CED Talks: Collective Leadership

CED Talks: Collective Leadership will take place on 22 May at 16:00 in the CED Sklepní scéna (Cellar Stage) in Brno. The debate will be held in English without interpretation.

Collective leadership, both artistic and administrative, have existed in the theatre historically for a long time. Yet still we look at it as something exotic, maybe even impossible. In CED Talks: Collective Leadership we will investigate the issues such as shared responsibility, and practical administrative problems as well as collective creation of space for multiple voices, „thinking together“, and exploring communal thinking as something that can be positive, where in the presence of others we can see things more clearly, more responsibly, in relations. How do we negotiate the „we“ in a highly individualized culture? And what are the obstacles we need to fight to achieve the collectivity? 

The guests will be Mazlum Nergiz, dramaturg and author, member of the management of Schauspielhaus Wien, Justina Grecová, dramaturg and director, member of the future management of HaDivadlo theatre and Klaudia Klembarová, member of the management of the cultural centre CO.LABS.

Mazlum Nergiz, Schauspielhaus Wien 
The current artistic leadership of the Schauspielhaus Wien provides a space for sharing diverse stories and approaches, and creates the conditions for a political, supportive and diverse theatre of strong expressive forms that is focused locally while collaborating internationally. Marie Bues, Martina Grohmann, Tobias Herzberg and Mazlum Nergiz aim to be the open leadership of an educational institution, that thinks and performs in an inclusive, feminist, anti-racist and ecologically sustainable manner. 
Born in 1991 in Diyarbakır, Turkey, Mazlum Nergiz writes plays, prose and essays. He studied cultural anthropology, comparative literature, media arts and theatre in Berlin, Weimar and Amsterdam. His play "Coma" was awarded the Hans Gratzer Scholarship by the Schauspielhaus Wien in 2021. He has worked as director at Schauspiel Hannover and together with Enis Maci at Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz. Since the 2023/24 season he has been part of the artistic management of the Schauspielhaus Wien. His play "Am Fluss", directed by Christiane Pohle, premiered on 30 November 2024. 

Justina Grecová, JAMU / HaDivadlo Brno 
The trio of young artists Jan Doležel, Justina Grecová and Jana Vaverková will be the new artistic leadership of HaDivadlo from the 2025/26 season. With a collective approach, this team wants to bring a fresh impulse to the functioning of the current established Czech theatre scene, breaking down tendencies towards competitiveness and directiveness and replacing them with sharing and dialogue. The key concept is listening as a gesture that leads to a balance of power, ethical sensitivity and interpersonal engagement. 
Justina Grecová was born in 1999 in Prague. After graduating from the Jan Kepler Gymnasium, she was accepted to Hebrew and Jewish Studies at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University, where she completed her first year. She went on to study dramaturgy at the Theatre Faculty at JAMU in Brno. In her work, she moves in the fields between dramaturgy, directing and scenography, and deals with performative work with material, object and visual overlaps. She works in a creative collective together with Jan Doležel and Jana Vaverková. She defended her bachelor studies with a diploma thesis on the search for the possibilities of collective creation. 

Klaudia Klembarová, CO.LABS Brno 
CO.LABS is an open, creative and independent platform that actively supports, develops and strengthens the cultural sector in the region. To this end, it has created a wide range of calls and programs that serve as support for artists and independent cultural subjects without a permanent space. 
CO.LABS functions as a shared space not only for the process of creating and working, but also for presentation, self-development, and mutual cooperation. In addition to this supporting role, it also implements its own curatorial concepts focused on original projects in the fields of contemporary performance, music and visual arts, as well as social engagement. 
Since its inception, CO.LABS has been run collectively: Alexandra Bolfová, Juraj Augustín, Klaudia Klembarová and Simona Augustín. The platform openly articulates and promotes the principles of a horizontal organizational structure and collective processes within management and daily operations. 
Klaudia Klembarová is a cultural manager and project coordinator based in Brno. She studied Combined Art Studies and Culture Management at Masaryk University. She played a key role in the team that formed the independent art scene around the BuranTeatr theatre, which later developed into the CO.LABS cultural centre. 
Klaudia collaborates with various artistic and creative collectives, including the performative platform Averze_ or the creative team Nebál. In addition, she coordinates and prepares the Film and Architecture Festival in Brno. She also works closely with artists on various projects. 
At CO.LABS, she focuses on strategic planning and international activities, strengthening ties and fostering collaboration within the Brno communities and creative scene. 

The debate will be moderated by Sodja Lotker.

The debate will be held in English without interpretation.

CED Cellar Stage
22 May 2025 at 16:00
Free entry