Bruno and Duša, who live in the same nursing home, enjoy each other’s company. However, their moments together are always soon forgotten, as both of them suffer from dementia. Each time they meet feels like the first. This unique relationship is evoked by Gigliola Cinquetti’s song Non ho l’eta, performed at the Sanremo Festival back in the 1960s – the only shared memory from their youth. When Bruno is alone, his past resurfaces, causing him to retreat to his old life – his home, his wife, and his dog, which are, in reality, no longer around. One night, he has trouble finding his room. He accidentally walks into Duša’s and falls asleep next to her. In the morning, they start arguing, each of them convinced the other one is in the wrong bed, only to rediscover their mutual affection. Moments later, dressed in her finest clothes, Duša waits for Bruno at their breakfast table in vain.

 

Obveščamo vas, da je uprizoritev Avtoportreti v namišljenih prostorih, napovedana za ponedeljek, 20. septembra 2021, zaradi bolezni v ansamblu odpovedana. 

Prizadevamo si uskladiti nadomestni termin, spremljajte obvestila na naši spletni strani in na socialnih omrežjih. Že kupljene vstopnice bodo veljale za nov termin.  

The central idea of this new work is to create an abstract, scenic musical piece based on sound, gestures of musicians, contemporary dance and light. The piece explores the connections between sound, gestures and light, and their opposites, such as sound/silence, tension/relaxation, movement/immobility, light/darkness, melody/noise.
The imaginary places – a series of different and contrasting scenes – are therefore created through a complex interplay of different manifestations of these media and their opposites. It is also about sharing one medium with another, for example, to make sound visible through light and to make light audible through sound. In this way, despite the lack of a story, a highly dramatic effect will be produced. As such, the work offers its audience an enriching and multidimensional experience.

Aleksandra Bajde is a Slovenian composer and singer living in Vienna. In her native country she studied the violin, the piano, and classical singing at the Maribor Music and Ballet Conservatory. In 2011, she graduated in Jazz Singing from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. During her music studies, she was selected for an Erasmus Program at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln. In 2013, she obtained a Bachelor of Arts in a Bachelor’s (Honours) degree program in liberal arts and sciences (with a focus on International Relations and Sociology) from Amsterdam University College. In 2014, she completed a trilingual Master’s program in Advanced European and International Studies at the European Institute in France. In June 2018, she completed her Master’s degree in Composition with distinction at the Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität in Linz.

In 2019, she was granted a Working Scholarship for Composition as well as a “Startstipendium” for Music and Performing Arts by the Federal Chancellery of Austria. In 2020, she was awarded the Theodor Körner Förderpreis for composition and was selected for the European Music Council Fellowship Programme 2020 – 2021. In 2021, she received a Scholarship for Composition by the Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport of Austria.
She works as the Office and Project Manager at the Austrian Section of the International Society for Contemporary Music.

Lyudmila Ivanova Saraskina is one of the world’s foremost authorities on the life and work of F.M. Dostoyevsky. A Russian literary historian and biographer, Saraskina has devoted most of her life to studying the private and intellectual lives of Dostoyevsky and Solzhenitsyn, whose biographies have given her strong international visibility.

She is visiting Ljubljana at the invitation of LUD Literatura and Cankarjev dom; the Q&A will be conducted by translator (and the initiator of the translation of Dostoyevsky’s biography) Borut Kraševec.
 

Soloists: Teo Collori (guitar), Metod Banko (guitar)

This special orchestral gipsy-swing project features Big Band RTV Slovenija and established guitarist Tea Collori, who, together with his band Momento Cigano, has been enthralling audiences young and old with his original take on this vibrant music genre, a style of small-group jazz originating from the Romani guitarist Jean "Django" Reinhardt and French swing violinist Stéphane Grappelli.
Teo Collori’s original compositions, marked by vibrant arrangements and inspired solo flights, have been adapted for the big band by Big Band RTV Slovenija’s conductor, Lojze Krajnčan.

