Discussions at Café Kušnierik at Pohoda 2025

At the popular stage named in honour of long-time Pohoda collaborator and friend Juraj Kušnierik, a series of discussions will take place on the future of music, culture, but also Ukraine. Full programme below.

07. July 2025

FRIDAY

10:15 – 11:15 AM
Trenčín 2026: Curiosity, Care and Disobedience
Guests: Stanislav Krajči (Director, Creative Institute Trenčín), Ilona Németh (artist and curator), Fero Király and Eva Vozárová (OOO collective)
Introduction: Pohoda Festival Director Michal Kaščák and Marco Scotini, founder of the Disobedience Archive

Join us for a discussion on how art can enter public space, foster active citizenship, and open up themes of solidarity and care. The conversation will focus on the artistic programme of Trenčín 2026 – European Capital of Culture, featuring Director of the Creative Institute Trenčín, Stanislav Krajči; artist and curator Ilona Németh; and the duo Fero Király and Eva Vozárová from the OOO collective. Marco Scotini, founder of the Disobedience Archive – a work also featured on the Visual Stage – will introduce his project, and Pohoda Festival director Michal Kaščák will open the discussion.

11:30 AM – 12:30 PM
SOZA: The Music of the Future – Will Authorship Still Matter?
Host: Richard Jajcay
Guests: Nina Kohout (musician, composer), Tamara Kramar (musician, composer), Dalibor Kocián “Stroon” (musician, composer), Marián Jankovič (licensing specialist at SOZA, external lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava)

In an age of technological creativity and artificial intelligence, music is undergoing a radical transformation. As generative tools for music creation become more widespread, even the very notion of “authorship” is shifting. Will the composers of the future be creators, coders, or simply conductors of data? Is music created by AI truly original or just modern-day plagiarism? And who does it actually belong to?

12:45 – 1:45 PM
Open Culture: Searching for Possible Futures
Guests: Bohunka Koklesová, Adam Dragun, Alžbeta Lukáčová
Host: Verona Němcová from the Open Culture platform

The discussion will unfold in three thematic blocks – the present, the near future, and a strategic vision. Together with our invited guests, we will explore:

- what it means to remain in a position of dissent
- how to survive the next two years leading up to the 2027 elections
- and how to prepare for what comes after

SATURDAY

10:15 – 11:15 AM
Tepláreň Live: We Are Family, Not a Mistake
Discussion participants: Agnes Lovecká, winemaker and musician; Laco Hudec Šubrt, artist; Pavel Šubrt, manager
Host: Roman Samotný

Although they form loving families and care for each other with affection and devotion, they are often targets of mockery, dismissal, or hateful attacks. LGBTI+ people in Slovakia also create families and raise children – and this has been true in the past as well. Today, rainbow families are beginning to share their stories openly to show the wider public that they pose no threat, but instead deserve the same respect and recognition as “traditional” families.

11:30 AM – 12:30 PM
From Pohoda Through Eurosonic to Glastonbury and Back
Guests: Ruud Lighthouse Berends, Katja Thalerová
Host: Barbora Bodnarová

Festival discussion about how it is to perform at festival. Behind the scene look at what it means for a musicians career to perform at domestic, international or showcase festivals. With Ruud Berends, who worked in one of the most successful independent European booking agencies, was at the forefront of a movement that made the grow of European club scene possible a who stood at the birth of professional music networking in the 80's and started the biggest music conference in Europe - Eurosonic (ESNS) and Katja Thálerová, one of the most successful Slovak music managers who stands behind Sharpe festival and Lala Slovak Music Export and who got "her" band Tolstoys from Pohoda through Eurosonic to Glastonbury.

12:45 – 1:45 PM
Ukraine as Inspiration
Guests: Iryna Lobanok (Ukrainian Institute, Porichka), Daria Kolomiec (Diary of War podcast, MusiCures), Natalia Buzovetska (Palace of Culture, Borodyanka), Maryana Mokrynska (Music Saves Ukraine)
Host: Oliver Rehák

Culture is the essential part of Ukrainian identity and history. One great example is the Palace of Culture in Borodyanka – one of the first buildings renovated after occupation in the spring of 2022. Despite the war, new Ukrainian works and projects are arising. How has the situation changed after more than three years of heroic fighting, and how is it being reflected in art? Which essential activities and influential artists should the world know about, and what should we do here in Slovakia, as a neighboring country?

3:15 – 4:15 PM
Politics and Obscenity
Guests: Fedor Gál, Mirek Vodrážka, Miro Švolík, Mirek Zelinski, Helena Zaoralová, Vlasta Urbanová

Fedor Gál and co-authors Miro Švolík, Miroslav Zelinský, Vlasta Urbanová, and Mirek Vodrážka will present their latest literary and visual work on the theme of obscenity in politics – the book Kvetiny slasti – O politike a obscénnosti (Flowers of Pleasure – On Politics and Obscenity). The discussion will showcase their differing approaches to the topic.