The Cultural Association Napredak Gornja Lastva is an organization that fights for the preservation and revitalization of the village of Gornja Lastva, which, after the catastrophic earthquake that hit Montenegro in 1979, remained without a permanent population. Today, only one permanent resident is registered, but thanks to Napredak it is maintained throughout the year as a place for meetings, socializing, various cultural and educational programs. One of the manifestations they organize is the summer program „Landscape Days“. Marija Nikolić is Napredak's Creative Director.
"Lastva's fests were known before, but the name "Landscape Days" was established as a roof for the cultural programs we organize during the summer when we were working on the Heritage-Driver of Development project. We implemented this project with local partners and partners from Croatia, and its basic aim was to show how heritage, natural and cultural heritage, and cultural landscape can be used as a basis for future development. The pilot area of the project in Montenegro was Mount Vrmac, where Gornja Lastva is located. In order to popularize landscapes, we have realized a number of cultural events just under the common name "Landscape Days". It was 2015. Since then, we have been trying to maintain the event, where we have the support of the Tivat Municipality," says Marija Nikolić.
"People really respond well, the programs are very well attended, which is not surprising to us because it is really a special experience to enjoy the beautiful space of Vrmac. And this year we will have a number of concerts at different times of the day, and every concert, except the one planned for this evening, will be out in the open. Tonight we have a concert in the parish church of St. Mary, which is actually an extremely acoustic and beautiful space for concerts of classical music. The weather is unstable and will remain until the end of the month, which was the reason why the first in a series of concerts was still indoors. Duo Classico, which is Diana Desančić on violin and Safet Drljan on harmonica, performs. They are professors at the Music School in Bar. They will perform Vivaldi's "Four Seasons," one of the most significant and most popular works of Baroque music.
The concert “Hello Summer“ is the first of the programs planned in this year's edition of "Landscape Days".
"We will also have the program that has attracted visitors so far, the "Concert in Dawn" that will be on July 14 at 5 am. We plan two jazz concerts, including one in the popular term "Music On the Night of the Full Moon". We will also have the famous Lastva Fest, which we have been continuously organizing for more than 40 years with almost the same program, where only the exhibitions presented at the Cultural Center Ilija Marković are being changed. The Lastva Fest always begins with the Boka Navy Dance on the trolley in front of the church of St. Mary, followed by the promenade concert of the local orchestra Glazbeno-prosvjetno društvo Tivat, the exhibition, and then folk festival with music and dance," says Marija Nikolić. Otherwise, Lasta Fest is a real opportunity for our guests to feel the authentic culture of life and be Bokelian, at least for one night.
In Gornja Lastva we will also have the opportunity to enjoy the review of documentaries from the archives of Photo, Cinema and Video Club Mladost Gornja and Donja Lastva. This club has been in existence for nearly 60 years, and its members have, in shorter and longer shapes, recorded the development of Tivat from a small town in the city we know today.
During the "Landscape Days" in Gornja Lastva several exhibitions of paintings and photographs will be organized. The current setting, which guests of the evening concert can see, focuses on the agricultural landscape of the village and was created within the framework of the activities of the Agriscape & ME project, which focused on preserving the traditional agricultural landscape by analyzing Gornja Lastva as a pilot area.
"We nurture those aspects of art that everyone understands, regardless of language barriers. The theater can not understand who does not know the language. But photography, art and music speak a universal language that everyone understands. Perhaps that is precisely why our manifestations are always well-visited. When you go to a concert that starts at 5 am and meet about a hundred people - it's probably enough to support the fact that there is a great interest both for locals and guests for such programs. When we come to the concert „Music On the Night of the Full Moon, listen to the string quartet with over 250 visitors sitting on the grass, then we know that we have organized a great and important cultural event, especially to those who love and understand nature," says Marija.
And we can inform you that for all those interested in enjoying this evening concert there will be free transportation to Gornja Lastva. The van departs at 7.30 pm in front of the Main Post Office in Tivat. Duo Classico concert "Hello Summer" begins at 8 pm in the church of St. Mary. After enjoying the performance of Vivaldi's "Four Seasons", guests are invited to cocktail and socializing in the Ilija Marković Culture Centar.
If you can't tonight, definitely visit the village of Gornja Lastva. The poet called it a "stone lace", an architect marked the treasury of smart solutions of vernacular architecture. NGO Napredak gives it the epithet of the stage in the open sky. It is also becoming a classroom, due to numerous educational programs aimed at protecting the area that Napredak has been organizing for 20 years now.
