Skribonauti is a non-profit organization, which promotes culture; artistic production and informal education amongst marginalized groups primarily prison inmates, problematic youth and children without proper parental care. Its main goal is finding new contexts and spaces for contemporary art and researching the role of art in the process of social inclusion.
Mario Kovač, in cooperation with Nikša Marinović and as part of Skribonaut's project Writers go to prison, has held drama and creative writing workshops in Lipovica penitentiary. During one of the sessions, he met Branko Šestak, a man who has transformed his prison experience into the monoplay From Hell To Hell. Their meeting turned into a cooperation in staging Šestak's notes which, in a direct, raw and uncensored way, show life behind bars. Branko Šestak's perseverance in artistic creation inspires, heartens and reminds of the verse that sometimes “a beautiful flower blossoms in the darkness”.
text author: Branko Šestak
Dada Jihad (HR)
Dada Jihad is a project comprising members of several bands and independent theatre groups, managed by the theatre director Mario Kovač. The group bases its work on spatial installations that use the human body exclusively as an object, and on live concert performances that accompany the screenings of silent films using unusual instruments. They also complement film screenings with actors' live movements, thus creating a kind ofmusical metatheatre aimed at reaching the ideal of total theatre envisioned by avant-garde movements back in the early twentieth century. The topics they address are usually socially engaged. The project does not have a fixed line-up but gathers musicians on anad-hoc basis, with the regular participation of Tomislav Babić, Višeslav Laboš (DJ Labosh), Dragan Pajić Pajo, Damir Kantoci, Maksimilijan Ružinski, Ana Franjić, Zrinka Kušević, Dean Krivačić and others. Dada Jihad have performed at a number of festivals and events in Croatia and elsewhere in Europe.
