Klub Menza pri koritu

A latecomer to the Metelkova mesto cultural complex, Menza pri koritu ("Canteen at the Trough") was established in 2000. Formally a youth club, it is actually a multi-purpose creative space, sometimes open throughout the day and offering a wide range of activities, featuring workshops, concerts, poetry evenings, film screenings and theatre performances. It can also be used as either practice grounds for musicians or as a place where one can actually get a cup of Turkish coffee.

Background and management

The venue grounds were an empty space, mainly used by skateboarders until September 2000, when KUD Mreža Arts and Culture Association and the Society for the Protection of Atheistic Feelings (DZAČ) converted it into a club. The stage – and later the wooden upper gallery – was constructed by the volunteer craft group Axt und Kelle from Germany, Denmark, and Switzerland. In the following decade, the managing collective took some time to form the club's identity and find a coherent policy of its programme. Today, its contribution to the diversity of Metelkova makes Menza pri koritu one of its main social and cultural nodes.

Officially managed by KUD Mreža, it is in fact led by an informal group that comes from various other associations like Kud Sizifova buča, Kud Kentaver and Cirkus pri koritu. This core team extensively works with a number of other cultural producers – [A]Infoshop Metelkova, DRMK, Bangyourbrain, Panda Banda, Buba Booking and Promotion, Sploh Institute, Moonlee Records, Radio Študent (RŠ), City of Women, FV Music, Peace Institute, and Voluntariat.

Programme

As music is the primary focus of Menza pri koritu, concerts take place on an almost daily basis. In terms of genres, their repertoire is not bound by any of them. There are two regular serials called Džez pri koritu and Punk pri koritu – while the later is obviously hosting punk rock music, the former is more or less focused on the more adventurous and loud strains of jazz music. Besides these two, a sizeable part of the programme is dedicated to alternative rock acts, and also to metal music, various experimental electronics, noise, folk, hip hop, electronic dance music and to a number of other musical expressions that hover somewhere in-between. To name notable international acts would be useless, as the list would be far to long even if it would be kept very short.

Besides these one-evening music events, Menza pri koritu also hosts and co-organises festivals and series like the FV Music Festival, Moonlee Records' Moonleejada, Club Marathon, Noise Festival, Rdeče zore, LUD Šerpa's Con-Fine Aperto, and some others.

Alongside its musical programme, Menza pri koritu co-organises regular poetry events, which are mainly happening under the name of the monthly series Mlade rime ("Young rhymes"). There, young poets can either present their poems or even compete on an annual poetry slam. Another regular series of events is called Cirkus pri koritu ("Circus at the trough"), offering a diverse set of performative acts that range from acrobatics to a fashion show of bearded woman.

Other parts of the programme are also film screenings (Menza pri koritu has a long history of documentary film screenings), theoretical lectures, and even workshops offering free instruction on screen printing, photography, website design, Photoshop, and video animation. As mentioned before, a lot musicians, theatre performers, and even jugglers use the place as a rehearsal space.

Venue

type of venue: Concert hall
main use: drama, puppetry, film, panel discussions, workshops, seminars
seating: 80 seats total, 60 stalls, 20 balcony"balcony" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 20.
performing area: 6m W x 4m D
suspension equipment: overhead pipe grid for suspension of lighting and masking, max load 250kg
soft hangings: black and red curtains
lighting: 12-channel desk, basic concert rig
sound: 16-channel mixer, power amplifiers and loudspeakers, 10 microphones
stage equipment: 2 x television monitors, digital camera, digital video camera, video projector, screen
back stage: dressing rooms for 10 persons total
climate control: heating only, air-conditioning planned
availability: available for hire for workshops, rehearsals and performances
technical staff: sound and lighting designer, stage set worker on staff

External links

Gallery

Premier of Zamrznjene podobe (Frozen Images), Wanda & Nova deViator, at Menza pri koritu Metelkova mesto Autonomous Cultural Zone, produced by Emanat Institute 2010