It would be nice to commence this introduction on a cheerful note, saying perhaps that new and better times lie ahead. But we are living amid rather chaotic circumstances and evasive value systems, and still cannot tear ourselves away from deepening social imbalances. Despite the revolt that we have seen, a palpable vision of tomorrow is yet to be articulated.

It was precisely ten years ago that we optimistically inaugurated the new Ljubljana venue for contemporary performing arts – Stara mestna elektrarna – by none other than the Mladi levi festival.

Year after year, Mladi levi waves goodbye to the summer and marks the beginning of a new season. In the course of the last decade, this unique technical monument has hosted numerous local and foreign artists, whose talent and persistence have breathed new life into these old walls. Stara elektrarna has become a dynamic and vibrant artistic hub of Ljubljana and the Tabor neighbourhood.

This year’s festival programme has been put together from mainly research- and documentary-based approaches and content, as real-life stories continually transition from reality into fiction, and then back to solid ground. On the stage, before our eyes, the destinies of people, who have found themselves in front of the conflicting turning points of personal or social circumstances, shatter to smaller and smaller pieces. Through the intimate sphere, they bring us closer to the phenomena of globalisation, pressure, and the aspirations of either the current or the previous generation, or even the generations to come. These are not big or romantic stories, but rather stories of the everyday. With their delayed action they speak of how to take a step back, how to go wild, how to push yourself to the limits of exhaustion and then compose yourself again, and how to establish some distance and with it all, or possibly even create a new story. Instead of falling victim to bitter self-pity or to fatalistic catastrophism and resignation, these performances are sheer action seeking to understand and read the present, and history as well. They are also stories about how to rehearse one’s good mood and imagination for new alternative futures.

Nevenka Koprivšek