Images of Celebration

Exhibition of Maribor Theatre Festival posters from previous years

Main idea
Graphic design became a significant public communication device in the 20th century, mostly through images rather than words. It was for that reason, among others, that by the end of the century the term "visual communication” became established, expanding over a wider area than just graphic design. Visual identities and especially cultural posters have become an important element in the promotion of public events and institutions – from theatre productions, concerts and festivals to professional meetings, public rallies, etc. A poster represents the first contact with potential audiences, established already on the street – in the past on oval advertising surfaces, today on so-called displays.

Starting points
The theatre poster is a cultural poster par excellence. It is in that category that Slovene graphic design reached its peak already in the 1970s and maintained it all the way to the 1990s. In the frame of formal analysis, the theatre festival poster is classified under the category of theatre posters, although it has its own logic and different traits and is determined by other principles. It is, after all, the complexity of the task that counts: how to encompass the entire festival programme and not just one production? Yet it seems that the quality of festival posters has mainly been dependent on the artistic director of a particular theatre or festival, that is, on his/her relation towards the visual.

Theme
A graphic designer translates the essence of the story, the core of the dramatic plot, along with the message that the director is intending to convey with the production. The translation of dramatic language into visual language, from one semantic system into another, requires a sensitive creator: translating from verbal art into visual art is a complex interpretative endeavour. The most interesting theatre posters are thus those that speak at once in a universal and a personal (particular) language. It is precisely that kind of intertwining that provides the poster a transcending quality. And if the theatre poster is the interpretation of a production, the theatre festival poster is the interpretation of the guiding idea of each festival. The festival poster needs to announce and present a series of productions and events in a particular time span. Each festival is unrepeatable while theatre productions have re-runs during their theatre life. Naturally, each show is different from another, as "we never step into the same river”. But we might say that when it comes to festivals, we never step into the same ocean. And when we speak of the Maribor Theatre Festival, each festival edition requires an inquiry into its common message. The designer’s task is to detect the common denominator of the theatre productions selected by the selector or to "design” the actual message of the festival and to find a suitable motive or slogan that gratifies all the criteria. It is a difficult task, almost Mission: Impossible. Still, some have succeeded at it.

Vesna Teržan

The Exhibition of Maribor Theatre Festival posters is on view every day during the Festival.