ACT wants to honour the remembrance of Nevenka Koprivsek, founder and director of Bunker, Ljubljana. We miss her presence and personality. Eleven testimonies reveal how she embodied what ACT is all about.

she just knew

Nevenka never saw this tree, but now I think of her whenever I look at it – which is every day because I see it from where I work on our kitchen table at the back of our house – a beautiful view over a river and hills, a huge glorious copper beech tree, some 200 years old.  I heard about Nevenka’s death sitting at this very table, looking at this very tree. The tree is here – it is still so hard to believe Nevenka isn’t.

I met her so many years ago, I can’t remember, when she was working with Glej theatre.  Then I used to see her all the time at IETM meetings, surrounded by colleagues and friends, all of whom were keen to be with her, to collaborate with her, to talk to her, to listen to her. Then one sunny autumn afternoon at one of the extraordinary and life-changing Tipping Point conferences in Oxford – a gathering of the arts and scientific communities  concerned about what was then called climate change but is now the climate emergency – a group of us talked about putting in an application for EU funding to create a network to do something about it!  Here, in 2008 Thin Ice was born, later to develop into Imagine 2020 and now of course ACT. Nevenka was at the centre of this group, always.  At every meeting she brought to the table knowledge about the artists, ideas, imagination, humanity, humour, warmth and love. She inspired all of us, all the time. She suggested artists and projects that the network might produce and present, she suggested actions and strategies to reduce our carbon footprints, she organised symposiums and conferences to connect with the wider world, she worked tirelessly to get the grant applications in – we used to say she was the queen of EU funding!

And of course there was the wonderful organisation Bunker and Mladi Levi Festival. There was never a big budget but all the artists Artsadmin worked with longed to be invited there, and many were. She kept a keen eye on all their work, she kept a keen eye on the work of artists all over the world it seemed. She just knew. She somehow made everything happen, even if on a shoestring. And if the artists went to the Mladi Levi, the producers also queued up to go with them to beautiful Ljublajna, to experience the festival, to participate, to be with her and the wonderful Bunker team, to go to the internationally famous picnic!

People used to think Nevenka and I looked a bit alike, and often mistook me for her, sometimes having long conversations about a project before they and I realised! I’m sure I must have disappointed them! I’d have been so proud to have her as a sister, but then again she sort of was my sister, and everyone else’s too – we were all connected to her and by her.

Just like the branches of this beech tree, from the roots to the tiny new shoots and leaves.

She connected us all.

Judith Knight
Founder and ex-Artistic Director Artsadmin, London

the cultural nomad

Dear Nevenka, it is so hard to receive news that you are no longer around. It was immensely sad, devastating, it was like a life earthquake. You have been beside us in all important moments for our organization, many to name… In our beginnings while organizing Balkan Dance Platform, you and wonderful Bunker friends organized Balkan Express network meeting in Skopje, to support us and the platform. Few years later, it was you who recognized the energy, force, motive to change and it was you who helped and pushed us forward, so today we are still together, making a difference in dance and performance in the region, as Nomad Dance Academy. We can recall many other occasions, as well as the last, a year ago when in Kino Kultura we gathered diverse artists and interested public, for your practice of Feldenkrais, that you passed with love to many, creating a new community here.

Your openness, vision, desire to include and develop relationships, to enable otherness and movement helping your co-workers, to build communities, new contexts and paradigms, couldn’t let you stay still. You were never still, always moving forward, moving surrounding, and different worlds. And for us you will always be the cultural nomad, who marked our world and our region. We would like to dedicate a public space to you because you fought for many of them, and transformed them into spaces with importance for the community, for all of us, you marked many of them with your work and care. Your care for the community and refined sense of communicating, driven spirit, passion for work and life, love for art will never be forgotten.

We will keep you, Nevenka, close to us in hearts, thoughts and further work in arts and culture.

Biljana Tanurovska
program director Lokomotiva, Skopje

(c) Ellen Walraven – Ginkgo Sprout Nevenka

be personal

People who are dear to me coproduced already with Bunker (Milan Lucic/ Dom Omladine Belgrade) or played at Mladi Lev (Wunderbaum) so I was very curious to get to know the Bunker-girls, especially Nevenka as leader of the gang.

At first it was difficult to get close; she was one of the big players in the international networks, at first not interested in a young girl on the block.

I decided to learn to play this game, by closely watching the two grand ladies of this international producing who understood this (boys)game: Judith Knight of Arts Admin and Nevenka. The first one taught me to present artists with passion and a sense of urgency. Nevenka showed me how to be smart, to stay close to the big players during the informal moments (the occasional drinks, the right place at the dinner table), but more important; to get out of our meetings what my organization needed, instead of spreading myself all over the place. I’ve learned from these women to find the right position to act from. To serve the artists, the network, my own theatre … and myself, since Nevenka also taught me to be personal, like she once did by bringing artists in our summer lab to her dearest marshes filled with birds.

It was great to work in the Bunker home-like office, to fall asleep there on a polar bear on the couch, to have a rakia with her and the other stunning women in the small kitchen, celebrating some success amongst each other.

Strong support, real solidarity and intelligent autonomy, that is what I associate Nevenka and Bunker with.

I will never forget she once made a phone call, telling me how she appreciated what I did by travelling in the summer in order to meet possible partners in Macedonia and Albania in person. She thanked me for my true interest. I was so proud, it felt the most logical thing to do, but her words made me realise how often partners in Eastern Europe are asked for EU-strategic reasons – skills she mastered herself at the highest level – but this phone call made clear that respect is key.

I’ve found seeds of a Ginkgo Bilboa in a park. You rarely can find them because the female trees only give seeds every 25 years. I’ve soaked them in warm water, gave them a cold stratification and lots of respect… and the first one just emerged. I will name it Nevenka. And if more seeds will sprout, I will send them to the other partners, as a symbol of hope. And as a tree which can deal with air pollution. We need both. The ideal and the practical realm.

Ellen Walraven
former artistic director, Theater Rotterdam