Matija Ferlin

A romantic and conceptual series: this is how Matija Ferlin describes “Sad Sam” a long-running autofictional quest that began in 2004. In Croatian, these two words mean “Now I am”. After Sad Sam Revisited and Sad Sam Almost 6, and before Sad Sam Matthäus, seen in 2021 at CN D, ten years ago the performer created Sad Sam Lucky, an imaginary encounter with the Slovenian poet Srečko Kosovel. Srečko Kosovel (whose first name evokes luck in Croatian) who died at the age of just twenty-two in 1926 and is now recognised as a major artist of literary modernity, notably for his poems inspired by impressionism, expressionism and then constructivism. In Sad Sam Lucky, Matija Ferlin takes his cue from the undisciplined nature of his work. Alone on stage, with a writing table and piles of paper as props, he proposes a physical and turbulent dance. An invisible conversation with sometimes mystical overtones, guided by verses that have lost none of their force.

Matija Ferlin is a Croatian director, choreographer and performer. A graduate of the School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam, he lived in Berlin and Toronto before returning to his home town of Pula. There he works with artists from a variety of back-grounds, from theatre and dance to visual arts and film. His works, including the Sad Sam series, have been performed at numerous international festivals over the past twenty years.