In his eleventh opera, composer Tomaž Svete draws thematic inspiration from Slovenian author Ivan Cankar’s Hiša Marije Pomočnice (The House of Mary Our Helper), a novel written in 1904 and celebrated for its tragic sense of longing and the overarching blend of Christian and ethical thought alongside naturalistic criticism of society.

In incorporating both traditional elements and more modernist approaches, the work stylistically heralds a continuation of Svete’s operatic output, while faithfully following the text and, as a musical enhancement of the dramatic progress, offering its interpretation.

The ensemble includes seven vocalists and six instrumentalists (violin, flute, saxophone, trombone, accordion and percussion).
 

Curiosity, love, rivalry, sacrifice, suffering, indecision, countless small and big misfortunes, are just some of the qualities of this exciting novel adapted for the stage by the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb and directed by Vasily Senin.

On the one hand, The Idiot is an extensive narrative centring on Prince Myshkin, a returnee from Switzerland and a guileless benefactor, and interspersed with episodes that could well-nigh classify as melodramas. And, on the other hand, The Idiot paints portraits and depicts personalities, dealing with major ethical issues.

In a bid to sustain a balance between the plot’s manifold layers and the open interpretive structure, the director and author of stage adaptation, Vasily Senin, opted for formal simplicity. Comprising a succession of clear-cut scenes based on individual episodes in the novel, The Idiot is riddled with digressions, repetitions and lengthy dialogues, all of which culminates in fine-tuned and precise dynamics – the driving force behind Senin's theatrical tour de force.
 

Bruno and Duša, who live in the same nursing home, enjoy each other’s company. However, their moments together are always soon forgotten, as both of them suffer from dementia. Each time they meet feels like the first. This unique relationship is evoked by Gigliola Cinquetti’s song Non ho l’eta, performed at the Sanremo Festival back in the 1960s – the only shared memory from their youth. When Bruno is alone, his past resurfaces, causing him to retreat to his old life – his home, his wife, and his dog, which are, in reality, no longer around. One night, he has trouble finding his room. He accidentally walks into Duša’s and falls asleep next to her. In the morning, they start arguing, each of them convinced the other one is in the wrong bed, only to rediscover their mutual affection. Moments later, dressed in her finest clothes, Duša waits for Bruno at their breakfast table in vain.

 

Leo is an Italian who lives in Slovenia. Vučko is a Bosnian who arrived to Slovenia as a child refugee. Leo continues to stay in Slovenia because of his ex-wife Tanja and his son Luka, hoping that they can become a family again. When the bank refuses to grant a loan Leo and Vučko would need to renovate their restaurant, they have no choice but to accept an offer from Gianni, a swindler. They are tasked with stealing Gianni’s truck so that he can collect the insurance money. However, instead of stealing Gianni’s truck, Leo and Vučko mistakenly steal a truck full of refugees. Vučko the refugee and Leo the migrant themselves thus inadvertently become responsible for destinies of people similarly unfortunate as they had once been. In order to solve their financial problems, they decide to sell the refugees. At first it seems that they are not indifferent towards these people, but with each passing day there is less and less humanity left in Leo and Vučko.

Goran Vojnović is a film director and writer, born in Ljubljana in 1980. He graduated from University of Ljubljana in film and TV directing. His first novel entitled Čefurji raus!/Southern Scum Go Home! received a prestigious Prešeren’s Fund Award and Kresnik for best novel of the year. The novel was made into a hugely successful theatre performance and in 2013 into a feature film, directed by Vojnović himself. This was Vojnović’s second feature film, after he wrote and directed the feature Piran Pirano in 2010, and previously directed a number of short films. In 2012 Goran’s second novel entitled Yugoslavia, my country, was published and this year he again received award Kresnik for the best novel of the year. He received the third Kresnik Award for his third novel The Fig Tree, published in 2016.
 

