Yellowbiz Art Collective | Artists in Residence | Kamov Residency

Yellowbiz Art Collective

Yellowbiz Art Collective (YAC) was founded in 2024 in Croatia by Michele Pastorini, María Matarranz de las Heras, and Valentin Chou. YAC’s artistic identity is based on physical intensity, poetic subtlety, and irony, with the integration of scenography, costume design, and visual elements as active parts of the choreographic language. Past projects include work on the performance Salopette, a performance excerpt of which was presented as part of the Šibenik Dance Festival 2025, Human Design (National Dance Institute, Belgrade 2024/25), and participation in international (Tanz und Kunst Königsfelden, Switzerland) and national residencies (Karlo Rojc, Pula). The production What Do You See, or Not, created in co-production with the Ivan pl. Zajc Croatian National Theatre in Rijeka, where the premiere was held, confirmed the collective's recognizable artistic approach and toured domestic and international festivals and prestigious cultural programs, including the Zagreb Dance Center, the 42nd Dance Week Festival, Rassegna Teatrale Provincia di Agrigento, Italy (organized by Associazione Sorgente), and the international festival Mare Nostrum, Campania region, Italy, one of the leading contemporary art festivals in the region. Simultaneously, the collective conducts educational programs and workshops in Croatia and abroad, contributing to the development of contemporary dance expression and the community by cultivating international artistic collaboration.

Michele Pastorini – co-founder, choreographer, and performer of YAC. His latest works (2024/2025) include the co-productions What Do You See, or Not, Salopette, and Human Design (for the National Dance Institute in Belgrade), as well as projects in development. As a former dancer with HNK Rijeka, he has performed in works by Maša Kolar, Marco Goecke, Andonis Foniadakis, Cayetano Soto, and Nadav Zelner, while simultaneously choreographing for opera, drama, and ballet productions.

Valentin Chou – co-founder, choreographer, and performer of YAC. Alongside his artistic role, he defines the collective's visual identity through photography and video. Since November 2024, he has been creating the performances What Do You See, or Not, Human Design and Salopette together with his colleagues. He graduated from the Paris Opera Ballet School in 2013, danced in Canada for nine seasons, and was a member of HNK Rijeka until 2025, working with renowned choreographers. In 2024, the audience honoured him with the award for the Best Male Performer of the 2023–2024 season.

María Matarranz de las Heras – co-founder, choreographer, and performer of YAC. She has been instrumental in the development and performance of What Do You See, or Not, Salopette, and Human Design. Formerly a professional dancer at HNK Rijeka, she has collaborated with Maša Kolar, Andonis Foniadakis, Douglas Lee, Jérôme Verbruggen, and Nadav Zelner. In 2023, she received the National Award for the Best Performance of the Year for her role as Juliet in Jiří Bubeníček’s Romeo and Juliet.

EXIT

31.01.-15.02.2026.

EXIT is a contemporary dance double bill comprising two works, Salopette and Next, created through a collaboration between the Yellowbiz Art Collective (YAC) and Cornelia Dance Company (Italy). The program was realized with the support of the Croatian National Theatre in Varaždin, the Zagreb Dance Center, and the Croatian Cultural Home (HKD) on Sušak. It is being implemented as part of the project Creative Currents: International development built by sharing, with financial support from the Kultura nova Foundation.

The choreographies Salopette and Next explore a shared yearning to step out of a state of discomfort, both physical and emotional.

Salopette - The choreography interrogates a long-term relationship that, precisely because of its duration, yearns for evolution. It is a reflection on abandoning the framework of habits, established dynamics, and emotional states to open up space for building new foundations. This act of escape that becomes a prerequisite for staying; a necessary distance that allows us to choose the other person again, consciously, until the very end.

Next - The focus is on anticipation: that specific in-between state, a suspended and often uncomfortable space from which physical escape is not always possible. Here, the "exit" is sought within—through emotions, thoughts, and states of mind. Rather than a linear narrative, the piece unfolds the lived experiences of diverse characters who, through their own subjective lenses, map out potential routes toward an exit.

Croatian Cultural Centre in Sušak

Croatian Cultural Centre in Sušak (HKD)

HKD is a public cultural institution that hosts numerous cultural, educational and entertainment programs throughout the year with dance, drama, music, film and multimedia activities, as well as visual arts in the Kortil Gallery. Kortil has been operating as an exhibition space since 1997, with exhibition program open to contemporary domestic and foreign artists, applied art, for exhibitions of artists who marked the art of the 20th century, but at the same time for young authors who are just entering the art scene.  

HKD hosts educational programs with dance, drama and music workshops and training for children and young people. It also implements community programs such as Kortil live and has its own volunteering program.

HKD is a member of the European dance networks Aerowaves and Pan-Adria and the music/organizational network MOST Music.