PORTS OF ART

As part of the 19th edition of the KotorArt Festival, Don Branko’s Music Days will transform the town’s public spaces into venues of live art, accessible and visible to everyone. Ports of Art are an integral part of the KotorArt Don Branko’s Music Days – from year to year we consistently nurture and develop these lively harbors, as we know that this program provides a unique and valuable experience to young artists, and also that it contributes essentially, through art in public space, towards creating the special atmosphere of the Kotor Old Town and the Bay of Kotor.

THE MUSIC OF BOKA

Searching for new forms of communication in the language of art, KotorArt Don Branko’s Music Days created The Music of Boka concept, which, thanks to its special energy, never fails to leave a powerful impression on the residents of Kotor. A few days a week, residents of the Old Towns of Kotor, Dobrota, Camp, St. Stasije, Muo, Prčanj, and Perast wake up to the sounds of the Boka Maritime Kolo performed by Kotor musicians, closely connected with the KotorArt Festival or the City Music of Kotor. In the early morning hours, playing from a boat, musicians use the sea as the only sound transmitter, and the hills that surround the bay as a specific acoustic “box.”

One of the most recognizable elements of the Boka maritime tradition – the Kolo, also known as the St. Tryphon’s Kolo, is a combination of medieval sacred and later secular elements from the life of sailors. The Kolo form is traditionally performed without singing, despite the existence of lyrics that were written at the end of the 19th century by Pavo Božov Kamenarović, a captain from Dobrota. The lyrics note the special emphasis on the ideas of national rebirth from its first phase in the 1860s, when the notions of vastness, national and religious tolerance, and the feeling of fraternity were clearly expressed and nurtured in Boka through these means. 

The inspiration of ​​the festival to wake up the residents of Boka with the sounds of the Boka Maritime Kolo has come from the following verses: 

In kolo, all together

Hand in hand we’re stood

Show once and forever

The harmony of brotherhood;

Passed on by our fathers

The wise motto we hold true

And if God is willing,

Our sons will do so too.

The locals who wake up to the sounds of Kolo are engulfed in positive energy – energy that is easily transmitted when such messages are conveyed – often some immediately respond, playing from pontoons, from their balconies and terraces, supporting, sharing, and spreading messages of peace and togetherness.