CALENDAR | Synthesis performance of the Allegories trilogy

CALENDAR
Synthesis performance of the Allegories trilogy

13 March 2026, at 6 p.m., artKIT, Maribor
Repeats: 14 and 15 March 2026, at 6 p.m., Projektni prostor DUM, Ljubljana

ALLEGORIES TRILOGY

The trilogy Allegories, consisting of three dance projects and a synthesis performance, is being developed in the period from 2022 to 2025. The subject of the three-part project is allegories – the prism of time in the framework of iconographic paths woven by poetry, literature and fine arts.
The programme of the Muzeum Institute is conceived as a series of platforms, that is, trilogies, which overlap and supplement its contents over several years.

CALENDAR

The trilogy Allegories was concluded with the performance Calendar. The conceptual point of departure for the project is the Fontana Maggiore in Perugia, a structure comprising two marble basins and a bronze bowl, topped by three bronze female figures supporting an amphora from which water flows.
Dancer Urša Vidmar, appearing as a Grace-like figure, holds a sphere in her hand (Raphael’s famous representation of the Three Graces shows them holding spherical objects, M.C. Escher is also known for exploring the spherical form).
In the performance, the water pitcher symbolises the astrological sign of Aquarius and also recalls the fountain, whose relief panels and sculptural figures were executed by the outstanding thirteenth-century sculptors Nicola Pisano and Giovanni Pisano. Iconographically, the scene is connected to genre and female portrait representations depicting acts of labour (as in later seventeenth-century Dutch painting).
The scenes of the performance are traversed by two principles, which also constitute the thematic cycles of the Fontana Maggiore: the mechanical arts (Artes Mechanicae) and the liberal arts (Artes Liberales), complemented by the astrological signs. The staging does not aim to encompass the entire iconographic corpus of the fountain’s relief panels but instead focuses on a broad perspective that captures the content from a particular vantage point.

Thus, we see the figure of a Grace with the sphere, followed by spring’s awakening of tree leaves, merely suggesting the well-known pose of the sculpture known as Spinario – the Boy with Thorn (who appears also in Heinrich von Kleist’s philosophical essay “On the Marionette Theatre”). This moment – embodied in the dancer’s wrapping of her foot and the putting on of pointe shoes – outlines the month of March under the sign of Aries. Harvesting and threshing emerge in the cycle of June, expressed through the dancing protagonist’s forcefully repetitive movement on pointe, which then spills into August – the time of gifts, labour and burdens associated with stocking up for winter. The astrological sign Libra follows, unfurling directly from a sack of gifts, namely, citrus fruits. The dancer transitions from Artes Mechanicae (harvesting and threshing, ploughing and sowing) into a series of personifications of the zodiac signs, through which the sign of Scorpio is sketched in ballet variations. The music, created by Gal Škrjanec Skaberne, includes a monotonous enumeration of colours and shades tied to the monthly cycles: palettes of yellow for spring, green for summer, and autumn coloured with shades of red, etc. The whole is enveloped by Edvard Kocbek’s poetic ode to buckwheat. The lighting design by Andrej Petrovčič creates atmospheres of calendrical states, spanning the tension between vita activa (the time of labour) and vita contemplativa (the time of contemplation), connected to the combinatorial logic of the zodiac.
The journey concludes with the intertwining of these principles in the shimmering movements of the arms, simultaneously representing the calendar itself and reminding us of time’s transience, our connection with the movement of the cosmos, and the celebration marking the year’s end.
(B. N., H. P.)

Direction, movement and visual image: Barbara Novakovič
Dancer: Urša Vidmar
Dramaturgy consultant: Helena Pivec, Marijan Rupert
Lighting design: Andrej Petrovčič
Sound design: Gal Škrjanec Skaberne
Photography: Andrej Lamut, Mare Mutić
Translation into English and proofreading: Jana Wilcoxen
Graphic design: 55mm
Video documentation: Prodok Teater TV, Tone Stojko

BIOGRAPHIES

Barbara Novakovič (1963, Celje) is a stage director, producer and curator, as well as the founder and director of the Muzeum Institute Ljubljana. She studied art history and the sociology of culture at the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, and enrolled at the University of Ljubljana, Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television (UL AGRFT), where she graduated in stage acting in 1993. In the same year, she founded the Muzeum Theatre and decided to work as a freelance author and producer. She conceived and directed a number of stage performances and also curated a few innovative international exhibitions. She has produced numerous first creations for the stage by authors stemming from other fields of creation (architecture, visual arts, dance, film, theory). In her projects, she occasionally functions also as a performer or a stage designer.

