Urban Interventions Brno 2016 - Svitava on Fire

On September 24 and 25, the multi-genre festival Svitava pod parou will take place at Svitava Embankment in Brno, under the banner of the City Interventions Brno platform.

The idea of the "city interventions" project originally emerged in Bratislava in 2007, when a duo of architects, Matúš Vallo and Oliver Sadovský, brought their idea of a civic-professional initiative to life, collaborating with colleagues to initiate several architectural solutions for a problematic public space in the broader center of Bratislava.
The concept of City Interventions is completely universal and applicable to other cities as well – the project was first implemented in Brno in 2011, and this year marks the second edition of interventions in Brno.
With the Svitava pod parou project, architect Kristýna Smržová joined the City Interventions: “The temporary activation of the unused railway siding at Svitava Embankment was the first step for me to revitalize this forgotten location,” says the author of the Svitava pod parou project. “The river should be an important urban element of any larger city, however, in Brno, rivers flow outside the historic center, and thus their potential has long been overlooked,” adds Kristýna Smržová. “The city of Brno does not know how to utilize the potential of its rivers, and that's a pity. Personally, I miss the river in Brno; the city center has expanded, and it is high time to create a riverbank at Svitava. To beautify a forgotten and poetic place in Brno.” says Roman Zmrzlý, the organizer and filmmaker.
The unifying element of the event remains the railway. Especially thanks to railway enthusiast Mr. Kotas, who will be transporting visitors on the siding in a train pulled by a steam locomotive. We were partly inspired by the Embankment of Steam Lovers, which exists in Hradec Králové, and the original idea gradually grew into a two-day multi-genre festival. Mr. Kotas's collection comprises around 35 locomotives and cars, and some of them will be on display during the event. “We wanted to utilize the railway theme in an unconventional way, so we will place a café in one of the parked carriages, and a freight car will then be transformed into a stage for bands,” adds Kristýna Smržová.
The café car will not be parked the entire time; instead, it will be coupled to the steam train every hour, and visitors will be able to ride to Černovice and back. In the reconstructed hitlák (old service car), an exhibition about railways and a presentation of Mr. Kotas's collection will be set up.
The accompanying program consists of music performances, theater shows, exhibitions, and workshops. The program and all updates are published on the Facebook page. Among the bands, we can mention Golden Delicious, led by Tomáš David, an actor from the Husa na provázku theater. The site-specific movement-musical performance HUNGERSTEIN by the FESTE theater, which was tailored specifically for Svitava Embankment, is worth seeing. An exhibition of calligraphy will be on display, and visitors will have the opportunity to try calligraphy themselves. The program is designed so that everyone can find something for themselves, and that visitors can also actively participate.
The event will be hosted by moderators from Radio R, which will also broadcast live from the festival. Visitors will thus have the chance to try live broadcasting themselves.
The main goal of the event remains to attract as many people as possible to Svitava Embankment and provide them with a pleasant program so that they can experience this still undiscovered and neglected location in Brno in a different light. “I personally live in this area, and I firmly hope that we will gradually succeed in convincing city representatives to pay more attention to this location,” adds Jan Orava, another organizer of the event.

More information >