August 19 – 27, 2022
Old Power Station & other locations in Ljubljana

This year will be the 25th Mladi Levi festival, with a new programme team and following two corona editions. Last year’s “crisis” edition of the festival celebrated life, art, possibilities and potentials; we tried to defy the spirit of the times, the losses, and simply – go on with life, continue the festival, keep the community together. This year, when we are announcing the festival at a time when the imminent threat of the restrictions and the political situation has – at least temporarily or maybe only seemingly – eased, and when we have found a rhythm again as a team, paradoxically – or perhaps precisely because of this – the festival programme deals with transience, the end, emptiness, fears … As if only when we take a break and breathe again, when we dare to start fearing and are no longer afraid of fear itself, with a new impetus – do we dare to look again into the eyes of impossibility, transience , fragility, and end.

Despite the pessimism of the future and the present, looking to the future, which is also directly addressed by this year’s discursive programme, is an act of courage (or optimism of will) that does not paralyze us, but connects us as a community in activity, in action, in cooperation. We used to say that the festival is a temporary community that – in a short, intense period of time – unites people in commitment to art, joint action, and the creation of new, and at the same time – like any community – finds a temporary ideal modus operandi. Now it seems more and more that the festival can come to life and live out its intensity only because we have nurtured all the festival ties for years, developed them and lived our lives in many smaller communities, and because we build this community all year round – in the office, at the Old Power Station, in all locations, in all the bubbles of international projects and ties, and through the ultimate act of care – maintaining and nurturing relationships; between us and with everyone.

On anniversaries, we like to ask ourselves: Why? Why again? Have we changed the world, improved living conditions in the last quarter of a century? Was every festival the best possible? Repetitions, as we will be able to see in some festival performances, are rituals. Repetition is only a framework that allows us to seek the truth, the transcendent, and the new. It is precisely through the repetition of the same ritual of opening, performances, conversations, socializing and closing that we build the momentum that is necessary to break through the circle of the eternally same into the new; beyond.

On the 25th anniversary, we are asked if the Young Lions (Mladi Levi) will ever grow old – they may become lionesses, but let them stay young – after all, the future belongs to the young. Festival for everyone, for the Young, for the Lions!

The Mladi Levi festival team