Venus I-II / Ivo Svetina: The Birth of Venus, 2018

The play takes place in the period between September 1449 and May 1498; during the Charles VIII 's invasion and Savonarola's death. Savonarola exerts such influence on Botticelli that he turns away from his own principles. These are rooted in the Renaissance humanism that glorifies beauty "as a spiritual grace", in the spirit of Neo-Platonism. In his painting he depicts "ambivalent symbols", the earthly and celestial goddesses, physical and spiritual love ("The Birth of Venus"). The relationship between Botticelli and Amedeo becomes entangled. Amadeo gets jealous and turns Botticelli in. Botticelli begins painting the "Mystic Nativity" (Nativita), in which he wants to highlight the "reconciliation" between angels and people. In this way he professes his new faith, which begins to undermine his creative powers. He is sinking into oblivion. While Savonarola is burning at the stake, Botticelli stands in front of a blank canvas, on which he writes "Nativita". Amadeo begs for his forgiveness. Simonetta and Clarice enter through the blank canvas. Throughout the play there are present time intrusions: first-class experts are trying to save The Venus's Birth from destruction. They have a conversation in which the technical assessment alternates with the possibilities of restoration.

The project is conceived as a diptych: it consists of a drama-dance performance "The Birth of Venus" (2018), and a poetic dance-theatre performance Venus II (2019). The drama text by Ivo Svetina "The Birth of Venus" offers a wide range of themes on the Renaissance and Quattrocento painting. Our methodology is founded primarily in Masaccio, a painter of the early Renaissance, whose figures are monumental and grounded in the sensuous. In his painting "The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden" (1425), Masaccio captures the moment of truth or existential cruelty: he is able to depict pain (the concept of ugliness as an aesthetic category). On the other hand, Botticelli renders beauty through depicting imaginary visions of paradise, illusions, dance gestures and leg positions.

In the diptych of the performances the incapability will be juxtaposed with the possibility of realism: how this is actualised in the artistic and philosophical corpus of the two masters (Botticelli / Masaccio).

In the drama text the three levels - mythology, history, and the present - intertwine.

The action is set behind a perspective grid/raster, which acts as an obstacle or a boundary, while at the same time it carefully charts individual scenes / images / dramatis personae through theatrical situations. Thus, the performance can be "read" from two parallel perspectives: restorers work on the painting reconstruction while at the same time they are also viewed by the audience. The image within the image has been created: the restorers represent the last border before i.e. falling into the image they conserve and preserve. They get tortured by it, only to make it "reappear". All the engagement around the restoration of the work of art is put under pressure by the cultural-political menagerie of the world back then.