1979 and 1980

1979 and 1980 are the eighth and ninth productions of Janežič’s Dodekalogija 1972–1983, the largest artistic project of the European Capital of Culture Nova Gorica – Gorizia. Performed as a pair, the productions are about memory, growing up, and the people from a small village that becomes a crossroads of life destinies.

1979 and 1980 are transgenerational documentary fictions, based on the personal stories of the artists involved. They tell a story from the 1970s, born from the homes of that time, intertwined with numerous local and global events that connect Goriška with various other places around the world. The productions are part of the theatrical Dodekalogija 1972–1983 (within the project Destin(y)ation / A Touch of Fate), a year-long theatrical omnibus composed of twelve projects, directed by Tomi Janežič, created or already staged in Nova Gorica, Ljubljana, Timișoara, Ivano-Frankivsk, Novi Sad, and under the auspices of the Krušče Creative Centre. The Dodekalogija outlines a network of life destinies that stretch through time and have been marked by travel and migration. Above all, it is an omnibus about theatre itself.

The “Velcro tape” was invented during World War II, in Switzerland. While elsewhere in Europe people were killing each other, a man would go hiking in the mountains with his dog, gathering flowers and mushrooms. When he returned home, he noticed that something had stuck to his clothes, and his dog’s fur was also full of it. It was burdock. Why did it cling to the fabric?

Imagine the luxury of sitting down in peace, at the time when Hitler was attacking Russia, and looking at a burdock flower under a microscope. On this flower were tiny hooks, and the man thought: “Perhaps I can make artificial hooks, like the ones on the burdock.” It took him more than ten years to create the “Velcro” we know today.

He patented it, and the patent expired in 1979. From 1980 onwards, “Velcro” began to appear everywhere. But someone already had it back in the 1950s, when it was still almost unknown. And apparently, it changed this person’s life.

Director Tomi Janežič

Actors
Anuša Kodelja
Stane Tomazin
Carlo Zoratti
Tomi Janežič 

That's how you make theatre!

_{Tamás Jászay (from the review of 1978)}