NSK joins 2024 Miroslav Krleža Festival
On 2 July 2024, the National and University Library in Zagreb (NSK) hosted a special get-together held as part of the 13th Miroslav Krleža Festival, the 2024 edition of the annual cultural festival commemorating Miroslav Krleža (1893-1981), one of the most distinguished, world-famous Croatian writers and thinkers of all time.
After an introductory address by the NSK Director General Dr Ivanka Stričević, the Festival was presented by its author and director Goran Matović, who donated to the Library the posters of the Festival’s previous editions. Designed by Boris Bućan, Mirko Ilić and other Croatian distinguished visual artists, the posters represent a valuable acquisition to the Library’s Print Collection.
The programme included an inspired reading of Krleža’s poetry given by Croatian stage and screen actress Antonija Stanišić Šperanda.
Miroslav Krleža Festival and NSK together guarding Krleža’s legacy
The Festival’s programme and Krleža’s manuscripts related to it preserved in the Library’s Manuscripts and Old Books Collection were presented by Dr Lada Čale Feldman from the Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Dr Suzana Marjanić from the Zagreb Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research and the Head of the Collection Dr Irena Galić Bešker.
Having started on 28 June, the Festival features a number of theatrical performances and follow-up programmes and will traditionally close with Breakfast Party à la Krleža, an early morning shindig starting at the time of Krleža’s birth (7 July, 7.00).
Krleža’s messages amid efforts to avert global threats to world peace
Addressing issues arising from the current global circumstances in particular burdened by the ongoing armed conflicts threatening global peace, the Festival spotlights the messages in this context from Krleža’s famed 1922 collection of stories (Hrvatski bog Mars, “The Croatian God Mars”) and draws on Krleža’s powerful writing to emphasise the futility of suffering inflicted on humankind as a consequence of war.
Krleža’s invaluable manuscript archive among NSK treasures
In accordance with Krleža’s own wishes and owing to Dr Krešimir Vranešić, who executed Krleža’s will, the NSK Manuscripts and Old Books Collection preserves Krleža’s manuscript heritage.
Becoming part of the Collection in 1988, Krleža’s manuscripts were unsealed in 2001, upon the expiry of a 20-year moratorium which Krleža requested on in any way surveying or handling that material. In 2003, upon cataloguing the manuscripts in collaboration with The Miroslav Krleža Institute of Lexicography and with the assistance of the leading Croatian experts on Krleža and his work – Zoran Kravar, Velimir Visković, Vlaho Bogišić and Krleža’s bibliographer Davor Kapetanić – the Library published a special catalogue making available all data about this particularly valuable part of Krleža’s legacy (Rukopisna ostavština Miroslava Krleže).
Learn more about the Festival’s 2024 programme (Croatian text only).
