Reading of Fairy Tales

It started as an experiment and turned into a series of
short broadcasts on Radio Študent every day for over six months.
The material we use comes from folk tales, narrative folk songs and more or
less modern literary fairy tales. We are most interested in folk tales,
interpretation in its simplest form, combined with music from various genres
and sound textures. We set no limits. We take stories, written in books, caught
on tape, and shape them according to our own inner feeling. There are no rules,
and there is also no mission. We are not interested in theory; we are
interested in material that has managed to survive through the centuries.
Folk-words are being thrown off the pedestal; what we do comes out of pleasure
and is a challenge. We discover archetypal worlds that exist in the
subconscious of us all and can't be escaped. Even in today's post-modern
society, people ask themselves the same fundamental questions they did hundreds
of years ago, and the mechanisms for resolving inner distress and ethical
dilemmas are also the same. The airwaves enable one-way communication, but we
wanted to find out how storytelling works in an urban environment, in a space
where other forms of expression predominate, so we decided to upgrade what we
do on the air. How does the reading of fairy tales, interwoven with musical
improvisation, work in a club? Is anybody even interested in something like
this? Can folk tales come alive in the totally urban environment? Our
experience says, yes, it works, and we are not the only ones interested in
this. This is something alive. The fairy-tale reading organised by Radio
Študent is a verbal journey through the cultural map of tradition. Connected by
the motif of the woman in both traditional and literary fairy tales, without commentary
or value judgement, these tales present a range of figures, including the
Japanese sorceress Sayona, who entices men to their ruin, a squeamish countess,
a brave and cunning girl, a sister, a wife, a lover, a lazy girl, a temptress,
a busybody, a slanderer, a good fairy, both evil and good step-mothers, a
stingy rich woman, a cannibal-woman in extremely diverse roles, as seen through
the eyes of the folk traditions of various nations.
Alenka Veler

"A Twopence of Imagination" team: Nataša Bivic,
Alenka Veler, Petra Slatinšek, Pavel Koltaj
Klub Gromka, Metelkova City
"Reading of Fairy Tales" team: Alenka Veler, Nataša Bivic
Readers: Boštjan Vrhovšek, Robert Vrtovšek, Štefan Kušar, Maruša Bertoncelj,
Rok Kosec, Srečko Meh, Miha Žorž, Karin Komljanec, Helena Božič, Ana Ličina,
Nina Peče, Rok Kušlan, Arnold Marko, Boris Vlajič, Boštjan Napotnik

Organisation: City of Women
In co-operation with: Radio Študent, Klub Gromka