The International Theatre Festival Divadelná Nitra is among the largest theatre festivals and most important cultural events in Slovakia. Over its 30 years of existence, it has established itself as a prominent platform for the presentation of European scenic art and development of critical reflection, and a model in work with audiences, marginalised groups and volunteers. It has built a position both at home and internationally. It is a source of inspirations by continuously tapping into progressive tendencies in contemporary art, a resilience to overcome unfavourable conditions and by renewing the creative potential of its teams.

From the very beginning, a theme has been an integral part of each year’s festival edition.

 

The theme and motto of this year’s jubilee, thirtieth International Theatre Festival Divadelná Nitra is TRANSCENDENCIES.

 

We live in an age that reveals the limits of our possibilities brutally and without warning – possibilities of society, of politics, of science, of religion, of art and of ourselves.

An age that puts to trial our ability to defend our visions and goals, to renounce the inessential as well as that which is most valuable, to not give in to fear, hopelessness, violence and falsity, to discover new forms of communication and new forms of solidarity.

 

An age that throws values into sharp relief, especially the value of life and of the victims sacrificed for its protection. An age that has driven us to the edge of ruin, in order that we may realise what we have already lost and what we can still lose in the future – functioning society, trust in authorities, complete family, a clean environment…?

 

Much of what we experience nowadays exceeds human understanding and pertains to the distant future. Many of us overstep our limits and relate diverse contexts of meaning and dimensions of being. Transcendencies are both a means and an end.

 

* transcendencies – as acts that erase boundaries and rifts between people, cultures and communities and allow ideas to be shared;

* transcendencies – as phenomena that exceed the human being, his or her understanding, habits, imagination or human measure altogether;

* transcendencies – as the gifts of a human being who surpasses his or her limits, draws from the bottom of their powers, reaches for distant goals, outstrips their environment, rises above their age;

* transcendencies – as connections between past and future, individual destinies and historic events, the personal and the communal, the private and the public;

* transcendencies – as the added value of human thinking, the overlapping and mutual enrichment of professions, as immersion different contexts – cultural / educational / social / political / geographic / environmental / biological;

* transcendencies – as mixture of genres and forms, as overstepping boundaries of provenance, blending of styles, the mutual interpenetration of shapes, colour and materials, the entry of an object into an environment, the intervention of innovation in tradition;

* transcendencies – as transitions between physical existence and spiritual life, baseness and nobleness, consciousness and unconsciousness, eternity and forgetfulness.