Bringing the left back : radical performances of dissent from the remains of ex-Yugoslavia

This essay focuses on the leftist cultural expressions that emerged from excavations of the legacy of socialist Yugoslavia. It proposes the notion of the worksites of the Left as a critical lens through which to re-examine the socio-political dissent in the region and the emerging of the Leftist public discourse. The essay turns to Etienne Balibar’s concept of the worksites of democracy, Janelle Reinelt’s transposition of the concept to the context of theatre and Alain Badiou’s notion of Event to map the parameters of worksites of the Left pertinent to the given contexts and its manifestations of discontent both through various public protests and through theatre. The essay focuses on two theatrical performances ‘Born in YU ‘(2010) and ‘Our Violence, Your Violence’ (2016) to examine how theatre operates as a worksite not only through its subject-matters and modes of its representation, but also through a degree of unpredictability inherent in the theatrical event. The essay argues that theatre is a unique worksite in its capacity to generate subsequent worksites, looking at ‘Do you Remember Yugoslavia?’ roundtable discussion that emerged from the ‘Born in YU’ performance; and numerous public and media debates, sparked form ‘Our Violence, Your Violence’