NIVVA, Magda Szpecht: Bliss
director: Magda Szpecht
artistic concept: NIVVA
music: NIVVA a Dominik Gajarský
dramaturgy and text: Olga Drygas
lighting design: Štěpán Kuba
producers: Michał Rogulski and Madla Horáková Zelenková
performing: Anežka Kalivodová or Karolína Růžičková
What happens when the lines between creator, creation and creature blur? When what was once yours takes on a life of its own? A breakdow, a transformation? An eerie beauty of letting go? A glitch in reality?
BLISS, a collaboration between Polish theater director Magda Szpecht and Czech virtual artist NIVVA. The performance is inspired by the digital nostalgia of the Windows XP “Bliss” wallpaper, warps the iconic serenity into a playground for shifting identities. Using motion-capture technology, BLISS brings a virtual being to life. Who is in control? Who is watching whom? And can we ever truly escape the versions of ourselves we leave behind?
With haunting visuals, fluid movement, and a creeping sense of the surreal, BLISS explores what happens when the fragments of our past begin to gather. To form. To breathe. In this performance, we step into the world where time bends, memories dissolve, and the body becomes both vessel and witness. BLISS is therefore a visceral, 30 minute meditation on transformation, loss, and renewal.
Step in. Let go. And see if you can still find your way – back or forth.
duration: 30 minutes
photo by: Adéla Vosičková
The project was created for the Norma festival in co-production with Studio Hrdinů, Æfekt Productions, Komuna Warszawa and Pawiłon Poznań.
The project was financially supported by:
Mentions and Reviews:
Markéta Kosinová, 13. 11. 2024
“Multimedia diva NIVVA and Polish opera and theater director Magda Szpecht shroud the main stage in a continuous floor-caressing mist. Anežka Kalivodová, in an uncanny battle with time, calms and simultaneously provokes her avatar (controlled by live motion capture technology).”
Martin Macháček, Taneční zóna, 27 November 2024
