From 17 June to 17 July, Novi Sad is becoming the only city in Europe where, thanks to artistic programmes, the Fortress of Peace is under construction. The new programme arch of the European Capital of Culture will gather more than 1,500 artists from 30 countries who will, by celebrating peace, present themselves with around 150 events in a month.
‘Why do we start the programme about peace by remembering the greatest suffering of Novi Sad and Europe – the Second World War? Forgetting and understanding peace is a warning to us. Building the Fortress of Peace in the last four years, numerous European artists and organisations have responded to our invitation, implying that it is an important topic for our city and our region. Since March, the whole of Europe has realised again that peace is not a characteristic. It is a situation that must always be re-established,’ said the CEO of the ‘Novi Sad – European Capital of Culture’ Foundation, Nemanja Milenković.
During the first week of the Fortress of Peace programme arch, the exhibition by world-famous experts and intellectuals, including the Pulitzer Prize winner, photo-journalist Marissa Roth, and the Novi Sad premiere of the Symphony No. 2 by Gustav Mahler stand out. Under the baton of Aleksandar Marković, the Vojvodina Symphony Orchestra will make the best overture to the artistic spectacles to come with the concert ‘Resurrection’ by Gustav Mahler.
One of the biggest and most significant events this year in the world of classical music, ‘Beethoven Marathon’, will be held within the Fortress of Peace programme arch. We will attend the unique performance of all nine Beethoven symphonies in a day in the City Concert Hall and at the Petrovaradin Fortress on 26 June. The symphonies will be performed alternately by more than 200 musicians of the Belgrade and Dortmund Philharmonic, under the baton of the Dortmund chief conductor, Gabriel Feltz.
Admission to the open-air concert is free, while tickets for the concerts in the City Concert Hall are on sale, for each of the four concerts separately, and as of today, they are available at all Gigs Tix outlets, as well as on their website.
The ticket price for one concert is 1,700 RSD, and on the occasion of the World Music Day, we are giving away a 50% discount on tickets for the 1st and 2nd concerts. You can buy discounted tickets only at the Gigs Tix store in Paris Magazine.
‘I am happy that Novi Sad and Dortmund now share a unique connection through this great project, including the performance of all nine Beethoven symphonies. The first concert will be performed in Dortmund on 19 June, and then we will meet in Novi Sad a week later,’ said the chief conductor of the Dortmund Philharmonic, Gabriel Feltz.
This season, the inspiration for performances will be found in the works by the two German authors. The musical ‘Wir sind das Volk’ (We are the people), inspired by the work of Heiner Müller, will be performed for the first time in Novi Sad by the legendary band from Slovenia, Laibach, on 2 July.
The theatre play ‘Mephisto’, based on the Klaus Mann’s novel, will be performed by over 40 actors and actresses, led by the great Serbian actresses and actors, including Mirjana Karanović, Miodrag Krivokapić and Gordana Dimić, in the Serbian National Theatre, on 12 and 14 July. The famous work will be brought to the stage of the Serbian National Theatre by one of the most significant directors in the region, Haris Pašović.
‘It is a pleasure for me to work on the project within the programme of the European Capital of Culture in Novi Sad. Nemanja Milenković and his team managed to bring some of the most significant domestic, regional and international artists to Novi Sad. This prestigious title creates a very interesting cultural model, which could serve as an example for future cultural policies, not only in Novi Sad, but also in many other European cities,’ said director Pašović. The ticket sale for the play ‘Mephisto’ starts today at the ticket office of the Serbian National Theatre.
The rich heritage of the so-called Old Europe, which testifies to the life of people during the Neolithic period, will be presented at the exhibition ‘A Neolithic Night’s Dream’. The audience will have a chance to see the exhibition of archaeological research by the Museum of Vojvodina and the National Museum of Serbia on 15 July.
The grand finale to the Fortress of Peace programme arch will be marked with the first film saga about Novi Sad, ‘Liberta – the Birth of a City’. This unique accomplishment in Serbian cinematography, signed by directors Gvozden Đurić and Žanko Tomić, will have its premiere at the Petrovaradin Fortress on 17 July and will take viewers on an adventure from the era of peaceful liberation of Novi Sad and gaining the status of a free royal city.
‘It is difficult to produce such projects in a theater and film. The European Capital of Culture has recognised that we need help to do something that we would otherwise find difficult to implement if we were following some regular production steps. That is, in short, a story about the circumstances that led to the Liberation Charter. However, this is a fiction and an original work, a story about circumstances that prevailed in Europe at that time,’ pointed out the director Žanko Tomić.
Photo: Maja Medić, Vladimir Veličković, Maja Nightingale
