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This is how cultural Heritage burns (from series)

A fire in March partially or completely destroyed seven buildings in the unique historical centre of Banská Štiavnica, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I used to think that these large-scale fires in cities were just stories from history books. So did the locals, whose cultural club, museum, art school and property lay in ashes. This is the story of the small cultural club of Eluzína, once lively and cosy, which was filled with a loud silence. The piano will forever remain silent, joining the fate of books, paintings and other cultural artifacts that have now become part of the elements. (The devastation at Eluzína after the fire that engulfed it on a March weekend was extinguished.)

author

Tomáš Hrivňák

professional photographer, Denník N

I´ve majored in Media Analysis and Research at Masaryk University in Brno. Until 2020, I´ve worked as a photojournalist at the local Brno media outlet Brnenskadrbna.cz. I spent one semester on a study stay in Iceland, where I published photographs in several media. In 2018, I completed a three-month journalistic internship at the daily newspaper Košice:dnes. In 2019, I published a long-form on drought in Slovakia in Denník N, which was part of my bachelor´s thesis. I received the Arnost Heinrich Prize, awarded by the Czech Syndicate of Journalists for the best bachelor thesis. Since 2020, I have been writing and photographing for Denník N. In 2021, I won the Slovak Press Photo Award in the World of Art and Culture category. I won the 2021 Journalism Award in the category of written reportage and in 2022 I won the Grant of Bratislava, thanks to which I photographed the Slovak capital for a year. In 2023, I participated in a project visualizing the climate crisis, organized and curated by SLOVAK PRESS PHOTO and Noor Images.