self-doubt, constant evaluation, and the experience of success and failure. At its centre is a fundamental question: To be, or not to be an artist?

The performance also looks at the position of women in Western art history and their long struggle for recognition within a predominantly male artistic canon. What begins as a personal reflection gradually expands into a broader meditation on generations of women artists whose work and legacy have shaped the way women can be seen and understood in art.

Artistic approach
In Masterpiece, Daubnerová brings together the visual, physical and documentary strategies developed throughout her performance work and turns them towards herself. The body, live presence, voice, video and carefully constructed visual compositions become tools for examining the artist’s own experience.

Rather than presenting a conventional autobiographical confession, the work places personal experience within the larger history of women artists and asks what it means to devote one’s life to art, to constantly question its value, and to seek recognition.

Performance
Daubnerová is the sole performer, author, director and visual creator. The work represents the most direct encounter between her performative practice and her own artistic identity.

Awards
Crystal Wing Award 2021 – Theatre and Audiovisual Art
Tatra banka Foundation Award for Art 2021 – Theatre, for directing, script and performance
Slovak Minister of Culture’s Award for 2020 – for exceptional contribution to contemporary theatre and dance, with reference to Masterpiece and Lolita

Selected international festivals and showcases
International Theatre Festival Divadelná Nitra, 2020
Drama Queer Festival, 2020

Artistic development
Masterpiece represents the culmination of Daubnerová’s performance practice. The questions that had accompanied her from Cells onwards — the position of women in art, the relationship between artist and artwork, the use of documentary and authentic material, and the body as a means of artistic expression — are ultimately turned towards herself.

Where her earlier works approached the lives and work of other artists, Masterpiece makes the artist herself the subject. It brings together the documentary, visual, physical and autobiographical strategies developed throughout her previous work, transforming them into a deeply personal reflection on artistic identity, the demands of creative life and the need for recognition.

As her most personal and critically recognised solo performance, Masterpiece forms the culmination of the artistic language she developed over more than a decade of performance work.

Sláva Daubnerová: Solo Lamentoso
Premiere: 18 December 2015, SĽUK, Bratislava

Written, Directed and Performed by: Sláva Daubnerová
Stage and Costume Design: Sláva Daubnerová
Choreography: Renata Ptačin
Music and Sound Design: Matej Gyárfáš
Voiceover: Ján Gallovič, Petra Vajdová, Sláva Daubnerová
Light Design: Slavomír Šmálik

About the work:
A physical-visual performance based on the true story of a woman from Štúrovo, a small town in southern Slovakia, who terrorised her neighbours for fourteen years by playing the same opera aria – Di quella pira, sung by Plácido Domingo – every day, from morning until evening, in an endless loop.

Artistic approach:
Starting from this almost absurd real-life case, Daubnerová explores how intolerance, isolation and growing hostility can emerge within a community. Documentary research, authentic television footage, recorded voices, opera music, movement and the performer’s body are combined into a fragmented portrait of an individual in conflict with society. The banal local story becomes a broader reflection on freedom, solitude, social exclusion and the limits of tolerance.

Performance:
Daubnerová was the author, director and performer, transforming a documented media story into a highly stylised physical and multimedia performance.

Awards and nominations:
Student Jury Award – New Drama Festival 2016
Nominated for Dosky Award 2016 – Best Production
Nominated for Dosky Award 2016 – Best Direction
Nominated for Tatra banka Foundation Prize for Art 2016 – Theatre

Selected international festivals:
Raising the Velvet Curtain Festival, London, 2019
Akcent – International Festival of Documentary Theatre, Prague, 2019

Artistic development:
With Solo Lamentoso, Daubnerová moves from portraits of individual artists towards the documentary investigation of a real contemporary case. The extreme and almost unbelievable story of the “singing house” becomes a vehicle for examining wider social mechanisms, while her characteristic combination of documentary material, live performance, sound, movement and visual composition becomes increasingly mature. The work was particularly well received by theatre critics and audiences.

