Association for Performing Arts Prostor plus was founded in 2002 with an aim to support performing artists in contemporary dance and physical theatre. Until that moment, such kind of education did not exist in Rijeka, perhaps not even in Croatia. The site-specific workshops and performing arts productions organized in Rijeka resulted in generation of talented artists who further improved their education and professional success both at home and abroad. Following a relocation into the new space and joining a newly formed union of NGO’s (SU Molekula), Prostor plus expanded its educational program (from 2007) and, besides continuous standard workshops, introduced new programs: AIR (Artists in Residence), HAL 9000 (Library of Performing Arts) and 3P (lectures, performances, screenings).
Ever since, Prostor plus has focused its activities on development and improvement of performing arts, production and organization of show cases, performances and other forms of public representation in the field of performing arts. From 2013, Prostor plus has vigorously conducted research and experiments in the field of informal/non-formal education, thus participating in preparation and development of new educational models, both in the local community and wider social and cultural context – by taking part in EU projects. Since 2014, Prostor plus has been using all of programmatic formats – production and education, networking and cultural programs – to develop a program specially designed for children, thus extending aesthetic experience of spectators and performers while intensively developing new audiences.
A long term activity of Prostor plus has been marked with permanent and persistent attempts to re-actualize, re-evaluate and reflect artistic and educational activities in order to structure and stabilize a relevant, socially conscious and responsible art-performance practice in Rijeka. In a search for a site where theoretical knowledge and practical experience interweave with each other, Associations’ projects occur at the intersection of different disciplines and knowledge and are, as such, recognized in both local and international context. It is this openness and plethora of methodologies that ensured a permanent dialogue with the audience which, as time goes by, is expressing a growing interest for the projects and works of the Association. An effort to thoroughly investigate every project in the given theoretical and social context and then further develop according to the research results, which may – depending on the nature of the project – be either empirical or speculative, witnesses to a meticulous research approach. Furthermore, this research-based approach is formed with an endeavour to take into account the different experiences of participants while developing art projects, thus creating conditions for horizontal models of labour that are equally considering each and every opinion and experience of the involved participants. The experimental nature of the process organized as described above becomes evident mainly in the fact that each art project has been situated within the logic of a work in progress which emphasizes processuality and not closure and finitude of an art work.
Prostor plus has been added to the publication A Guide to the Croatian Dance published by ITI UNESCO in Zagreb.