Martin and Trnava open online galleries
ART enthusiasts can start purchasing works by artists from Martin and soon become familiar with the Trnava art scene.
The Martin Culture Centre has recently opened a virtual gallery at www.kulturnecentrum.sk. It offers artistic and musical works created by artists from Martin and its surroundings. At present the gallery offers 40 paintings, 13 art photographs, a CD by a chamber choir and six decorative iron candleholders.
The Trnava municipality, in cooperation with the town's Ján Koniarek Gallery and Senec's Záhorie Gallery is preparing an online project to map the artistic life of the region.
It should be put on the web in the near future. The gallery will introduce the lives and works of living as well as deceased artists. So far, over 70 professional artists have been asked to help create the database, a source of information for experts as well as laymen.
Learn jazz with Slovak musicians
EACH year the Slovak Jazz Society promotes jazz and its techniques through popular jazz workshops led by professional local musicians. Those interested can discover the genre's specifics or improve their playing between July 7 and 8.
The main organizer of jazz life in Slovakia and singer Peter Lipa will teach singing, Matúš Jakabčic guitar playing and Milan Húščava saxophone. Eddy Portella from the Mango Molas band will offer instruction in percussion. According to the SITA news agency, guitarist Juraj Burian might make an appearance as a teacher and Húščava may also give a lecture on clarinet and flute playing.
Best Italian actress is Slovak
SLOVAK actress Barbora Bobuľová, who lives in Italy, received the top film award in Italy, the David di Donatello Award, for best actress. The judges honoured Bobuľová for her role in Ferzan Ozpetek's Cuore Sacro (Sacred Heart), the SITA news agency reported.
Bobuľová was born in Martin in 1974. She first performed as a 12-year-old in the TV film Poľovačka na otca and among her tutors at Bratislava's Academy of Performing Arts were Emília Vášáryová and Emil Horváth. In 1997 she moved to Italy where she has performed in five feature films, six television movies and also on stage.
She starred along such luminaries as Gérard Depardieu and Franco Nero. Her debut was in the television film Infiltrato, for which she was selected through a casting in Bratislava. The role of Italian Queen Maria Jose' in Maria Jose': L'ultima Regina gave her the largest success in her career.
Cuore Sacro was premiered a month ago. Bobuľová plays Irene, a wealthy and successful manager from Milan, who discovers a part of herself hidden until now. The story tells of her dramatic inner transition from the world of the rich to the world of the poor.
According to the daily SME, Bobuľová has already started to work on another movie, directed by Kim Rossi Stuart, again taking the main female role.
Kerekes' 66 Seasons scores in Paris
THE DOCUMENTARY, 66 Seasons, by established Slovak filmmaker Peter Kerekes is composed of several stories narrated by ordinary people about the old city swimming pool in Košice. It received the main prize at the second annual Eastern European film festival, Baltyk-o-Balkan, in Paris, along with the Hungarian film Dealer, the Czech Press Agency reported.
The jury honoured the Kerekes documentary for its combination of humour and humanity through which he presented the "66 seasons" at the Košice pool from 1936 to 2002. The Paris festival showed films from the states of Central and Eastern Europe and Turkey.
Elton John will sing for free
SIR ELTON John will perform at Bratislava's Tyršovo nábrežie June 1 for free. The concert is part of publicity campaign run by the mobile operator T-Mobile.
This is the first concert by the famous music star in Slovakia and the daily Pravda reported that it is his only one in Central Europe this year.
Elton John will perform along with his band comprising Davey Johnstone, Nigel Olsson, Bob Birch, John Mahon and Guy Babylon. The show will start at 18:00 on the Petržalka side of the Danube embankment between Sad Janka Kráľa and the Starý Most (Old Bridge).
After Slovakia, Elton John travels back to Great Britain to hold a concert in Huddersfield on June 3.
Prepared by Spectator staff from press reports
