Old factory hosts Intimate Block
The Intimate Block Festival of contemporary art culminated on Saturday, September 16, with visual art, musical events and theatre performances in the former cement factory in Banská Bystrica.
"Happenings organized in the old cement factory should help remind people of the International Community Centre project, which will see a former cargo cableway station be transformed into a universal space suitable for the creation and presentation of art. The centre will be offered to groups of lesser-known creators. Thanks to this festival, the centre, even if only for a very short period of time, is able to achieve its goals while still awaiting completion," festival director Katarína Mrázková told the TASR news wire.
For the three-day festival, organizers prepared several concerts, happenings, opened the Petržalka double exhibition of photos by Viktor Szeman and exhibited portraits of pye-dogs by painter Róbert Púchovský.
The Cement Factory Intimate Block project developed from a show of performances created during workshops into a whole-town multi-genre festival. It joined various artistic genres into unusual dramaturgical units and connected the intimacy of other blocks so that they simultaneously comprise of and confront each other.
The festival was the third in a series of shows organized to support the idea of the International Community Centre being built in the former cement factory, which will be the largest "kulturfabrik" in Central Europe.
Astorka shines at White Tower Festival
Lukáš Latinák and Juraj Kemka.
photo: Astorka Theatre
The ensemble of the Astorka Korzo '90 theatre was very successful at the 11th International Theatre Festival in Brest, Belarus with the play Na koho to slovo padne (Who the lot will come to...). The drama - which was witten by renowned Hungarian writer Gábor Görgey and concerns power, manipulation and totalitarianism - deeply impressed the audience, as well as the festival's other international entrants. The spectators of the sold-out performance immediately responded to its humour as well as its seriousness, and praised the performances of Marián Miezga, Juraj Kemka, Vladimír Kobielsky, Lukáš Latinák, Róbert Jakab and director Peter Mankovecký with standing ovations. Even Slovak performing arts and the Slovak school of acting were praised at the official press conference and behind the scenes. This success has already earned the Astorka Theatre invitations to other prestigious theatre festivals.
Success of Slovak drama in Milan
The 6th annual International Tramedautore Festival of new drama took place in Milan, Italy between September 13 and 24. The festival, which was organized by the Outis contemporary drama centre, featured prominent Italian dramatic artists introducing the latest plays by authors from Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Russia, Hungary and Slovakia.
Eva Maliti-Fraňová represented Slovakia with her new play Vizionárov sen (Visionary's dream) and Viliam Klimáček with his successful play Hypermarket. The participation of Slovak drama artists was also made possible due to the European Translation Workshops project, whose Slovak partner is the Theatre Institute in Bratislava.
By Jana Liptáková
