The rich [fjúžn] program consists of more than twenty events prepared in cooperation with various communities and organisations of foreigners living in Slovakia. This year’s main theme is Understanding. The goal of the festival [fjúžn] is to bring the life of foreigners living in Slovakia, who are often not heard or seen in society, closer to the public.
“Foreigners are our neighbours, colleagues, friends or family members. They represent an integral part of our society, contribute to its development, and make Slovakia a more diverse country. During the [fjúžn] festival, we will seek answers to the question of how we can better understand each other, and we believe personal contact is the best way to overcome barriers on both sides,” explains Veronika Fishbone Vlčková, director of the Milan Šimečka Foundation.
Opening of the festival - Humans of [fjúžn] on a plate
The Humans of [fjúžn] concept is an annual part of the festival and brings the stories of several people coming from another country or culture.
Naomi Hužovičová, Kasha Potrohosh, Katarína Živanović, Yehuda Gabrielita Madjiah and Vladyslav Yatskovyi represent this year's Humans of [fjúžn] and will be introduced at the opening of the festival. During an interesting talk show, they will present their stories, but also the food of their home countries - Indonesia, Serbia, Canada, and Ukraine.
Concerts, community events, exhibitions, and a program for children
The headliner of the musical program is the multi-awarded British DJ Conducta. The Equal concert brings a unique joint formation of Ukrainian composer Katarina Gryvul and the Peruvian digital artist Alex Guevara, as well as the Prague musician Ursula Sereghy and the Scottish-Czech project Evil Medvěd.
Kataryna Gryvul & Alex Guevara
You can also look forward to a concert by Trnava rapper Boy Wonder and dynamic DJ sets by DJs Kansiik, Romski and Kewu. Moreover, Otec Mirec will talk live with Kewu in the [fjúžn] episode of the Za hudbou podcast.
As in the past years the [fjúžn] zone will be a part of the Saturday Good Market. We prepared a rich program for the younger and older generations and created opportunities with people from diverse communities.
The festival will continue in the spirit of community building with the Ukrainian Sunday in Nova Cvernovka. The afternoon is dedicated to all Ukrainian and Slovak children and their families. In the evening, Anna Siedykh will read her Slovak-Ukrainian poems accompanied by Ukrainian DJ Olha Bekenshtein. Tragicomic road movie My Quiet Thoughts, screened within the movie nights with HOROVOD, closes the Ukrainian Sunday event.
Conducta
In cooperation with Magnificent Picnic, you will have the opportunity to taste the autumn delicacies of Ukrainian chef Maksym Dudek during a benefit pop-up dinner in support of Ukraine.
In collaboration with the ongoing exhibition in the Kunsthalle Bratislava Nhớ: The space between one end and the other and the September issue of Kapitál newspaper dedicated to the topic of Vietnam, you are also invited to the event Vietnam at Home. It brings together the themes of artists of the Vietnamese community from the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Visitors can also enjoy two storytelling events organised by the International Society for Art and Culture and the Slovak Tepláreň. Bedtime stories will bring multi-genre storytelling for adults.
The festival will also feature an English language stand-up from the Joke's On You, and a traditional [fjúžn] walk led by Irina, who originally comes from a small village in Siberia. You can look forward to the Forum Theatre, a crazy creative workshop about languages, games connecting the Slovak and Ukrainian communities, but also foreign language book swap.
Visual art will be represented by exhibitions Kvet Nguyen: Humans of [fjúžn], Magdaléna and Noel Rojo in the projects Women who stay in Mexico, Senegal and Ethiopia and Women who stay in India, Nhớ: The space between one end and the other, artistic work of Laco Sabo And now something about war and the experiential multimedia installation xBit: To leave home and run.
See the complete program of the festival at www.festival.fjuzn.sk or on Facebook.
About fjúžn festival
[fjúžn] festival has been organised by the Milan Šimečka Foundation since 2006 and has gradually become the largest multi-genre and multicultural event focused on migration and foreigners in Slovakia. It goes beyond the framework of one kind of art and offers a rich program consisting of concerts, exhibitions, literature, theatre, film, workshops, lectures and presentations, discussions, community events or children's programs, school events and many other activities.
