Folk traditions, fables, tales, fairy tales…. are the cultural heritage and the magic (Pandora’s?) box of the collective unconscious of a given nation. And when we look more broadly, we find that the motifs in fairy tales and fables are similar between nations. They all speak of kings, queens, wizards, fools, mothers and fathers, young men and young women, wise men, old men, shadows, devils and angels … which we call archetypes.
According to C. G. Jung, archetypes are “…the will-independent and spontaneous products of the unconscious psyche, and thus represent natural products beyond conscious intention. Archetypes take the form of symbols – psychic images that link the known (consciousness) with the unknown (unconscious). They are multilayered in meaning and possess the power to unite opposites”.
The collective unconscious hides a nation’s well-being and/or doom. It depends on knowing these invisible forces and taming them. The choice is ours.
In Tivoli Park and on the path to Ljubljana Castle, fairies, young women and witches play, offering fragments of the narrative cultural heritage from the Slovenian treasury in five foreign languages, thus enriching them in a cosmopolitan context. We are the world and the world is us.
Barbara Pia Jenič
Directed and conceptualized by Barbara Pia Jenič
Costume and mask design: Incognito design
Graphic design by Lena A. Nagode
Photo: Senzorium
Translations into English: Polona Prodnik
Translations into Spanish: Andrej Rot
Translations into Italian: Marina Bremec
Translations into French: Julijana Jovanič
Organisation assistance: Nina Dolinšek
The Three Oranges is narrated by Liza Praprotnik in Slovene, Spanish and English
The Golden Horn is narrated by Polona Prodnik in English and Slovenian
The Water Man is narrated by Nina Cijan in Slovenian, Italian and French
Alenka Pirnat is the pehta who cooks the magic potion in all languages
The Beautiful Vida is narrated by Jerica Majerhold Ostrovršnik and Vesna Vrabelj in Slovenian, English and Croatian, sometimes joined by Barbara Pia Jenič, who narrates in Spanish.