Helena Pivec took a BA degree in Art History at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana. She was involved as a fine arts consultant in theatre MUZEUM 1993-2000 (performances "Lo Scrittore", "Emilija", "Girl and a Doublebass", "Paracelsus & Frankenstein" and a synthesis performance "all together now!). She co-curated some group exhibitions "Stereo-Tip" (City Gallery, 1995), "Urbanaria I,II" (the city of Ljubljana, 1994-1996), "I was Disappointed by Lara Croft, Computer Games Screenshots" (MGLC, 2009). In 2000 she collaborated in the serendipity project "Peter Greenaway in Ljubljana" produced by Muzeum Institute. Her working experience comprises work at the SCCA-Ljubljana and at Open Society Institute - Slovenia (1993-2000) and editorial work on "Slovenia Cultural Profile" database and publications (2004, 2008) and the Culture.si website.

Urša Vidmar is a member of the ballet ensemble SNG Opera and Ballet Ljubljana, of which she became a member in 1994, as soon as she graduated from the Observatory for Music and Ballet in Ljubljana. She attended several ballet seminars in England, Hungary, Croatia and France. She made her ballet debut in 1998 in the role of Juliet in the ballet Romeo and Juliet (Istvan Herczog). With her recognizable character and character-based dance style, she also drew attention in the ballets Cinderella/Cinderella (Jean Christophe Blavier), The Wedding/The Bride (Jiri Kylian), The Taming of the Shrew/Bianca (John Cranko), The Firebird/The Beautiful Empress (Henrik Neubauer), La Sylphide/Effy (August Bournonville), Giselle/Bathilde (David Dawson)... She collaborated with numerous renowned Slovenian and international choreographers: Toer van Schayk, Irek Mukhamedov, Joury Vamos, Vlasto Dedovič, Ivo Kosi, Jeremy Leslie-Spinks, Gagik Ismailian, Ksenija Hribar, Miha Lampič, Rafael Avnikjan, Juanjo Arques, Nils Christe, Hans van Manen, Edward Clug, Alexander Ekman, Jiri Bubeniček, George Balanchine, Uwe Scholz, Ivan Peternelj, Dinko Bogdanić, Renato Zanella, Jose Carlos Martinez, Isabelle Kralj, etc. She also engaged in dance creation outside the opera house, while she collaborated with choreographers such as Milko Šparemblek, Mihajlo Djurić, Uršula Teržan, Gregor Guštin, Rosana Hribar and Gregor Luštek, Lukas Zuschlag, Matej Kejžar... Especially challenging was the role of Marina in the ballet The Lonely Poet by choreographer Leo Mujić, with which she made her debut in stage speech. For recreating the roles of Cinderella in the ballet of the same name and Effy in the ballet Les Sylphides, she received the Lydia Wisiakova Award.

Gal Škrjanec Skaberne completed his studies at the Institute and Academy for Multimedia (IAM) in Ljubljana. Until 2005, he worked primarily as a DJ (a team member of the Pro-Glass-Crew). This phase of musical activity was followed by his creation of electronic music in which solid rhythms intertwine with a wide range of contemporary musical genres – from techno through industrial and ambient chill-out music to dub. As a music composer, he was involved in projects Motion-Pictures (Tamás Tuza and Omar Ismail), The Rainbow (Jaka Šimenc), Pivot Point (Tina Valentan), and Instinct (Nik Rajšek). He collaborated with the poet Tone Škrjanec in the projects The Spirit of a Turtle is Small and Very Old, Sweet Cakes, and Breath. In 2020, he created music for the dance performance Time of Tenderness, the performance for children and adults, The Slumberland and the performances Allegories of the Months - Attributes and Calendar (Barbara Novakovič).

Andrej Petrovčič (1973) is a lighting designer. He collaborates with numerous cultural organizations: Bunker Institute, the Kino Šiška Center for Urban Culture, Cankarjev dom, Glej Theater, and others. His work includes lighting design for projects by many Slovenian and international artists in the fields of dance, theater, and music, as well as international theater festivals. In the period from 2024 to 2025, he was the technical director of the Stara mestna elektrarna – Old Power Station venue and the Mladi levi Festival. He lives and works in Ljubljana.

Andrej Lamut (1991) perceives photography as a form of expression beyond classical mimetic procedures. His work is characterised above all by a focus on the performative act itself, which encompasses all stages of the creative process. By intertwining form, process, presentation and content, the artist addresses in particular topics such as feelings of unfamiliarity, liminal states of consciousness and the unrecognizability of objects as things-in-themselves. In 2018 and 2021, he was part of PARALLEL – European Photo Based Platform, in the context of which he presented his work at the FORMAT festival in the UK, Organ Vida festival in Croatia and in Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center in Hungary. He was shortlisted for the Emerging Photographer of the Year Award at Photo London 2022. He graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in Photography from HDK-Valand, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

< photo: Andrej Lamut

Production: Muzeum, Institute of Art Production, Distribution and Publishing
Co-production: Association of Artists (Društvo umetnikov DUM) and Kino Šiška – Centre for Urban Culture
In collaboration with the Institution of Youth, Culture and Tourism, Koper (ZMKT) - Capodistria