Glej,
Manifesto for Mechanics

“Open the windows, open the doors: a new man is coming.”
— Srečko Kosovel, in Tomaj (1925)

In the summer of 1925, Srečko Kosovel wrote a text in Tomaj titled To the Mechanics! (Mechanics and Drivers)—a manifesto, a protest, a letter. A century later, we revisit and unfold it through a mechanical puppet in a three-day performance in public space, directed by Marko Čeh and powered by Andraž Jug, Gregor Prah and Anže Zevnik.

About the performance

Manifesto for Mechanics is a three-day site-specific performance that transforms the city into a stage. A six-metre-tall puppet, stop-motion projection, music, rhythm, and evening literary performances by contemporary writers come together in an event where literature meets theatre, visual art, and public space.

The performance draws on Kosovel’s Manifesto for Mechanics! (1925), one of the key texts of the Slovenian avant-garde, and translates it into the present day. Rather than reconstructing the historical context, it raises questions that remain relevant today: how can we overcome the alienation produced by social and economic mechanisms? How do communities emerge, and how can we imagine a freer future?

The performance unfolds in the city streets, where passers-by can encounter it by chance, join in along the way, or follow it throughout all three days. Each evening concludes with a literary reading by contemporary Slovenian and other European writers, who reinterpret Kosovel’s manifesto from a contemporary perspective.

Alongside the three-day version, Manifesto for Mechanics is also conceived as a one-hour performance suitable for festivals and other guest appearances.

At the heart of both the longer, three-day version and the shorter, one-hour version is a theatrical interpretation of Srečko Kosovel’s poetry, created in dialogue with contemporary poets. In Kosovel’s poetry, we recognise a spark that continues to smoulder like a living fire in the literary work of today’s Slovenian writers. The project therefore creates a space for dialogue between the avant-garde legacy and contemporary poetry, opening up new ways of reading Kosovel’s thought in the present day.

Credits

Srečko Kosovel: Manifesto for Mechanics

Direction: Marko Čeh
Performers: Andraž Jug, Gregor Prah, Anže Zevnik

Puppet Design: Leon Vidmar
Set Design: Leon Vidmar
Costume Design: Barbara Drmota
Language Editing: Mateja Dermelj

Sound Design: Tomi Novak

Production: Miha Kosovel, Eva Zucchiati, Katja Pahor, Društvo humanistov Goriške, GO! 2025

With thanks to: Gledališče Glej, Primet d.o.o., GOSTOL-GOPAN d.o.o. Nova Gorica

Part of the Dobrih dvajset project within the official programme of the European Capital of Culture Nova Gorica–Gorizia 2025. The City of Books programme is co-funded by the Slovenian Book Agency and the Municipality of Nova Gorica.

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