150 BPM

by Počemučka collective

January 2025 | Stara Elektrarna – Ljubljana, Slovenia.

150 BPM is a musical-theatrical lecture with a heartbeat. At its core, both symbolically and literally, lies the theme of skin — a sensory organ, canvas, and boundary of the body — used as a lens to explore contemporary issues, including the overflow of external stimuli, fleeting information, and imagery.

Rather than providing answers to the questions it raises, the lecture subverts them into an obsession. It counters the monopoly of the visual in the (Western) world with a haptic balance, starting with the performers’ bodies, which serve as focal points of the political, public, and intimate spheres. Skin is no longer a boundary but a passage between the imaginary interior and the real exterior, with sweat as the most obvious link between the two.
Where does the body begin and end? If skin is the most important sensory organ and crucial for socialization, it can be seen as the foundation of community. Going a step further, we can recognize our reflection in the “inanimate” world: in the 40,000 dead skin cells shed every minute, which turn into dust.

The unstoppable and contagious rhythm of 150 beats per minute strives for liberation — not a verbalized statement, but an embodied need to move, a celebration of the body in motion, an attempt to form a communal body and to feel a shared pulse. How do we understand a body that continuously seeks to surpass its limits and porously merge with its surroundings? How can we use a suffocatingly saturated environment to benefit the pulsating body? And finally, what kind of skin would we give to the communal body?

Authors:
Počemučka / Aljoša Lovrić Krapež, Klemen Kovačič, Filip Mramor, Domen Novak, Pedro Gramegna Ardiles, Karolína Kotrbová

Performers:
Aljoša Lovrić Krapež, Klemen Kovačič, Filip Mramor, Domen Novak

Dramaturgy:
Pedro Gramegna Ardiles

Set and costume design:
Karolína Kotrbová

Lighting design:
Pedro Gramegna Ardiles

Music selection and sound design:
Aljoša Lovrić Krapež

Direction:
Aljoša Lovrić Krapež, Klemen Kovačič, Filip Mramor, Domen Novak

Photo:
Marijo Zupanov

Video:
Borut Bučinel

Technical direction:
Grega Mohorčič, Simon Žižek

Technical support:
Bert Prelec, Brina Ivanetič, Samo Dernovšek, Andrej Petrovčič, Duško Pušica, Maj Pušica

Producers:
Anja Pirnat, Barbara Zonta, Andrej Berger

PR:
Tina Malenšek, Paulina Pia Rogač

Co-production:
Gledališče Glej in Anton Podbevšek Teater

Co-production with space:
Bunker, Ljubljana, Divadlo X10

Financial support:
Ministry of Culture of Slovenia, City Municipality Ljubljana, City Municipality Novo mesto

General sponsor of Anton Podbevšek Teater:
Krka, d. d., Novo mesto

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