Young art(ist)s refreshing heritage sites

The ReFresh+ project is a continuation of the ReFresh – Young art(ist)s refreshing heritage sites, launched by the Association of Historic Towns of Slovenia (as the project's leading partner) in June 2019. Based on the excellent response of the participating young artists, the project has been upgraded. The leading theme was supplemented by reviving legends in the ReFresh + project and adding a business note which would enable the inclusion of young artists in the international art market.

The project involves 13 young artists from Slovenia, Croatia, Romania, Spain and Finland. Slovenia is represented by actress Uršula Vratuša Globočnik, multimedia artist Urška Medved and dancer Katja Potočar. Artists are divided into two groups in order to stage a legend – one group revives a legend from Slovenia and the other from Romania. Each group is led by an artistic director from each country. The first group staged a legend about the origins of the city of Koper with an interdisciplinary jellyfish project in November this year, and the second group will stage a well-known Romanian legend in March next year in the Romanian city of Iasi.

In parallel with the international part of the project, young artists from Slovenian historic cities were invited to participate, with the purpose of involving young people, especially young artists in the creation of new, youthful and fresh cultural content and events in historic cities. The performances can serve as content for the cities, municipalities and members of the association, with which they can enrich various events or even integrate them into tourist products.

As many as 13 towns and cities invited various educational institutions, societies or individuals to revive the legends in their cities. In Brežice, the legend of the city symbol, the Water Tower, was revived, in Celje the heroes Herman Lisjak and Lila Prap were brought to life. In Idrija J.A. Scopoli joined us and in Jesenice the humorous story of the Ortenburg Mining Order was brought to live. Kranj danced with Boštjan Hladnik and Metlika danced on the wings of a legend. In Novo Mesto the legend of (V)Rag's log was revived, in Ptuj the figure of Parzival. In Radovljica, a film about the Flood Man from the Sava River was staged and in Slovenske Konjice we got to know three legends: about St. George and the dragon, about the Gospodična (Miss in English) stream and about the origin of the Žiče Carthusian Monastery. Šentjur prepared a theatrical play about the monkey of Baroness Barbara, in Škofja Loka a walk along the Zamorec (a Coloured Man) Path was launched  and in Tržič a legend about the origin of Tržič was brought to life. 

We project managed to attract more than 200 young artists and mentors from Slovenian historical cities. Further information available at www.refresheurope.eu in slovenia-historic-towns.com.

The content is prepared by the Association of Historic Cities of Slovenia.

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