We invite you to the Betrib festival of industrial culture, which will be held in the Idrija Mercury Smeltery on Friday, September 29, and Saturday, September 30. Over two days, the festival will feature a rich palette of storytelling, experimental and electronic music events, exhibitions and interdisciplinary installations, as well as talks about life with industry. The theme of this year's festival, which will take place as part of the European Capital of Culture GO! 2025 program, will be "Out of use?", as technological development and innovation are constantly disrupting existing spaces, ideas, models, skills and relationships, which suddenly become out of use.
With the industrial revolution of the 19th century, farmers felt obsolete, industrial architecture of the 20th century seems obsolete to some, and ultimately we feel obsolete in the 21st century, when artificial intelligence writes essays faster and better and answers our questions. However, every excess creates a new shortage. With the industrialization of life, we began to appreciate freedom and spontaneity. In the multitude of generic spaces, we recognized the quality of spaces of the past. In the flood of words, there will always be a lack of ideas.
Artificial intelligence in a former mercury smeltery
In the Idrija Mercury Smelting Plant, visitors will be able to discover a comprehensive experience of industrial culture during both days of the festival (Friday and Saturday) from 10:00 to 22:00. With the festival, we want to bring the Idrija industrial heritage into a new era and thus attract younger generations. In the exceptional environment of the Idrija Mercury Smelting Plant, a variety of installations and exhibitions will come to life on three floors, reflecting on the nature of creation, work, and life today - when artificial intelligence is penetrating all aspects of life and many people are asking themselves "Are we out of use?"
With the robot Mojbot ∑igma, visitors to the festival will be able to learn the secrets of personalized playful learning. They will see how an industrial robotic arm is looking for a needle in a haystack, or they can visit the Post-natural Hut and thus see how human life will intertwine with nature in the future. We will also pay special attention to virtual experiences. Visitors will be able to visit the virtual museum "From Farmer to Worker", which was prepared by students from 7 Slovenian secondary schools, or they can take a look from the dizzying height of the Trbovlje chimney.
Musical storytelling and electronics
The exhibition program will also be spiced up with a rich accompanying event. Two musical evenings are promised at the festival - a calmer one on Friday with the storytelling and rebellious trio Poredoš, Mef and Siter, and a louder one on Saturday. The tour of Slovenian musical storytellers with their joint concert “Good night, gentlemen!” is a collection of singer-songwriter stories. At the concert, Poredoš, Siter and Mef will play their own songs, exchange some or reach for arrangements, and share stories about music, society and activism with the audience in between songs. The Saturday evening will be opened by Rok Zalokar and rouge-ah, combining classical and electronic instruments, and the evening will be pulled late into the night by the riders of electronic waves - Otis & Paul Lution present: Pinky and the Brain, Nitz and Eliaz.
We will also think about the impact of artificial intelligence on contemporary art in the context of the exhibition "Idrija 2060: When Robots Create". In the not-so-distant future, artificial intelligence has fully come to life in symbiosis with humanity. Idrija is no longer the city that people knew at the beginning of the 21st century. But it has still retained some of its recognizable characteristics. The exhibition was created by 5 more or less young people who expressed their ideas with the help of publicly available artificial intelligence tools.
International Conversation on the Future of Industrial Areas
It is widely accepted that industrial areas have developed their own unique culture, rooted in the values of the working class, solidarity, and technical knowledge. This cultural fabric includes collective sports, punk music, and industrial spaces. In the 21st century, questions arise: What remains? How does it shape the European narrative? Does it reflect migrations, social ambitions, or environmental compromises? With the rise of semi-automated production, how is industrial culture adapting? We will discuss these questions with experts who study and discover the particularities of different European industrial areas in Austria, Serbia, and Slovenia.
Are humans becoming obsolete?
Of course, the main theme of the festival, "Out of use?” will also be given a special place. Obsolescence is a distinctly human problem. There is no obsolescence in nature. With every end comes a new beginning. Industrialization and, above all, mass production have significantly accelerated the creation of the new - and with it the "obsolescence" of the old - spaces, objects, ideas, and customs. We declare some of these to be heritage, some to be waste. Can people also become obsolete? We will talk about the topic with interesting interlocutors who will present different aspects of this topic.
In addition to the main event, you will also be able to see the exhibition "Odsluženi predmeti". Every development leaves behind objects, solutions, and devices that are no longer in use. For millennials, these include CD players, floppy disks, ball mice, CD racks, and flip phones. For slightly older people, these include VHS cassettes, cathode ray TVs, printed phone books, Iskra landline phones, drafting pens, analogue cameras, carbon paper, fax machines, and pagers. For even older people, these include typewriters etc. However, each of these devices is still connected to us by memories of adventures, people, and moments with our loved ones. It is sometimes difficult to part with them because they remind us of times that are no more. They are carriers of memories and are by no means completely "out of use".
If you are interested in the impact of robotics and modern technology on the lives of humans and other living organisms, then we invite you to a lecture by Maša Jazbec with the robot Lili. Maša Jazbec is an artist, academic researcher, curator, and producer who works in various fields where science and art intersect. In her multifaceted work, she focuses primarily on the impact of robotics and other modern technologies on the lives of humans and other living organisms. In her lecture, Maša Jazbec will collaborate with the humanoid robot Lili, for which they have developed several educational and demonstration applications to introduce the general public to humanoid robotics. The purpose of such training is to encourage the general public to think outside the box when it comes to the use of robots in our society.
The Betrib festival will once again bring many interesting ideas and events to Idrija after its successful first edition in 2021. With the support of the European Capital of Culture GO! 2025, Idrija is thus becoming an important point at the intersection of the past, represented by its rich industrial heritage, and the future, which is mysteriously but inexorably entering our lives.
The Betrib industrial culture festival is part of the official program of the European Capital of Culture GO! 2025 Nova Gorica Gorizia.