Sláva Daubnerová: Untitled
Premiere: 10 December 2012, SĽUK, Bratislava

Concept, Director, Set and Costume Design, Performer: Sláva Daubnerová
Choreography: Stanislava Vlčeková
Dramaturgy and Technical Cooperation: Pavel Graus
Light Design: Slavomír Šmálik
Production: P.A.T. Platform for Contemporary Theatre

About the work:
A visual solo performance inspired by the life and work of American photographer Francesca Woodman. The work explores loneliness, vulnerability, the female body and the relationship between photographic image and lived experience.

Artistic approach:
Daubnerová reconstructs Woodman’s photographic process live on stage, using her own body, self-timer photography, projections, objects, sound and movement. Rather than creating a conventional biographical portrait, she transforms photography into a live theatrical event, with the performer simultaneously becoming the subject, image and creator.

Critical reception:
Theatre scholar Soňa Šimková described Untitled as a visually and emotionally powerful performance at the boundary between theatre and visual installation, highlighting Daubnerová’s search for an original form capable of achieving a highly cohesive artistic expression.

Daubnerová later described Šimková’s study as important in helping her recognise and articulate her own artistic language and understand that her path was moving beyond conventional theatre direction.

Performance:
Daubnerová was the sole performer as well as the author and director, physically entering the photographic compositions she created on stage.

Awards and nominations:
Dosky Award 2013 – Best Production
Nominated for Dosky Award 2013 – Best Actress
Nominated for Dosky Award 2013 – Best Direction
Tatra banka Foundation Art Award 2013 – Young Artist, Theatre
Annual Prize of the Literary Fund 2013 – for direction
Act Award, KioSK Festival 2013 – for lighting design

Selected international festivals:
APAP, New York, 2014
International Platonov Arts Festival, Voronezh, 2014
Off Europa Festival, Leipzig/Dresden, 2013

Artistic development:
Untitled is a key turning point in Daubnerová’s development: her earlier interest in the lives of artists becomes a fully developed visual language combining documentary research, photography, the performer’s body and new media. The work also confirms the recurring “woman/artist” line that connects M.H.L., Untitled and later Masterpiece.

Sláva Daubnerová: M.H.L.
Premiere: 22 December 2009, Studio 12, Bratislava

Stage Concept, Script, Director and Performer: Sláva Daubnerová
Dramaturgy and Sound Design: Pavel Graus
Video Art: Lukáš Kodoň
Choreography: Emil Leeger

About the work:
A documentary solo performance inspired by the life and work of Magda Husáková-Lokvencová, the first professional female theatre director in Slovakia. Once an important figure in Slovak theatre, her artistic legacy had largely faded from public memory.

Artistic approach:
Drawing on archival material and documentary research, Daubnerová creates a highly personal portrait rather than a conventional biography. As the sole performer, she embodies Husáková-Lokvencová through a combination of physical performance, video, sound and historical documents.

Why it was significant:
M.H.L. became a key work in Daubnerová’s development, establishing her distinctive approach to documentary and biographical material and her recurring interest in the stories of overlooked women artists. The performance also contributed to renewed attention to Husáková-Lokvencová and her place in Slovak theatre history.

Awards:
DOSKY Award 2010 – Discovery of the Season
Annual Prize of the Literary Fund 2010 – for direction and acting
Nominated for DOSKY Award 2010 – Best Production

Selected international festivals:
Four Days / Čtyři dny, Prague, 2010
International Theatre Festival Bezgranic / Bez hranic, Cieszyn, 2010
International Theatre Festival Divadlo, Plzeň, 2011
Borštnikovo srečanje, Maribor, 2011
International Festival of Theatre for One Actor, Cheb, 2011

Artistic development:
With M.H.L., Daubnerová moves decisively towards documentary research and the reconstruction of real lives. The work establishes a method that would become central to her later practice: using the story of another woman as a starting point for developing her own visual and performative language.

Premiere: 1 June 2007, Bojnice

Set and Costume Design, Director and Performer: Sláva Daubnerová
Translation: Ján Štrasser, Peter Zajac
Music and Sound Design: Matej Gyárfáš
Visuals: Dušan Krnáč
Choreography: Emil Leeger
Software Design: Peter Gonda
Technical Cooperation: Viliam Daubner

About the work:
A multimedia solo performance based on Heiner Müller’s Hamletmachine, focusing on the conflict between male and female identity and on the position of women within a world shaped by male literary, political and social structures.

