PHILOSOPHERS’ SQUARE: DARA’S REGULUS

Monday, July 24
Church of St. Nicholas Franciscan Monastery, Prčanj, 9 p.m.
PHILOSOPHERS’ SQUARE: VOX FEMINAE

DARA’S REGULUS
COLLEGIUM+

ANDRIJANA VEŠOVIĆ a.k.a. ZOMBIJANA BONES, visual artist
LEJLA KALAMUJIĆ, writer
KARMINA ŠILEV, composer, conductor, director
DRAGANA JOVANOVIĆ, conductor
Collegium+ Vocal Ensemble

Determination and tenderness, seriousness and immediacy in communication, competitive spirit and faith, hard work and vision, happily met in the temperament of Darinka Matić Marović (1937–2020), whose unique personality and activity are the main inspiration for starting the Vox feminae program. This prominent artist was a first in many ways: the first female conductor with a multi-decade career, the  first female Dean of the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, the first female rector of the University of the Arts in Belgrade... With her strong driving energy, authority, work ethic and original musicality, she marked the thousands of lives of her students through decades of work with the Collegium Musicum Academic Choir and the Obilić Academic Choir of the Branko Krsmanović Academic Cultural and Artistic Association in Belgrade. Bearing in mind her bravery, which was an inspiration and encouragement to many female artists, in 2021 KotorArt established the biennial Darinka Matić Marović Award for female musical artists who have left their mark on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, which will be awarded this year as well.

Also, on the initiative of former members of the Collegium Musicum Academic Choir, in which female students of the Faculty of Music in Belgrade have been singing since 1971, the COLLEGIUM+ Association was formed as a natural broadening of the engagement of female singers who want to retain and maintain the light acquired through their choir activity in other phases of their lives. For the full 52 years of its existence, over 500 girls have participated in the work of the ensemble. Without her biological children, Professor Darinka Matić Marović nurtured her artistic family and ours, an inseparable sisterhood, the so-called “collegium women”. Today, they are renowned artists, professors, people with integrity and authority in the creation of cultural policies. The task of the COLLEGIUM+ project is to develop a platform for stronger networking, more direct communication and exchange of knowledge and skills of younger and older generations of female singers who live and work throughout the region, carrying the impulse of healthy cooperation and promoting true values. This idea is embodied in this year’s KotorArt through the Dara’s Regulus program, which refers to the unique principle of attitude towards profession and life that Professor Matić Marović instilled in her students. Some of them will perform in their role from their early youth, this time singing in honor of their teacher. Along with the performance of the COLLEGIUM+ ensemble and the official awarding of the second Darinka Matić Marović Award, the Dara’s Regulus program will also present some of the most important artists of the region, such as visual artist Andrijana Vešović, aka Zombijana Bones, award-winning writer and conductor Lejla Kalamujić, and director and composer Karmina Šilec.

Andrijana Vešović, known as Zombijana Bones, is a visual artist from Montenegro. She started her career more than a decade ago, drawing tweets. Since then, she has tried herself as a graphic and web designer, she has changed her residence several times, has worked on many projects that she liked and that she did not like. Today, Andrijana Vešović only draws what she likes, so everything except tweets. She often talks about socially responsible topics, most often about women’s rights and mental health. Andrijana Vešović currently lives and creates in Podgorica. During her career, she has achieved important collaborations, and one of the most important for her is with the Women’s Safe House from Podgorica, SOS Nikšić and AFŽ Novi Sad. So far, Andrijana Vešović has held more than twenty solo exhibitions. Her plan for the future is to stay happy.

Lejla Kalamujić is a writer from Sarajevo. She completed her studies in Philosophy and Sociology at the Faculty of Philosophy in Sarajevo. She has published two collections of short stories: The Anatomy of a Smile (2008) and Call me Esteban (2015). For the latter, she won the Edo Budiša Award of the Istria region for the best regional collection of short stories in 2015. Lejla Kalamujić also published a collection of dramas called Fists Full of Clouds (2020). She is the author of theater plays Cannibals or How I Killed My Family and Let’s Turn off the Lights. Her short stories and plays have been translated into several foreign languages. She is a participant in the research project on the history of queer life in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Karmina Šilec successfully realizes projects with different companies, theater and opera houses, festivals and ensembles all over the world. Famous for her original and research-oriented approach, she brings freshness to musical theater across the globe. Her projects have achieved numerous international awards, including the Music Theater Now awards for the works Threnos and From Time Immemorial, and the International Robert Edler Prize. Her projects are performed on stages and festivals of the highest esteem, including the Festival d’Automne á Paris, Ruhrtriennale, the Prototype Festival in New York, the Moscow Easter Festival, Musikfestspiele in Dresden, the Melbourne Festival, Audirotrim in Rome, the Hong Kong Cultural Center, among others. Karmina Šilec takes a creative approach to several critical political issues of our time, striving to contribute to the acceptance of the Otherness – she tackles misogyny and sexism through an examination of women in isolated environments (monasteries, concentration camps), and research of himenology (virginity) as a phenomenon. Her latest work Milica casts critical light on femicide in Europe. She has developed a unique artistic concept – choregie with a focus on the creative process that brings the musical notion of composing to the theatrical aspects of performing and staging. Karmina Šilec is the Artistic Director of the Carmina Slovenica production company.

Dragana Jovanović, Associate Professor of Choral Singing and Conducting in the Department of Conducting and Vice-dean for International Cooperation and Projects at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, graduated and obtained her master’s and doctoral degrees in Conducting from the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, under Professor Darinka Matić Marović. She began her conducting career during her studies, as a professor and conductor of the Mixed Choir, the String and Symphony Orchestra of the Kosta Manojlović Secondary Music School in Zemun, then as an assistant conductor to Professor Darinka Matić Marović in the Obilić Academic Choir, the Branko Krsmanović Academic Cultural and Artistic Association, and the Collegium Musicum Academic Choir. Dragana Jovanović has collaborated with conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Uroš Lajovic, Michail Jurowsky, En Shao, Peter Robinson, Francesco La Vecchia, Mladen Jagušt, and Bojan Suđić, among others. She is the author of a three-volume book titled Anthology of Serbian Music for Children’s and Women’s Choirs by Composers of the Second Half of the 19th Century and the First Half of the 20th Century. Dragana Jovanović is the winner of the 2013 Best Concert Award, given by the Association of Music Artists of Serbia, the Golden Badge for Contribution to Serbian Culture, bestowed by the Cultural and Educational Association of Serbia, and the Vidovdan Knight Award. She is also the first laureate of the newly established KotorArt Prominent Figure in the Field of Music Award.