Me(n)tal Fences, Set Design for the Play Iliad2015

design: BIRO
project team: saša košuta, mario kralj, dora lončarić
associates: Tanja Lacko (set design mentor), Krešimir Dolenčić (director), Elvis Butković (lighting design), Tea Bašić and Dijana Mihalić (costume design), drama students of the Academy of Dramatic Arts
photography: BIRO archive
location: Hall F22, Frankopanska 22, Zagreb
status: performance of the play
project year: 2015

publications: vizkulutra: https://vizkultura.hr/mentalne-ograde/
exhibitions: Novi Sad Architecture Salon

The underlying motif of the Iliad, if viewed through a psychoanalytic prism, is the motif of anger. Me(n)tal fences is our set design as well as extended dramaturgic solution, our attempt to fence in this desire for revenge. Even the digressions, comparisons and repetitions - means of slowing down the action - remained within the confines of this fence. The fence can, in a certain way, be viewed as a character in itself. The fence is a comment that everything has its limit, at times fragile and sometimes sturdy, but always established somewhere.

The play was performed in Hall F22 of the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb. The set design comprises metal construction fences that form a cage within / outside / on which the dramatic action takes place. The set design ceases to be the backdrop for the action, becoming the action itself.