MARK POŽLEP - BERTA* IS AMERICA - Smuggling Handbook

Participatory Lecture performance, various duration, 2019



Mark Požlep in collaboration with Jožica Hribar, Majda Lekše, Irena Butoln, Vesna Škreblin

Phenomenom of “Švercanje” - to run, to smuggle, to bootleg things over the border, was a well know neccesity and almost a national sport in Slovenia from 1947 until 2004 when Slovenia became a member of European Union. People were smuggling everything what was impossible or hard to get in Slovenia - than Yugoslavia, from Coffee, eggs, butter, liquer, ciggaretes to TV, computer, sound equipement and Jeans. 

Mark Požlep used for his project the medium of contemporary storytelling, in collaboration with elderly. The performance opens a stage for a memory, dreams, utopian wishes and economic funtion / dysfunction of the national borders.

*Berta is a legendary shop on Austrian side at the border between Slovenia and Austria on the crosspoint Šentilj.