Borštnik Bound!

Exhibition and E-xhibition Celebrating 50 Years of the Maribor Theatre Festival

15 October | 18.00 | National Liberation Museum Maribor

"Therefore, each fall, Maribor should become the arena for the harvest of Slovene theatre culture” – this is what Fran Žižek, the-then director of the Drama of the Slovene National Theatre Maribor, wrote half a century ago. It was to his merit that the Week of Slovenian Theatre (since 1970 the Borštnik Meeting and since 2009 the Maribor Theatre Festival) found its abode in Maribor.

This "harvest” became a tradition in the capital of Slovenian Styria as the festival became an indispensable part of Maribor. In turn, Maribor – its theatres, streets, squares and other venues that come to life at the time of the festival, its restaurants and bars in which both the performers and the spectators gather after the performances, but first and foremost its faithful audience – have become an indispensable part of the festival.

The exhibition is prepared as a joint venture of the Slovenian Theatre Institute (SLOGI), the National Liberation Museum Maribor (MNOM) and the Slovene National Theatre Maribor (the host of the Maribor Theatre Festival) in collaboration with Slovenian theatres, the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television, University of Ljubljana (AGRFT UL) and the Celje Historical Archives (the additional partners for the virtual e-xhibition are Novi ZATO. Institute and RTV Slovenija – Radio Slovenija)). With this exhibition we want to pay respect to a distinctive jubilee, bring forth the best productions of the Festival (those that have left their mark in time and were marked by time), peek into its backstage and also applaud the audience, since without them, theatre wouldn’t exist – not now, not in the past and not in the future. We would like to share with you the memories of what happened in Maribor that year when we saw… what was it again?...; stroll through the gallery of "the flower of Slovenian actors” – the so far 45 recipients of the Borštnik Ring – evoke their roles, appearances and voices (this part of the exhibition will also be available on the website sigledal.org as well as on the websites of the participating institutions); we will listen to the witnesses – those who co-created the Maribor Theatre Festival either as its performers or the indispensable backstage staff or those who followed it regularly …

The exhibition Borštnik Bound! and the virtual e-xhibition The Borštnik Ring Recipients 1970–2014 will be available in Slovenian and English. The contributors to the exhibition catalogue are Nika Arhar, Matej Bogataj, Zala Dobovšek, Blaž Lukan, Tone Partljič and Ana Perne.  

The exhibition will be open on 15 October 2015 at 6pm in the National Liberation Museum Maribor. It will conclude on 8 February 2016. You are kindly invited!

Head of the project: Tea Rogelj, MA (SLOGI) • Curators of the exhibition: Tea Rogelj, MA (SLOGI), Ana Perne (SLOGI), Andreja Kaučič (MNOM) • Curator of the e-xhibition: Ana Perne (SLOGI) • Exhibition and catalogue designer: Uroš Lehner • Editors of the exhibition catalogue: Tea Rogelj, MA (SLOGI) and Vili Ravnjak (the Drama of the Slovene National Theatre Maribor) • Translator into English: Barbara Skubic • English language editor: Jana Renée Wilcoxen