Velvet Revolution to be seen in Slovakia

Velvet Revolution to be seen in Slovakia

The Velvet Revolution has been commemorated and will be commemorated over the next weekend all across the country. While the Slovak National Museum opened a grand exposition at the Bratislava Castle, the Slovak National Gallery hung contemporary posters on the façade of its building located on the banks of the river Danube. At the same time, it has opened its 1989 web portal where, since the beginning of November, it presents every single day depicted in the diary of Slovak conceptual artist Julius Koller.

November '89 - 30 Years After, an international conference of the Institute of History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and the Comenius University, was held in Bratislava on Friday. It presents the latest research on the happenings in November 1989 with Oxford University historian Timothy Garton Ash and James Krapfl from McGill University. On Friday, the Festival of Freedom continues with a live broadcast of the public Slovak Radio and a recording of a concert of protest songs from V4 countries.

On Saturday, former students of the Faculty of Arts of the Comenius University will meet to act out a reconstruction of their illegal march in the streets of Bratislava that was held 16th November 1989, a day ahead of the now historical protests in Prague. The Central European forum, a regular gathering of experts on history, philosophy, sociology, politics and arts, will give the floor to President Zuzana Caputova and to Ivan Havel, the brother of former Czechoslovak President Vaclav Havel, among others. Also on Saturday, a special concert marking the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution will be held in the historical building of the Slovak National Theatre. It was in this very building that on 29th November 1989 Vaclav Havel came for the first time to Slovakia and also where he announced that the leading position of the Communist Party had been abolished and thus the Velvet Revolution had beaten the system.

On Sunday, 17th November, the Weekend of closed borders event will be resurrecting the atmosphere of the barbed wired border between the socialist countries and the so called western countries. It will be possible to cross the bridge for cyclists only with the use of the special passport documents that were needed for travelling abroad at the time of the communist regime. Also on Sunday, the ceremony of handing over the Biela vrana or White crow awards for whistleblowers will be held in the Slovak National Theatre. And the Slovak National Theatre will also house a special concert on the occasion of the 17th November held under the auspices of Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini.

Martina Šimkovičová, Photo: TASR

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