forensics and fugue for a folder is a performative archive created for the Performance Studies International Conference #15 in 2009. The project was commissioned as part of the What To Affirm? What To Perform? Program and East Dance Academy Project, that explored Eastern European and Yugoslavian histories of choreographic concepts as well as artistic strategies of self-organization, education, and political activation in dance.

forensics and fugue for a folder researched the choreographic practice of Milana Broš, one of the most important Yugoslavian avant-garde choreographers working in Zagreb during the ’60s and the ’70s. The research looked into La Voix du Silence, a largely undocumented work from her oeuvre. La Voix du Silence was choreographed as an open improvisation along, also improvised, composition by Dubravko Detoni. Both were staged in 1973 as part of the Carrousel II Program at the 7th Music Biennale Zagreb. Carrousel II brought together an impressive line-up of various music formations: Zagreb Radio-Television Symphony Orchestra, Yugoslav Army Wind Orchestra, Zagreb Radio-Television Dance Orchestra, Zagreb New Tendencies Ensemble, J. A. Riedl Group from Munich, Zagreb Radio-Television Choir, Vatroslav Lisinski Music School Children’s Choir, Belgrade Vocal Ensemble Coral, and Milana Broš’ Chamber Ensemble of Free Dance (Komorni ansambl slobodnog plesa, KASP).

forensics and fugue for a folder was interested to reconstruct the unfinished structures of La Voix du Silence while offering new insights about it’s background. It affirmed fragments and the periphery while revisiting a historic context in which Broš’s choreographic and artistic practice took place. The project reconstructed a large number of documents from the period and engaged in an extensive interviewing session with Milana Broš, who was a remarkable witness of not only the historic period but also of the modernist and postmodernist tendencies in the region that were exceptionally politically engaged, active, and transformative.

Milana Broš, born in 1929, passed away in 2012 and her presence is still sorely missed. She was a pioneering choreographer and an extraordinary artist but was also a supportive colleague and an important member of the Zagreb dance community. This project holds a special and most valuable place in my making.