Although winter officially only starts in a few days, you can already feel the festive atmosphere in the air, and Doček is getting closer. There is less than a month left until the opening of the title year of the ECoC. To the delight of all the citizens and guests, Novi Sad has prepared a rich cultural programme at different locations, celebrating the double opening of the European Capital of Culture.
While entering the year when Novi Sad will take the most prestigious European title, our town continues to celebrate two New Years – Doček 2022 on 31 December, and Doček 7530 on 13 January, and with them, the merits of diversity through the unity of tradition and contemporary expression. This unique and unrepeatable artistic celebration will unite not only two New Years, but two ways of time measuring, two scripts, two arts, and two programme concepts – Energy and Time, whose scientific perspective will be shown through different artistic practices.
We have highlighted the events you should add to your calendars to enter 2022 in the best way possible.
Play Tesla, Inventartist
Novi Sad – European Capital of Culture together with the oldest theatre in Serbia, the Serbian National Theatre, prepares a little bit of a different celebration of 31 December, abandoning the usual concept of concert events. Everyone who finds themselves in Novi Sad will have the opportunity to welcome New Year with the play Tesla, Inventartist on the Mihajla Pupuna Boulevard, near the Rainbow Bridge, at 8:22 p.m. (20:22). The play was based on the novel by Vladimir Pištalo Tesla: A Portrait with Masks for which the author received the prestigious NIN award.
‘Tesla uncovers reality with intuition; he looked further and deeper than his contemporaries, and by doing so he became our contemporary,’ said the director Nebojša Bradić.
Tesla Light Gallery
31 December – 2 January 2022, Suburbium
After the play in honour of the timeless genius Nikola Tesla, who was the first honorary citizen of Novi Sad, you can join the big procession which will bring together two coasts along the Rainbow Bridge, and will transform the usual perception of the city turning the bridge, the old buildings in the Suburbium of the Fortress and the Belgrade Gate into a light gallery in the open, exactly 130 years after Tesla himself passed along this way, and Novi Sad received electric lighting. This exhibition will be a truly monumental play of light, movement, and sound, connecting the work of the great scientists with contemporary artistic expression.
The entrance is free of charge, and the programme for 31 December and 1 January can be found here.
The exhibition Time and Universe
13 January, Studio M
Within Doček 7530, the exhibition Time and Universe awaits us in Studio M, on 13 January. Conceived as a journey from darkness to light, from chaos to cosmos, and framed by the story of Milutin Milanković, this exhibition will deal with the relationship between humans, time, and science. One of the best written, popular science works Through Distant Worlds and Times by Milutin Milanković served as a guiding idea; therefore, the exhibition itself will serve as a type of interactive multimedia guide through the creative obsessions of the great scientist.
‘We are exploring the possible relations between time and human beings with an artistic work, interacting with the visitors through different art forms and new technologies,’ said one of the authors of the exhibition, Dušan Jovanović PhD, in an interview, that we had with him recently.
Zeniteum :: 2022 – the Opening Ceremony of the European Capital of Culture
13 January, 8:22 p.m., Banovina building
Novi Sad will officially take the prestigious title of the European Capital of Culture on 13 January 2022, and the central event will be the Grand Opening play Zeniteum :: 2022. This event will create a symphony of music, drama and dance acrobatics, uniting science and art, and will in that way, with the help of mathematical language, lead us into the unknown – through distant worlds and time. Our guides will be Mileva Marić-Einstein and Milutin Milanković. The name of this celebration originates from zenitism, an avant-garde movement which, together with its creator Ljubomir Micić, shaped the European art between two world wars. The Banovina building will launch us into outer space, reinterpreting the history of Novi Sad in the postgravity and avant-garde scene interpretation key, on 13 January at 8:22 p.m. (20:22). The ship-like building by Brašovan, a symbol of modernist architecture, will sail to the biblical ‘flood’ through the scientific and artistic heritage related to Novi Sad, while the musical part of the play will pay a tribute to our famous composer Ljubica Marić. The author of this spectacle is a Slovenian theatre director and the maker of the postgravity art, Dragan Živadinov.
Do not miss this unrepeatable event and join us in on the celebration of the year 7530 in the European Capital of Culture.
It is time to celebrate!
The Grand Opening play will continue in the form of concerts in more than twenty locations across town. Theatres, different institutions, churches, cultural centres, and cultural stations will host local, regional, and international musicians such as Carminho, Nouvelle Vague, Rudimental, Morcheeba, Josipa Lisac, Damir Urban, Bilja Krstić & Bistrik Orchestra, Van Gogh, and the best world clarinettist Andreas Ottensamer. There will be something for everyone, so the good music will definitely warm you up on the cold January days.
More about the programme and ticket sales, starting on 20 December, on the Doček website.
No one is invited to Slava, everyone is already welcomed
After 13 January, Foundation ‘Novi Sad –
European Capital of Culture’ will mark its own Slava St. Basil the Great, so a special programme awaits you on 14 and 15 January. The whole network of cultural stations will be turned into a traditional home to celebrate; thus Novi Sad will be a good host and open its doors to all its guests celebrating tradition as an indispensable part of the culture and will remind us why Serbian family Slava was inscribed on the UNESCO Register of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
The programme will be completed by the church choirs, Slava rituals, plentiful food and the specially selected music that will represent the diverse musical-tamburitza heritage shared by all peoples of Vojvodina. Along with that, the exhibition of photographs by Pavel Surový, a world-famous graphic designer from Kisač, will showcase the different folk costumes from Vojvodina, and the whole of Serbia, celebrating the interculturality.
The Exciting Chronology of Novi Sad
Our city is one of Europe’s big crossroads, located in the area where there have been ongoing settlements for more than 7 millennia, and for that reason, The Exciting Chronology of Novi Sad will be inscribed in the Theatre Square on 13 January. This exhibition will represent our city, by telling its story through time, science and art will unite with each other, while the city will talk about its contemporarity, through every moment of its history, from the ancient history, up until 2022. Explore Novi Sad in a completely different way, by walking down Theatre Square!
Do not miss out on the special, unique, and diverse programme which will create an extraordinary atmosphere, and with it an overture for the exciting title year. Let’s celebrate Doček together!
Author: Zorana Bokan
Photo: Jelena Ivanović, Vladimir Veličković, Marko Pudić