Artistic approach:
Daubnerová performs Hamlet, Ophelia and other voices herself, using her body to move between male and female identities. Live camera and projection are integral to the performance: the action is filmed in real time, manipulated and projected from different angles, creating a fragmented “digital body” and constantly shifting perspectives on identity.

Critical reception:
The performance was recognised for its original fusion of gender-focused interpretation, physical performance and new media. Critic Martina Vannayová highlighted Daubnerová’s ability to integrate live video and projection as an essential part of the theatrical language rather than as visual decoration.

Performance:
Daubnerová was the sole performer, as well as the author of the concept, director and visual creator.

Selected international festivals:
Yerevan International Shakespeare Festival, 2008
Mitteleuropäisches Theaterkarussell, Vienna, 2008
Stara Elektrarna, Ljubljana, 2009
Monodrama Festival, Eger, 2010

Artistic development:
Hamletmachine was a breakthrough in Daubnerová’s development as an author-performer and director. It established two defining elements of her later work: a sustained interest in female identity and the use of video and new media as an integral part of her theatrical language.

Premiere: 16 September 2006, A4 Zero Space, Bratislava

Credits
Written, Directed and Performed by: Sláva Daubnerová
Visual Concept: Sláva Daubnerová, Eduard Kudláč
Dramaturgy: Eduard Kudláč
Technical Cooperation: Viliam Daubner

About the work
Daubnerová’s first authorial solo performance, inspired by the life, writings and personal diary records of French-American artist Louise Bourgeois. The work explores female identity, solitude, memory and the artist’s relationship to creative life.

Artistic approach
Rather than creating a conventional portrait, Daubnerová uses Bourgeois’s writings and artistic work as a starting point for a highly personal physical and visual performance. The body becomes the primary expressive material, bringing theatre, performance and visual art into direct dialogue.

Performance
Daubnerová is the sole performer, author and director. Through quotation and reinterpretation of another female artist’s work, she explores her own questions about art, artistic creation and identity.

Award
Special Jury Prize – New Drama Festival 2007, for Stage Concept and Direction

Selected international festivals and showcases
Festival Mitteleuropäisches Theaterkarussell, Vienna, Austria, 2007
Femfest – Feministički Festival, Zagreb, Croatia, 2007
Biennale des Jeunes Créateurs de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée – Biennale Puglia, Italy, 2008
International Theatre Festival Small Inventory, Prague, Czech Republic, 2010
Performing Arts Market in Seoul, South Korea, 2012
Globo Teatro Festival, Reggio di Calabria, Italy, 2014

Artistic development
Cells marks the beginning of Daubnerová’s distinctive performance practice: by quoting and reinterpreting the work of another female artist, she uses someone else’s artistic language as a means of exploring her own questions about art, artistic creation and identity. The work established the foundation for her later documentary, visual and autobiographical performances, which went on to represent Slovakia at international festivals across Europe, the United States and South Korea.

The musical-visual concept for two performers (Sláva Daubnerová, Pavel Graus) deals with a fragile relationship between a man and a woman. Inspired by the book of the photographer Francesca Woodman, Some Disordered Interior Geometries, the short story Die Todesanzeige (A Death Notice) by Heiner Müller in which he deals with the suicide of his wife, as well as by his short proses, poems, interviews, autobiography and the poetry of his wife Inge.

Written and directed, set and costumes by: Sláva Daubnerová Idea and performed by: Sláva Daubnerová a Pavel Graus Music:
 Pavel Graus Translation: Peter Lomnický Choreography: Matej Matejka Videoart: 
Lukáš Kodoň Light design and technical support: Slavomír Šmálik Production: P.A.T.platform for contemporary theatre Opening night: 2nd and 3rd November 2011, elledanse Bratislava

Financial support: Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic

Selected festivals: Nová drama/New drama 2012 Bratislava, Mitteleuropäisches Theaterkarussell 2011 Vienna