V sodelovanju s Slovenskim filmskim centrom

SONG by Mala Kline is based on the Song of Songs, one of the greatest mystical texts of the Western tradition, which is essentially an anthology of love songs that celebrate and sing the praises of love and symbolically praise it as the strongest link between beings and the fundamental reason for human existence. Like the Song of Songs, Mala Kline’s choreography is a subtle, minimalist and meditative approach to love that explores the magical potentials of language and the scope of relationships it can create. It explores how language as a medium – spoken or unspeakable words – can bring us into a relationship with the unnameable, the body, the space, the music and the audience. SONG is the first part of a trilogy that seeks to mobilize our understanding through our emotional and sensory sensitivity. “SONG is a love song we write with every utterance,” says the author, quoting the Song of Songs 1: 2: “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.” In the words of Nika Arhar, SONG hints at a shift to more intense contemplative depth.

Mala Kline

is a performer, choreographer and writer. In her authorial choreographic works, she uses Saphire ™ working techniques with individual and communal dreaming to create unique worlds woven from and generated through the language of our dreaming. Her work is marked by the practice of presence, a return into the creative space, and a contradictory world of images. She has been awarded with the Golden Bird Award, Triton Award and Ksenija Hribar Award for choreography. She holds BA in philosophy and comparative literature (UL, Ljubljana), MA in theatre (DasArts, Amsterdam) and PhD in philosophy (University of Ljubljana and within the a.pass research centre, Brussels). She is a certified practitioner and teacher of Saphire™ imagery and dream work by Catherine Shainberg and the School of Images (New York). In 2018, she founded ELIAS 2069 – School of Prophecy, located in a pristine natural resort deep in the wilderness of southern Slovenia.

A “twofold event” It Is Impossible to Wait In Vain is a co-authored project of two artists, a poet and a choreographer, which is their first collaboration. During their year-long joint work process, Komelj writes a verse drama and publishes a book of pictures, and Jurišić creates a theatre play. All three parts bear the same name, It Is Impossible to Wait In Vain. The event outlines, declares and performs close ties between distant worlds. Komelj’s passionate poetics and the penetration of the extremes of existence by Jurišić, with each other and in each other on the path of empathic endeavour. In doing so, Jurišić asks herself: “Who is really prepared to question the area of superiority?” The two artists met one evening on Metelkova. Jurišić dances, afterwards Komelj approached her, and the collaboration began. Everything is sublime. Everything is dedicated to the other. Inter-dedication. Softness. A stone as a fellow actor that symbolises otherness, immobility, perseverance, and encourages the desire to get closer and understand.

Leja Jurišić

is a dancer and choreographer working in the field of performative and political art. She has performed with her original artwork in various institutions across Europe, the USA and Mexico. She won numerous awards, including the Borštnik Award and the Ksenija Hribar Award for the performance Together (with Marko Mandić). She is considered an author who does not shy away from direct criticism of the social, economic, and political distortions of freedom, while perceiving the human body as a powerful emancipatory tool in creating the experience of rebellion. Her productions rely primarily on her body, which she understands as a political machine, while remaining open to exploring personal, intimate, and biopolitical context.

Miklavž Komelj

is a poet, writer and literary theorist who has published thirteen books so far, including Goreča knjiga (“Burning Book”), novel Skrij me, sneg (“Hide Me, Snow”), two books of short prose, two books entitled Ni mogoče čakati zaman (“It Is Impossible to Wait In Vain”; as part of a multimedia project with Leja Jurišić ), a scientific monograph on Slovene partisan art, and a collection of essays on poetry. In addition, he has published several other books and numerous scientific articles and essays on the theory and history of art and literature. Among others, he edited the collected poems of Jure Detela and published all previously unpublished records by Srečko Kosovel. He translates from various languages and has won several awards, including the Prešeren Fund Award, the Jenko Award, the Veronika Award and the Igor Zabel Working Grant. He lives and works in Ljubljana as a freelance writer.