CREDITS
CREATION AND PERFORMANCE:
Roman Škadra
RESEARCH COLLABORATION:
Benjamin Richter, Aleksandras Lempertas
CREATIVE ADVICE:
Benjamin Richter, Darragh McLoughlin, Claudio Stellato
KETTLEBELL COACH:
Frank Kraft
SOUND:
Aleksandras Lempertas
LIGHT:
Piotr Lemieszczuk
SCENOGRAPHY:
Roman Škadra
COSTUME:
Anna-Katharina Andrees
TECHNICAL SUPPORT:
Tomasz Bajsarowicz
PRODUCTION AND MANAGEMENT:
Anna-Katharina Andrees, Ute Classen
PARTNERS/COPRODUCTION:
Cirqueon – Center for new circus, Center for the Development of Choreography SE.S.TA
FUNDING:
Supported by Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media within the program NEUSTART KULTUR
ABOUT SHOW
GIREVIK is a performance with one man, a wooden floor and 200 kg of kettlebells. Roman Škadra moves heavy material. The kettlebells hit the floor noisily, and with each movement force his body into a new shape. He precisely piles up the weights into sculptures, knocks them down and starts again. A delicate game of movement, juggling and sound that continues to expand. In his second piece, the artist continues his exploration of the unwieldiness of objects and questions the aesthetic impact of physical exertion. In GIREVIK, he deconstructs what is an icon of strength surrounded by a hyper-masculine aura and searches for an alternative poetics of labour.
ABOUT AUTHOR
Roman Škadra (1985) is a Slovak juggler and circus maker. After a degree in geography at the Comenius University in Bratislava, he completed a 3-year training in contemporary circus at Die Etage – School for Performing and Fine Arts in Berlin.
In 2018 Roman conceived Absurd Hero, his first full-length stage piece (première: 2021, Prague, Festival Letní Letná). The work is the result of intensive movement research in the discipline of Walking Globe. In 2020 the project was supported by Zirkus ON – an initiative programme to promote contemporary circus productions in Germany.
2017 – 2023 Roman was part of Critical Mess, a juggling company led by Stefan Sing. The piece Dodai (première 2019) toured across Europe, including festivals such as Rencontres des Jonglages Paris, Circusstad Rotterdam and the Tanzbiennale Heidelberg.
Since 2020 Roman has been part of Squarehead Productions’ For As Long As We’re Here – a series of durational performative installations merging the worlds of circus and performance art.
In 2021 Roman began his research around kettlebells and received funding from Fond Darstellende Künste in Germany. In his second solo Girevik (première: 2024, Prague, Festival Cirkopolis), Roman pursues his exploration of the relationship between body and object and questions the aesthetic impact of physical effort.
From 2025 he is an associate artist of The Centre for the Choreographic Development SE.S.TA.
His current focus is on site-specific and participatory art.