“Sláva Daubnerová and Pavel Graus decided to interpret the sickened relationship in their latest stage performance Some Disordered Interior Geometries…Based on their research or “expedition” to the roots of the relationship, all the way to its last stage which is dissolution, the authors created a scenario full of fragments, indications of situations or just moments that depict both partners during the process of disintegration of their relationship. Their testimonies which are delivered in spoken form, by music and songs include accusations, sadness, nostalgia, but also a subtle relief – memories in a form of short holiday videos shot by the home video camera.” Marek Godovič

Download reviews (pdf)

foto: Katarína Smíková 

Premiere: 2 November 2011, elledanse, Bratislava

Credits
Written, Directed, Set and Costume Design: Sláva Daubnerová
Idea and Performance: Sláva Daubnerová, Pavel Graus
Music: Pavel Graus
Translation: Peter Lomnický
Choreography: Matej Matejka
Video: Lukáš Kodoň
Light and Technical Design: Slavomír Šmálik
Production: P.A.T. Platform for Contemporary Theatre

About the work
Some Disordered Interior Geometries grew naturally out of Daubnerová’s engagement with Heiner Müller, which began with Hamletmachine. Deeply influenced by Müller’s writing, she continued her exploration of his work through the texts, poetry and personal history surrounding his relationship with Inge Müller, an accomplished poet and writer who was also Heiner Müller’s wife.

A central source is Die Todesanzeige (A Death Notice), Heiner Müller’s prose text about the suicide of his wife, Inge Müller. The performance draws on his poems, short prose texts, interviews and autobiography, and Inge Müller’s poetry. It explores the complex relationship between the two artists, the circumstances of Inge’s death and the traces of this loss in Müller’s later writing, while opening the question of what it meant for Inge Müller to live and create alongside a playwright of his stature.

Artistic approach
The work takes the form of a visual concert, composed of fragments, situations and moments tracing the disintegration of a relationship. Spoken testimonies, music and songs are interwoven with intimate home-video footage, creating a fragmented reconstruction of a shared life and its gradual dissolution. Theatre critic Marek Godovič described the performance as a unique and remarkable work, highlighting its distinctive form and emotionally charged treatment of the relationship’s disintegration.

The personal dimension of the project is essential to its conception: Daubnerová created and performed the work with Pavel Graus, her partner in life at the time, while the two performers were exploring the life and relationship of another artistic couple, Heiner and Inge Müller. This parallel gives the performance an intimate and self-reflexive dimension without turning the two relationships into a direct equivalence.

The work also brings Inge Müller into focus as an independent artist. Her literary contribution and the complicated history of her authorship within her collaboration with Heiner Müller become part of the performance’s broader questioning of artistic identity, authorship and recognition.

Selected international festival
Mitteleuropäisches Theaterkarussell, Vienna, 2011

Artistic development
Some Disordered Interior Geometries is a direct continuation of Daubnerová’s engagement with Heiner Müller that began with Hamletmachine. Where Hamletmachine confronted Müller’s text through the female body and questions of male and female identity, this work moves further into the world behind his writing — into biography, intimate relationships, authorship and loss. It marks a shift from interpreting Müller’s text to investigating the lives and artistic identities that surround it, while further developing Daubnerová’s documentary, visual and autobiographical language.

Premiere: 23 August 2008, Prievidza

Credits
Written and Directed by: Sláva Daubnerová
Cast: Robert Roth / Vanda Mesiariková, Emil Leeger, Sláva Daubnerová
Stage, Costume and Graphic Design: Dušan Krnáč

About the work
A scenic concept based on Jon Fosse’s Melancholy I, centred on Norwegian painter Lars Hertervig and the moments leading to his mental crisis.

Artistic approach
Daubnerová transforms Fosse’s fragmented literary structure into a cyclical stage composition built on repetition, modification and accumulation of phrases, scenes and situations.

Performance
Daubnerová appears as one of three performers.

Selected international festivals and showcases
Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space, Prague, 2011 – Slovak Section

Artistic development
Polylogue marks a shift from the direct exploration of female artists towards literary sources and fragmented psychological narratives, while retaining Daubnerová’s interest in visual composition and non-linear theatrical language.