This summer, Nova Gorica will host one of the most powerful and innovative art projects within the GO! 2025 programme. Temporary Residence, created by the Senzorium Institute, combines the multisensory exhibition The Art of Survival and the sensory performance Promised Land. From July 1st to 31st, an experience will unfold within the industrial complex of the Arctur company in Kromberk that will speak not only to the mind but to all five senses.
The concept of the project was developed by Neda Rusjan Bric, artistic advisor for GO! 2025, while the director is Barbara Pia Jenič, whose approach draws from personal migration experience and more than a decade of research into sensory language in theatre. Together, they emphasized at a press conference that the project is not merely artistic but also a socially engaged response to a theme that affects us all directly – migration.
“These are not someone else’s stories. These are the stories of our ancestors, our relatives, our friends. And in the future, they will be the stories of our children. This is the story of humanity,” said Barbara Pia Jenič.
The project was conceived as an artistic attempt to present the theme of migration through an experiential, multisensory approach – so that visitors might truly step into the skin of those who flee. However, Jenič notes that she did not want to recreate the violence many refugees have endured:
“I don’t want to reproduce pain. But I do want to offer a sensitive perception of a reality that some people live every day – and others don’t know exists.”
The exhibition The Art of Survival is based on collections of refugee stories from around the world – gathered into symbolic suitcases that speak through objects, sound, and scent. Visitors listen to the stories through headphones, experience them visually through designed elements, while the space is infused with smells that awaken memory on a subconscious level.
“The exhibition is multisensory because I believe scents are an extraordinarily powerful layer of narrative and memory – both collective and personal, conscious and unconscious. We are beings of five senses, not just two. We have five channels through which we perceive and experience the world,” explains Jenič.
She adds that the exhibition will also feature so-called reconstructed scents, increasingly used in museums and art spaces across the world to enhance immersive experiences:
“Every performance is also a step forward in research. Here, we’ll have the chance to experience these advanced scent technologies that are becoming a global trend.”
Promised Land is a sensory performance that guides the audience through different environments. The action happens around and with the visitor, who becomes a participant in the story. The piece also explores the positive aspects of migration – the enrichment of cultures, languages, flavours, and memories. Entry is gradual and limited to six people per performance, so that each participant can fully immerse themselves in the experience.
A key aspect of the project is collaboration with migrants who are involved in the creative process, alongside professional actors from the Slovenian National Theatre Nova Gorica and students from the School of Arts at the University of Nova Gorica.
Tickets for the exhibition and the performance are available on the Senzorium website and via the Moje Karte system. The exhibition will be open daily in July in two time slots, except Mondays, and the performance will take place ten times in July according to a specially designed schedule.
Temporary Residence transcends traditional genre boundaries through both its form and content. It is not just theatre. It is not just an exhibition. It is an experiential narrative that, in a time of growing divisions, re-articulates a fundamental human question:
“How far are we willing to go to truly understand others?”
