It saw thousands of Slovak Jews and mentally ill people off to concentration camps during the war. It became a family home surrounded by strawberries and cherry trees but once the road overpass came, became completely cut off from the surrounding countryside and so fell into disrepair. Now, the railway station at Zilina in northern Slovenia is being transformed into a cultural centre. The vision of a few is resulting in the slow transformation of the space in the hope that the idea will be picked up by the many and that similar projects will soon blossom over the country. Railways of Slovenia have agreed to a peppercorn rent, but are not in a position to offer additional financial support so the quest for funding and materials drags on. Director, Viliam Docomolansky has watched as a crazy dream evolves into reality. He stresses that Zilina is first art, second a cultural centre. Visitors will walk into an Island of the land of Utopia, crossing from the World of Coincidence to the World of Destiny. The station itself is a powerful metaphor for the journey of life. Spectators will meet with actors in The Stopped World and all preconceptions will be challenged. ‘[At Zilina] people will meet by chance. Passengers as they arrive and leave, bring and take away with them their home, roots, tradition and history. Some of them are looking just for a way to get back home or are remembering their homes. Yet, to look back is not the only important thing : one has also to search for a new direction towards the future’. Culture in Slovenia, as in so many Eastern European countries, is still dominated by bureaucracy. As a grassroots initiative, Zilina is proving that personal visions can be pursued; that funding does need to come from the State; that true democracy must respect artistic integrity. The project is being watched very closely throughout Eastern Europe as a model that is redefining cultural policy.