December 2024
Dear friends of WaxFactory!
The holiday season is upon us, and, as is the custom for nonprofits such as WaxFactory, we are running and end-of-year drive for tax-deductible donations. This past year, we celebrated our silver anniversary (yes – we’ve been making art for 25 years!) with a cornucopia of extraordinary projects.
Perhaps most notably, after three years in development, we celebrated the world premiere of
TRACES (after Sophie Calle) -- a sprawling immersive, site-specific performance created anew for one spectator at a time. Inspired by the lifelong oeuvre of the extraordinary French conceptual artist Sophie Calle, this work has been created in collaboration with the playwright Rachel Jendrzejewski, and presented by the
Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, Minnesota) in conjunction with a major career retrospective of Sophie Calle’s work. TRACES opened on October 28 and, after an extension, concluded its run on November 14. The work was featured in
an interview with Ivan and Rachel published by BOMB Magazine.
Earlier in the summer, we were thrilled to resume international touring after an extended pandemic-related hiatus, by presenting our 20
th-anniversary production,
LULU XX, as part of the
Midsummer Scene Festival in the city of Dubrovnik, Croatia. We were particularly excited to return to the historic
KMD (Marin Drzic Theater) in Dubrovnik, which hosted WaxFactory’s very first international touring engagement, with the original production of LULU in the summer of 2000, making this engagement a homecoming of sorts. LULU XX enjoyed extensive media coverage, including this
report on Croatian National TV. Immediately following our festival engagement, we extended our residency in Dubrovnik by holding the fourth annual edition of our landmark summer training program,
CPP/Contemporary Performance Practices, also hosted by Marin Drzic Theatre.
In July, we reunited with our international collaborators for a second phase of R+D for POLARIS, a new multidisciplinary installation/performance. We enjoyed a two-week residency in London, UK, hosted by the Rose Bruford College. And, finally, HOME/LAND, our collaborative production with Begat Theatre (France) was performed at a festival in Avignon, France and in Portland, Oregon.
That was a great deal of artistic activity for our silver anniversary year! As WaxFactory passes its quarter-century mark,
we feel encouraged to continue creating and sharing our work thanks to you, members of our community, who have continued to support WaxFactory over the years.
The global economy and politics are at a highly volatile inflection point, and the non-profit philanthropic sector -- including many of our institutional funders – is seeing many funding cuts, which are impacting our ability to carry out our work. Which is to say:
we need support now more than ever.
We cannot continue these ambitious projects without your support. As the end of the year approaches, we ask that you
please consider renewing your support by sending us a donation. Any amount you can give WILL make a difference, and it will support our efforts to return to performing and teaching live in 2025 and beyond.
We wish you peaceful and healthy holidays and a fantastic New Year.
Ivan Talijancic + Erika Latta
Founders and Artistic co-directors
WaxFactory
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