Cankarjev Dom Cultural and Congress Centre Ljubljana has in cooperation with the Flamenco Biënnale NL organised an international festival BI Flamenko that will mark the beginning of a resounding contemporary flamenco festival tradition in Slovenia, and spread it over the region. Two of the Cankarjev dom’s directors were among the selectors: Bogdan Benigar, Jazz and Music of the World Director, and Andrej Jaklič, Theatre and Contemporary Dance Programme Director.
With this festival, Cankarjev dom, the legendary Slovenian institution and a synonym for cultural and humanistic activities combined with meetings industry, once again proved that it can move boarders not just inside Slovenian, but inside the regional offer as well. The innovation and vision leads the Cankarjev dom’s team into programmes that enrich the offer not just for visitors hungry for culture, but also for congress visitors who over and over again get impressed by the selections that often accompany the congress happening. Therefore, the CD remains one of the highest quality and most interesting convention centres in Europe.
Audiences can expect five days filled with flamenco performed by famous stars as well as up-and-coming talent, who together make up the vanguard of flamenco in Spain. A new crop of flamenco makers explore the boundaries of the ancient flamenco art and bring tradition and experiment together in extraordinary concerts and performances. Combining tradition with innovation, their performances offer a new and surprising – contemporary views on flamenco.
Co-produced by the Flamenco Biennial Netherlands, Bi Flamenko – a festival blending tradition and modern-day sensitivities – will share insight into this vibrant culture. Classical instruments enhanced by electronica, classical flamenco steps combined with contemporary dance beats, and Mediterranean temperament meeting African and Arabic rhythms.
The Cankarjev dom says in the introduction of the festival: »Flamenco is bursting with life – as a genre, a category of artistic composition, and as a way of life. Far from being satisfied by only performing ossified and rigidly antiquated music and dance forms, flamenco artists are re-inventers. Flamenco is a flux saturating and being saturated by contemporary arts and related disciplines.«
The same could be said for the Cankarjev dom – CD Congress Centre Ljubljana: it is bursting with life, far from being satisfied by only offering rigidly formed programmes, but rather re-inventing itself and the approach to the cultural and meetings offers not only for Ljubljana and Slovenia, but also for the wider region.
 in Ljubljana, CD Congress Centre Ljubljana once again shows that it is capable of re-inventing itself as well as of the approach to the cultural and meeting offers for Ljubljana, Slovenia and for the wider region.){kind=link}