OUR VIOLENCE AND YOUR VIOLENCE EPISODE. Director Oliver Frljić

A commission by HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin.
Production: HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin.
Co-production: Mladinsko Theatre (Ljubljana), Wiener Festwochen (Vienna), Zürcher Theater Spektakel (Zürich), Kunstfest Weimar (Weimar), Hrvatsko narodno kazalište Ivana pl. Zajca (Rijeka).
Funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation
Regional co-producer: MESS Sarajevo

The performance Our Violence and Your Violence observes Europe naively stunned by the refugee crisis, Europe which willingly forgets its colonial past and as willingly closes its borders to thousands who run from the consequences of the American and European politics. The twentieth century seems like it has persistently worked on encouraging national narcissisms which taught one mass that it is better than the others. Twenty-first century continues with the same lessons, using the infallible weapon: fear. The image of strong, bright Europe is eroded by a growing paranoia and the message comes at us from every corner: you are no longer safe, anywhere. The fear is, indeed, the safest prerequisite for hatred. 
Are we aware that our prosperity depends of thousands of dead in the Middle East? In the moment of one of the world’s greatest crises after the World War II, should we proudly call ourselves Europeans or should we be ashamed of Europe? Are we ready to bear the consequences of the hundred-year long European domination? Do we mourn the same for victims of terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels, as for those in Baghdad? At what moment did we start believing that we are the masters of truth and that our God is more powerful than other Gods? And where in all this are we, the audience, while we cry in a dimly-lit hall, watching scenes of fiction, yet we remain indifferent before real people in refugee camps?