Dear Colombians – happy third birthday to you!
02.07.2021
Author: Matina Tenžera
Join on July 31st from 7pm at the Well of Life on your birthday Walk with the Columbians! You can buy tickets with a 40 percent discount on the Offer of the Day
On Tuesday, July 3, 2018, starting at 7 pm, two actresses jumped hop hop on their feet lightly and paved the way from Meštrović's Well of Life to the Grič tunnel. Since then, he has been trampled on so persistently and so often that some of them may have been left with a sole along the way. But they do not tread alone – always in the pleasant company of curious walkers. Some are crazy, so they think that by returning they return to the same adventure, but they are already grossly mistaken. They return by the same route, but on a completely different and unexpected adventure.
Tell me more about who does what, what is it about?
Because the Walk with the Columbians in which Irena Matas and Tea Šimić bravely entertain their family is never exactly the same. How's that? So the world revolves around them minute by minute, or rather – because Zagreb is their stage.
And our dear readers, we have prepared for you a voluminous conversation with the brain of this colorful operation – Irena Matas.
What would Zagreb look like without Columbine?
It happens almost regularly that at the end of our walks people are maximally relaxed and happy. By the end of the walk, they had very much allowed themselves to shout and clap and dance and sing. We always have the feeling that it is difficult for them to separate from us because a community is created, it is created as we call it the company of the Teatro dell'arte. My words are usually at the end of the gathering – "it's best to find a little girl now and go to town to make a toast!" And people do that…. you accept it very well.
While writing the text, it was important for me to invoke interactivity and togetherness and thus affirm each individual. Because – we are all experts in something in life. I try to remind everyone that there is a childlike spirit in us that we actively manifested through growing up and that it is important to nurture it throughout life.
Finally, it is difficult for me to understand what Zagreb would look like without Columbine, but from the new season I will certainly ask the same question to our walkers at the end of the gathering.
Why did Colombians experience their third year? What are the key comparative advantages?
It’s definitely because we’re incredibly persistent. In July 2017, I sat down and started writing a text about Columbians who have been squatting inside me for a long time. Only when the content came out on paper within a few weeks and when I was supported by friends, actors, directors, singers and other artists and when I contacted the Zagreb Tourist Board, which immediately supported the project, only then did I start thinking about the project outside of creative experiences.
I knew right away that performance skilled and talented people had to work with me, whether they were beginners or professional actresses. And what are the comparative advantages of Columbine? I will only be able to answer that when we do another season!
What did the premiere Walk with Colombians look like in 2018?
We actually rehearsed the whole show indoors visualizing the authentic locations we will be navigating. We are only at the first professional photo shoot with costumes, make-up, props and learned text along the entire route.
We invited friends, family members, colleagues from art circles to the premiere. There were no problems with the text, but it was uncertain what the show would look like in such "unsecured conditions" where life takes place around you. The city is huge and he is your stage. You don’t know what will greet you at the next stop of your walk. You don't know if you will be able to perform an improvisation that depends exclusively on external conditions and, in the end, whether it will get the green light from the audience …
