SomaHut festival 2026

9 and 10 May 2026

KONTEJNER / BUREAU OF CONTEMPORARY ART PRACTICE

Odranska 1/1, Zagreb

SomaHut is an initiative launched in 2020 under the umbrella of the Zagreb-based art organisation Multimedijalna koliba. It is dedicated to connecting people and to the development and dissemination of knowledge arising from the exploration of the phenomena of body and movement through different approaches, disciplines and fields of human activity: art, science, education, care…

This year’s SomaHut festival is a two-day event which, on 9 and 10 May, gathers international and local artists and somatic practitioners in the premises of KONTEJNER in Zagreb, Odranska 1, to share through performances, workshops, ‘warming up the audience’ and conversations with visitors the results of artistic processes, as well as the impulses and questions that guide their research.

The festival is centred around an interest in the body as a place of conditioning, imperatives and fears – fear of stopping, of the future, of the unknown – but also of their continuous processing, transformation and opening of new possibilities. For two days, KONTEJNER will thus become a space of encounter, socialising and exchange of somatic experience, performative possibilities and knowledge.

The Saturday programme begins with the CONTINUUM PRACTICE WORKSHOP led by Sylvain Méret, dance artist, movement and dance therapist, educator and somatic practitioner, whom Zagreb audiences have already had the opportunity to encounter through the Improspekcije festival.

In the afternoon there will be an experiential anatomy workshop for children between 6 and 10 years of age on the theme WHAT ARE BONES FOR?, led by Marina Brajdić and Zrinka Šimičić.

The evening programme brings the performances SHIFT INTO AN UNKNOWN PAUSE by Anja Bornšek, dance artist and somatic movement educator; VOLUME OF MEMORY by Tina Valentan, dance artist and trainee in expressive therapy at the Tamalpa Institute; and HOW CAN WE WATCH? by dance artist Ana Kljujev, a final-year undergraduate student of Contemporary Dance at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb.

On Sunday morning the CONTINUUM PRACTICE WORKSHOP continues, while the afternoon programme begins with a discussion on SOMATIC EDUCATION AND THE SOMATIC IN EDUCATION, bringing together members of the SomaHut study group, teachers from the Department of Dance at the Academy of Dramatic Art, somatic practitioners, educators and everyone interested in the processes of embodied learning and teaching.

The evening programme presents the performance work KONTAMINA by Mateo Babić and the ritual performance FLUID and T by Sylvain Méret.

SCHEDULE

Saturday, 9 May 2026

10:30 a.m.–1:00 p.m. CONTINUUM PRACTICE WORKSHOP with Sylvain Méret

1:00–3:00 p.m. Lunch break and social gathering in the KONTEJNER courtyard

3:00–4:00 p.m. WHAT ARE BONES FOR? Experiential anatomy workshop for children with Marina Brajdić and Zrinka Šimičić

6:00 p.m. SHIFT INTO AN UNKNOWN PAUSE, performance-experiential work by Anja Bornšek, with an introduction to the performance by Tina Valentan

7:30 p.m. VOLUME OF MEMORY, performance work by Tina Valentan, with an introduction to viewing by Anja Bornšek

9:00 p.m. HOW CAN WE WATCH?, performance work by Ana Kljujev

Sunday, 10 May 2026

11:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m. CONTINUUM PRACTICE WORKSHOP with Sylvain Méret

2:00–4:00 p.m. Lunch break and informal gathering in the KONTEJNER courtyard

4:00–5:30 p.m. Round table: SOMATIC EDUCATION AND THE SOMATIC IN EDUCATION

7:00 p.m. KONTAMINA, performance work by Mateo Babić

8:00 p.m. FLUID and T, work-in-progress performance by Sylvain Méret

Conversation with the performers and the audience

The fee for participation in the Continuum Practice Workshop is €90, or €60 with an early registration discount (until 30 April 2026).

All other programmes are free of charge, with donations according to your possibilities.

To participate in the workshops, please register at: somahut.mmk@gmail.com

Initiator and programme director of SomaHut: Zrinka Šimičić

Festival programme and organisation: Zrinka Šimičić and Mia Štark

Assistance in organisation and promotion: Lara Šercar

Production: Multimedijalna koliba in collaboration with KONTEJNER – Bureau of Contemporary Art Practice

Visual identity: Vanja Cuculić

Production: Multimedijalna koliba, 2026

The SomaHut 2026 programme is co-financed by the City of Zagreb, the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, and the European Union through the Erasmus+ project INTERLACE: Art and Action in Contemporary Dance Education.

The INTERLACE project provides dance educators with an environment for learning and peer-to-peer exchange, with the aim of transferring knowledge and developing inclusive methodologies for teaching creative dance in local communities.

The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or OeAD-GmbH. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.