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Noc vonku v Záhrade 2025
Night out in the Garden 2025
Event by: Záhrada - Centrum nezávislej kultúry, CKO - Centrum komunitného organizovania, Vagus
Location: Garden - Center for Independent Culture, N. O., Banská Bystrica
Talks & discussions, Theatre
About event
This year, the CNK garden also joins the collective event Night Out, which is initiated by OZ Vagus. In addition to sleeping under the open sky, this year's event will include a themed theater performance at 6:00 p.m. called "invisible" directed by Vanda Výbošteková and Boris Kováč. The presentation will be followed by a discussion.
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In Slovakia, more than 70,000 people live without a home, another approximately 890,000 people live on the verge of poverty or social exclusion. Deepening poverty is a serious problem that must be solved with systemic measures.
Night out is an awareness-mobilization event. Its goal is to draw attention to the deteriorating situation of homeless people and people living in various forms of extreme poverty and the absence of systemic solutions to the issue of extreme poverty and homelessness. The result is increased media attention to the topic of poverty and homelessness, awareness and the creation of social pressure for solutions.
Night out is an apolitical event.
On Thursday, November 27, 2025, we will once again draw attention to the acute problem of growing poverty in Slovakia by sleeping in the open air. We exchange the comfort of our home for a freezing night outside and spend it the same way as thousands of homeless people in Slovakia, whom the state forgets. Join the nationwide event and let's show together that a systemic solution to homelessness and poverty must be a state priority.
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More about the discussion:
The Night Out discussion will look at how quickly a person can lose their housing and what they experience on the street during the winter. The guests will bring real stories from Banská Bystrica and Banská Štiavnica, figures about how many people do not have housing here or are on the verge of losing it, and also why today's services cannot always help everyone. With the organizers of the civic campaign for "Affordable and dignified housing", a campaign for dignified and affordable housing and practical solutions from low-threshold services to proven housing-led approaches that are already helping people get back on their feet in the region. The discussion will also offer what each of us can do when we meet a person in need.
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More about the production:
invisible is a documentary theatrical statement about women who live among us, but society turns a blind eye to them. The game was created from authentic conversations with homeless women in Banská Bystrica, who decided to talk about their lives, childhood marked by violence, loss of home, addiction, motherhood, and what it's like to live in loneliness.
The game captures how children's homes, re-education centers or non-functioning households become street antechambers. Each replica carries pain, but also an indomitable will to survive in a world that measures a person's value by property, skin color or productivity. From authentic interviews, an intimate, raw, but deeply human statement emerges, which shows homelessness not as a personal failure, but as a consequence of system failure, gender and racial injustice, and social blindness.
The production was created in collaboration with Amnesty International, as a project in the Reflections on Housing competition, and local organizations that help homeless people in Banská Bystrica. The goal of the project is to make visible those who are overlooked, to open the debate about the right to housing, to point out systemic injustice and to encourage the public not to be afraid to talk about homelessness as a human rights issue.
The game reminds that the line between "them" and "us" is thin. At a time when attention is measured in seconds, it reminds us that looking at a person is both a political and a moral act. It is a call to empathy, a call not to look away, to look and listen. And thus at least one step closer to dignity for all.
Screenplay: Vanda Výbošteková
Director: Vanda Výbošteková, Mgr. art. Boris Kováč
Pupils of ZUŠ J. Cikkera perform:
Zuzana Jančíková
Halina Kurrayová
Kristína Matulová
Zuzana Miškovicová
Sofia Prídavková
Magdaléna Štefková
Anna Tornyosová
Alexandra Vargicová
Sofia Vaňová
Matej Kohutovič
Jakub Riečan
___
In Slovakia, more than 70,000 people live without a home, another approximately 890,000 people live on the verge of poverty or social exclusion. Deepening poverty is a serious problem that must be solved with systemic measures.
Night out is an awareness-mobilization event. Its goal is to draw attention to the deteriorating situation of homeless people and people living in various forms of extreme poverty and the absence of systemic solutions to the issue of extreme poverty and homelessness. The result is increased media attention to the topic of poverty and homelessness, awareness and the creation of social pressure for solutions.
Night out is an apolitical event.
On Thursday, November 27, 2025, we will once again draw attention to the acute problem of growing poverty in Slovakia by sleeping in the open air. We exchange the comfort of our home for a freezing night outside and spend it the same way as thousands of homeless people in Slovakia, whom the state forgets. Join the nationwide event and let's show together that a systemic solution to homelessness and poverty must be a state priority.
___
More about the discussion:
The Night Out discussion will look at how quickly a person can lose their housing and what they experience on the street during the winter. The guests will bring real stories from Banská Bystrica and Banská Štiavnica, figures about how many people do not have housing here or are on the verge of losing it, and also why today's services cannot always help everyone. With the organizers of the civic campaign for "Affordable and dignified housing", a campaign for dignified and affordable housing and practical solutions from low-threshold services to proven housing-led approaches that are already helping people get back on their feet in the region. The discussion will also offer what each of us can do when we meet a person in need.
___
More about the production:
invisible is a documentary theatrical statement about women who live among us, but society turns a blind eye to them. The game was created from authentic conversations with homeless women in Banská Bystrica, who decided to talk about their lives, childhood marked by violence, loss of home, addiction, motherhood, and what it's like to live in loneliness.
The game captures how children's homes, re-education centers or non-functioning households become street antechambers. Each replica carries pain, but also an indomitable will to survive in a world that measures a person's value by property, skin color or productivity. From authentic interviews, an intimate, raw, but deeply human statement emerges, which shows homelessness not as a personal failure, but as a consequence of system failure, gender and racial injustice, and social blindness.
The production was created in collaboration with Amnesty International, as a project in the Reflections on Housing competition, and local organizations that help homeless people in Banská Bystrica. The goal of the project is to make visible those who are overlooked, to open the debate about the right to housing, to point out systemic injustice and to encourage the public not to be afraid to talk about homelessness as a human rights issue.
The game reminds that the line between "them" and "us" is thin. At a time when attention is measured in seconds, it reminds us that looking at a person is both a political and a moral act. It is a call to empathy, a call not to look away, to look and listen. And thus at least one step closer to dignity for all.
Screenplay: Vanda Výbošteková
Director: Vanda Výbošteková, Mgr. art. Boris Kováč
Pupils of ZUŠ J. Cikkera perform:
Zuzana Jančíková
Halina Kurrayová
Kristína Matulová
Zuzana Miškovicová
Sofia Prídavková
Magdaléna Štefková
Anna Tornyosová
Alexandra Vargicová
Sofia Vaňová
Matej Kohutovič
Jakub Riečan