With the exhibition – jointly prepared by the Slovenian Theatre Institute (SLOGI), the Museum of National Liberation Maribor and the SNG Maribor (Festival Borštnikovo srečanje) in cooperation with Slovenian theatres, AGRFT and the Historical Archive Celje (our partners in the e-exhibition are also the Novi Zato Institute and RTV Slovenia – Radio Slovenia) – we want to pay tribute to the venerable jubilee, highlight the best performances of the festival (which marked the time and have been marked since time), take a peek behind the scenes and applaud the audience, without whom the theatre did not exist, does not exist and will not exist. Together with you, we would like to remember what happened in Maribor that year when we watched ...what already? at Borštnik; walked through the gallery of the "flower of Slovenian actors", the forty-five previous winners of the Borštnik Ring, reminisced about their roles, images, and voices (this part of the exhibition will also be available on the website sigledal.org and on the websites of participating institutions); listened to witnesses, both those who co-created the Borštnik meeting (either as its creators or as indispensable staff behind the scenes), and those who regularly followed it...
The exhibition Let's go to Borštnik! and e-exhibition Recipients of the Borštnik Ring 1970–2014 are available in Slovenian and English.
The exhibition is on view in Museum of National Liberation Maribor from October 15, 2015 to February 8, 2016.
E-exhibition: Recipients of the Borštnik Ring (1970–2014)
Part of the large exhibition marking the 50th anniversary of the Borštnik Festival, Let's Go to Borštnik!, is also an exhibition PORTRAITS OF CHAMPIONS – recipients of the Borštnik Ring (1970–2015), which SLOGI, in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, is putting on display in the lobby of the ministry (Maistrova 10, Ljubljana) between October 8, 2015 and January 27, 2016, and with which we wish to pay tribute to the recipients of the most important Slovenian award for acting achievements, and to the 50th anniversary of the Borštnik Meeting Festival in Ljubljana as well.
Exhibition Portraits of Champions – Recipients of the Borštnik Ring (1970 – 2015) Photo: SLOGI Archives
"Let's go to Borštnik!"
is often heard in Maribor homes, cafes, streets, squares and schools in October. "Borštnik" is something that simply belongs to Maribor, that has always been here and always will be – at least that's how it seems to us (current and former) Maribor residents. It cannot be separated from the life of the Styrian capital, just like the Golden Fox, the Lent Festival, the Merry Autumn, the pruning of the oldest vine in the world, St. Martin's Day, the matches of the Maribor Football Club...
Which is not surprising: the festival has been with Maribor for half a century, several generations have exchanged and met there. In these fifty years, we have experienced great changes – we have exchanged self-management socialism for capitalism, the Yugoslav passport for a Slovenian one, love letters and postcards have been replaced with messages on social networks, and we have switched from typewriters and indigo to 3D printers. But the festival remains a constant, albeit with ups and downs, but it repeats itself every year, without interruption: in 1966, as part of the Maribor Cultural Review, the Week of Slovenian Theaters was organized for the first time; in 1970, the festival acquired a competitive character and the name Borštnik's Meeting, and the Borštnik Ring was awarded for the first time; in the late 1970s, the festival introduced a "coordinator of the competition program" (previously, the theaters themselves decided which performances they would participate in the competition program, since then they have proposed several performances, and the coordinator made the final decision on which ones would participate in the competition program), in the early 1990s, a selection of competition performances was introduced (the selection committee, or later the selector, no longer chooses from the theaters' proposals, but rather compiles the competition program according to its own selection); in 2009, the festival underwent a complete renovation and was renamed the Borštnikovo srečanje Festival.
At the exhibition and in the catalogue Let's Go to Borštnik! – prepared on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the festival by the Slovenian Theatre Institute, the Museum of National Liberation Maribor and the SNG Maribor, the Borštnik's Meeting Festival in cooperation with Slovenian theatres, Prodok Teatr TV, the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television and the Historical Archive of Celje (our partners in the e-exhibition are also the Novi ZATO Institute and RTV Slovenia – Radio Slovenia) – we present the origin, development and atmosphere of the festival, while at the same time we want to capture the "spirit of the times" ("zeitgeist", as older Maribor residents would say), and draw a parallel between the festival events and the life of Maribor.
On the other hand, we are interested in the festival from the perspective of the history of Slovenian theatre – we highlight the best performances and pay special attention to the recipients of the Borštnik Ring, the most important Slovenian award for acting achievements. This part of the exhibition is also available in a virtual version on the websites of sigledal.org and participating institutions; in the coming years, we will upgrade the e-exhibition with new winners of the Borštnik Ring.
We would also like to pay tribute to the audience, present various festival venues, take a peek behind the scenes of the theater and festival... To this end, this year we recorded interviews with the holders of the Borštnik Ring and testimonies from Borštnik fans (the most prominent creators of the festival, but also those who usually remain in the background) and festival attendees. Excerpts from the recordings were included in the exhibition and e-exhibition.
The festival, as we know, was named after the actor, director, playwright and theatre educator Ignacij Borštnik (1858–1919). It is less well known that this title was chosen in 1970 by Josip Vidmar, then an eminent theatre critic and president of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and Branko Gombač, then director and artistic director of the Maribor Drama and one of the founders of the festival. In doing so, they showed respect for the great creator, but also the ambitious orientation of the festival. Ignacij Borštnik is considered to be "a leading figure of the theatre generation, who transformed self-sacrificing amateur actors in Slovenia into professional activity" (Filip Kalan).
At the beginning of the 20th century, playwright and critic Adolf Robida wrote about Ignaciju Borštnik: "Vienna could be proud of him." On the occasion of the venerable anniversary of "Borštnik," let us paraphrase his thought: "May Maribor continue to be proud of him!"
Tea Rogelj, M.A.,
Slovenian Theatre Institute
Participating institutions:
Project manager: Tea Rogelj (SLOGI)
Authors of the exhibition:
Tea Rogelj (SLOGI), Borštnik's Meeting Festival
Ana Perne (SLOGI), Recipients of the Borštnik Ring
Andreja Kaučič (MNOM), Life of Maribor
Design and layout: Uroš Lehner
Technical organization: Zlatko Kresnik (MNOM)
The following helped prepare the exhibition Let's Go to Borštnik! and the e-exhibition Recipients and Recipients of the Borštnik Ring 1970 -2014:
Slovenian theatres (Drama SNG Maribor, Glej Theatre, Ljubljana City Theatre, Ptuj City Theatre, Mini Theatre Ljubljana, Prešeren Theatre Kranj, Slovenian Folk Theatre Celje, Slovenian Youth Theatre, SNG Drama Ljubljana, SNG Nova Gorica, SNG Opera and Ballet Ljubljana, Slovenian Permanent Theatre in Trieste), Cankarjev dom, Centre for Theatrology and Filmology UL AGRFT, Prodok Teater TV, photo documentation Večer, Historical Archive Celje.
