NSK to join 2024 Miroslav Krleža Festival
On 2 July 2024, at 12.00, the National and University Library in Zagreb (NSK) will put on a special programme 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.
At the traditional get-together, Krleža and his invaluable legacy will be presented by the Festival’s author and director Goran Matović, Dr Lada Čale Feldman from the Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and Dr Suzana Marjanić from the Zagreb Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research, while the Head of the Library’s Manuscripts and Old Books Collection Dr Irena Galić Bešker will focus on Krleža’s manuscripts preserved in the Collection of which those related to this year’s Festival’s programme will be displayed as part of an accompanying exhibition.
Croatian stage and screen actress Antonija Stanišić Šperanda will give a reading of Krleža’s poetry.
Commemorating the giant of Croatia’s contemporary culture
This year starting a bit earlier, on 28 June, the Festival will feature a number of theatrical performances and follow-up programmes.
Closing with Breakfast Party à la Krleža, an early morning shindig traditionally starting at the time of Krleža’s birth (7 July, 7.00), the Festival will address issues arising from the current global circumstances, heavily burdened by the ongoing armed conflicts posing a threat to global peace. In an effort to spotlight the messages that can be extracted in this context from Krleža’s famed 1922 collection of stories (Hrvatski bog Mars, “The Croatian God Mars”), the Festival will draw on Krleža’s powerful writing to emphasise the futility of suffering inflicted on humankind as a consequence of war.
NSK – a treasure chest of Krleža’s own choice
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).