international festival of alternative theatrical expression

FAKI Festival – International Festival of Alternative Theatrical Expression is calling for artists, activists, researchers and theatre critics to participate in its next edition happening in Zagreb, Croatia from 25 to 31 May 2026. The theme of the festival is ‘Poetics and politics of failure’.

The festival calls upon all creators to reflect on failure – its meaning in a world obsessed with success, its power as a tool of imagination, the political charge of mistakes, and how art can celebrate what is usually hidden. To embrace failure in capitalism is to resist its rules.

Poetics and politics of failure

• If failing is an obligatory step, does it go forward or backward?
• If we all agree that success is driving a Ferrari, are you a failure for driving your grandma’s bicycle?
• Can you fail with style?
• Why did you keep on playing chess against someone that was obviously going to beat you?
• Have you ever felt proud of failing?
• Have you ever failed so much that it became kind of fun?
• Is there joy in failing?
• Can we learn to fail? Can we learn from failing?
• Can we fail better?
• If failing is defined by a predetermined notion of success, can failing be an act of resistance?

We can overcome the fear of failure through play. By playing, we obstruct the focus on outcomes so that we can live in the pure moment of the present: we allow ourselves to make mistakes and to indulge the pleasures of simply having fun. To tolerate, or rather to actively seek failures and to derive enjoyment from them is a key component of the creative process and an incredibly stimulating tool for imagination. Failure is revolutionary! Let’s embrace and celebrate mistakes! Losers always have a good time!