About us
KunstTeatar, a pop&art destination of the Zagreb theatre scene, was founded in late 2018 in Zagreb. KunstTeatar was founded by producer Romana Brajša, actor Domagoj Janković and director Ivan Planinić, who have been working as an artistic and production trio since their student days at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb. As a cultural association, KunstTeatar brings together artists and art organizations from the independent scene with the aim of developing non-institutional contemporary art.
In just a few years of operation, KunstTeatar has co-produced 18 plays that, in addition to performances in Zagreb, have also toured in other cities and at festivals. The play “Flex” was awarded the Croatian Theatre Award for exceptional contribution to theatre art, and for the same play, actor Bernard Tomić was awarded at the Actor’s Festival. The play “Martha and the Seven Fears” was awarded as the most innovative play at the TAKT Festival in Novi Sad, in addition to being a guest at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival, the Grad Teatar Budva and Korifej festivals in Kolašin. For the text of the play “Ti si prvi hrabar” Espi Tomičić was awarded the award for the best dramatic work at the Days of Satire by Fadil Hadžić, and the ensemble of the play also received a special award. Karlo Mrkša won the Zagreb Monodrama Festival as the best actor for his role in the play “Joke of Sisyphus”, and the play was also included in the program of the Croatian Showcase of the Croatian Center ITI. Ivana Vuković’s play “You Can Be Anything You Want” was a guest at the Tempora/Contempora festival in Italy, and actress Lana Meniga was awarded the Croatian Actors’ Association Award for her role as Leno. Jasna Žmak’s play “This is my truth, tell me yours” won the Grand Prix at Bitef 2024. years. The performances have been performed in Zadar, Dubrovnik, Varaždin, Hvar, Klanjec, Koprivnica, Slovenia, Italy, the Czech Republic, Montenegro…
KunstTeatar cooperates with numerous artists of the younger and middle generation, as well as with organizations such as Punctum, KUFER, T25, TRAS Studio, and has also collaborated with Teatro Verrdi, Kuća Klajn, P4, Lazareti Art Workshop, the Croatian Screenwriters and Playwrights Guild (SPID), the BoliMe Association, the Goethe-Institut, the Ludens Theater, Boom!teatar, Auzivnkl and local and foreign independent artists. KunstTeatar’s theater hall regularly stages performances, often intended for specific audiences, high school students, young people, but also everyone who loves good theater.
The plays are co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and Media, the City Office for Culture, Intercity and International Cooperation and Civil Society, and the Kultura Nova Foundation.
Mission
KunstTeatar is a newly established theater space in Zagreb’s neighborhood of Trešnjeveka that gathers artists of the younger generation and organizations of the independent art scene with the aim of developing non-institutional contemporary art and culture, particularly the performing arts.
Vision
KunstTeatar wants to be a publicly recognized and recognized platform for research, development, production, performance, placement and distribution of the contemporary independent scene in Zagreb, Croatia and beyond. KunstTeatar wants to become an indispensable part of the cultural offer in the city and a regular partner/co-producer of other organizations with similar values and artistic principles.
Objectives
- promotion, development and improvement of independent non-institutional contemporary art and culture, particularly the performing arts;
- creation of an independent platform and space for the production, performance, positioning and distribution of cultural and artistic projects in the field of performing arts, fine arts, literature, audiovisual, photographic and other arts, as well as the research of their mutual relations;
- creation of new audiences and audience development through education and other activities;
- creating projects in culture and arts that correspond thematically with the wider community, innovative research projects and socially engaged projects that solve specific community problems;
- openness to all artistic media, fields and genres and to an interdisciplinary approach;
- artistic activity at the local, intercity and international level through associations, collaborations and co-productions;
- sustainable social entrepreneurship
Founders
Domagoj Janković
is a professional actor from Zagreb. He graduated from the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb in 2015 in the class of Professor Krešimir Dolenčić. He was awarded the special Rector’s Award for the play “School for Angels” in 2017. years. He is the winner of the Croatian Theatre Award and was nominated in the category for best achievement in a children’s play. He is a co-founder of the KunstTeatar association. He has acted in numerous theatre plays, feature films, short films, commercials, TV shows and cartoons. In addition to his native language, he is fluent in English and German.
Ivan Planinić
works as a theatre director and author of dramatizations, mostly on his own projects. He is a co-founder of KunstTeatr and an artistic associate at the Department of Theatre Directing and Radiophony at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb. So far, he has directed at the Zagreb Youth Theatre, Eurokaz, the KUFER Theatre Company, the Punctum Art Organization, the Novi život Theatre for the Blind and Visually Impaired, at the Miroslav Krleža Festival, the Varaždin Croatian National Theatre, the Mini Theatre in Slovenia and at the Split Summer Festival. In addition to theatre directing and radiophony at the Academy of Dramatic Arts, he also graduated from the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb.
Romana Brajša
is the co-founder and producer of KunstTeatr, founder and artistic director of the arts organization Punctum, and producer of the KUFER Theater Company. She most often collaborates with theater and dance organizations on the independent scene. She graduated from the Department of Stage and Performing Arts Production, where she is currently employed as an assistant professor. She previously graduated in Croatian Studies and Comparative Literature and completed an undergraduate study of linguistics at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. In 2020, she will enroll in the Doctoral study of literary studies, theatrology and dramatology, filmology, musicology, and cultural studies at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Partners
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