During the last year, Novi Sad has been declared one of the top destinations in 2022, and the fact that, after 20 years, in May this year, it broke the record for the number of overnight stays and visits to the city, confirmed that the European Capital of Culture fulfilled its potential. In that spirit, Novi Sad remains on task and offers programmes that present a different form of art every day of the upcoming weekend – on Friday, the never-seen-before exhibition in the region for more than fifty years, on Saturday, extraordinary local, regional and European musicians, and on Sunday, the premiere of the first film on the creation of Novi Sad that will close the Fortress of Peace programme arch, taking place at the moment.
A Peaceful Road to Freedom
Novi Sad is one of the few European cities that will get the first film saga about the origin and birth of the city ‘Liberta’, to be premiered on 17 July at the Petrovaradin Fortress, one of the most significant landmarks of Novi Sad. The film, signed by the director and screenplay assistant Gvozden Đurić and director and screenwriter Žanko Tomić, will show not only the liberation of Novi Sad and obtaining the status of a city but also the liberation of the whole of Vojvodina as a space where Serbian culture and tradition most intricately intertwine with European values and challenges of that time.
Artists, who will turn the path into a passage through the Baroque, will lead the audience from the Monastery of St. George, the oldest church in Petrovaradin, to the place of the film screening – the street in front of the ‘Leopold’ hotel. The walk through the 18th century starts at 9 p.m., and it will additionally contribute to the atmosphere preceding the film screening.
Admission to the film screening is free. However, due to the limited number of seats, the audience will have a chance to attend the premiere with free tickets only, which you can get exclusively at the Gigs Tix ticket office in Pariski Magazin. Tickets can be collected with a personal ID, and one person can take a maximum of three tickets.
The parking lot in front of the Leopold Hotel at the Petrovaradin Fortress will be temporarily closed due to the premiere of the film – from 15 July at 9 a.m. until 18 July at 12:30 a.m.
Peacetime Legacy of ‘Old Europe’
The exhibition ‘A Neolithic Night’s Dream’ created by the Museum of Vojvodina and the National Museum of Serbia will show the undiscovered data about the prehistory of the region, which go back to the Neolithic, and the first realistic representation of a prehistoric man – the inhabitant of Lepenski Vir, which was presented at the World Exhibition ‘Dubai Expo’. The exhibition opens in the Museum of Vojvodina on 15 May at 8 p.m.
The importance of this exhibition, whose authors are Lidija Balj, MA, and Andrej Starović, is also indicated by the fact that the last major exhibition on the Neolithic in our country was organised in 1968. With discoveries of new localities, this will be the first exhibition in our country that will comprise numerous new objects from this period that the audience has not yet had a chance to see. A particularly interesting part of the exhibition is the scientific part, within which the inhabitant of Lepenski Vir will be brought to life through the project ‘MetaHuman – Meet a Prehistoric Man’. On the opening day, tickets will be free of charge, while until 15 October, the last day of the exhibition, all interested visitors will have an opportunity to buy tickets at standard prices of the Museum of Vojvodina. The exhibition is supported by the national platform ‘Serbia Creates’.
An Overture to Peace
Saturday is a day for extraordinary musicians from the whole of Europe. The International Philharmonic Orchestra ‘For New Bridges’ organised by the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, which consists of students from music academies in Novi Sad, Trieste, Graz, Budapest, Sarajevo and Zagreb, will perform the composition ‘Overture for Peace’, composed by Đorđe Marković specially for this occasion, on 16 July from 20 hours and 22 minutes in the Creative District. In this way, we will symbolically mark the Treaty of Karlowitz and express hope for the peace of the new millennium, Europe, humanity and solidarity, together with the world-renowned pianist Jasminka Stančul, under the baton of Andrej Bursać, with musicians from Austria, Hungary, Italy, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Immediately after the concert, the ‘Piano Trinity’, which brings together celebrated pianists with brilliant careers, who set the standards in mixing modern jazz language with Balkan musical heritage, will perform in the Creative District from 10.20 p.m. Pianists Vasil Hadžimanov, Matija Dedić and Bojan Zulfikarpašić will promote the values of intercultural dialogue, togetherness, understanding and reconciliation.
On 16 July, the Svilara Cultural Station will also be dedicated to music, from 8 p.m., JSO, the Bremen Youth Symphony Orchestra, will perform there during their international summer tour.
The Fortress of Peace deals with deliberations and a critical overview on warfare and its consequences, searching for a culture of peace by promoting intercultural dialogue and reconciliation. Until 17 July, it will host more than 1,500 artists in almost 150 programmes.
Photo: Jelena Ivanović, Marko Pudić, Archives of the Museum of Vojvodina, Archives ‘Serbia Creates’, Nebojša Babić, Promo
