MGLC - International Centre of Graphic Arts

Ana Sluga: Passive Torso, pop-up one-day exhibition

Tuesday, 4 October 2022, from 6 to 10 pm
MGLC Švicarija

With the cycle of one-day events From the Studios, we introduce resident artists working at MGLC Švicarija. Painter, photographer and video artist Ana Sluga presents herself with her latest production of paintings. The series of works on paper entitled Passive Torso explores the medium of painting and the atmosphere built up by the artist and her reactions as the viewer. 

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Photo: Ana Sluga Archive.

Visit the Invader mosaics in Grad Tivoli

Invader is an artist, an individual, a movement, an app, a game and a lifestyle. He is a street art phenomenon and has become a global art star.
You have probably noticed his mosaics around the city of Ljubljana, and some of them are also on the premises of MGLC Grad Tivoli, which are not open to the public. You can see them from Tuesday to Sunday at 2 pm or by appointment (write to us at trgovina@mglc-lj.si).

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

IN FROM THE MARGINS: Pop-Up Presentation By Azadeh Hashemzadeh

31 August - 4 September
MGLC Grad Tivoli

You are kindly invited to a pop-up presentation of the production of Azadeh Hashemzadeh in MGLC Print Studio.

Azadeh Hashemzadeh is a graduate photographer who was born in Iran, where she worked as a professional photographer, photo and video editor and also opened her own photography studio. In 2018, she and her husband applied for asylum and in 2019 were granted refugee status in Slovenia, where she wants to continue her life journey. 
In 2022, she was accepted into the European artist residency programme In from the Margins, and in June and August she carried out her experimental art project at the MGLC Print Studio.
Her exploration of printmaking techniques and the connection to her main discipline, photography, led her to create a series of prints in different dimensions. The motifs of a dancer taken from one of her art photographs, the text in Farsi and the graphic expression in the silkscreen technique combine here in a harmonious and lyrical way.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

A pop-up exhibition presentation of the production at the end of the Prague & Ljubljana international residency.

Wednesday, 3 August 2022, at 5 pm
MGLC Grad Tivoli, Print Studio
free entry

In 2022, International Centre of Graphic Arts and the international residency center MeetFactory from Prague started a long-term collaboration of resident artist exchanges. After a two-month residency (June–July), Timur Aloev presents works created in the MGLC Print Studio.

Each residency will host an artist for two months and give them the opportunity to create new works. The first artist to visit Ljubljana was Timur Aloev (1990), a Russian-Czech illustrator and painter who lives and works in Prague. He also works in drawing and ceramics. His work has its origins in Slavic mythology, heroic stories, legends and fairy tales. The narrative character of his artworks also stems from the artist's primary interest in book illustration and comics, whereas pictorially he combines elements of Romanticism, Renaissance landscapes, Art Nouveau décor, Japanese anime and kitsch. During his two-month residency, he explored printmaking techniques in the MGLC Print studio and will present his working process and new prints at the culmination of his residency.

Timur Aloev: Still Life with Peony and Eggs, 2022, collage.

Contemporary Equals Fresh

26. 7.–27. 8. 2022

A travelling exhibition of contemporary Slovenian printmaking is currently on display at the International Art Studio "Radovan Trnavac Mića" in Valjevo.

The exhibition presents the following artists Vesna Drnovšek, Miha Erič, Črtomir Frelih, Matjaž Geder, Nataša Mirtič, Svetlana Jakimovska - Rodić, Oliver Pilić, Zora Stančič, Helena Tahir and Sonja Vulpes, as selected by mag. Breda Škrjanec.

Summer in Tivoli '22

SUMMER IN TIVOLI 2022
5.–28. 7. 2022
Grad Tivoli and MGLC Švicarija

For the twelfth year in a row, Tivoli Park and Švicarija will be transformed into the city's largest green and fresh cultural venue this summer. Concerts, film screenings, exhibitions and guided tours, creative workshops - a diverse art programme ensures that summer evenings in nature will be refreshing and unforgettable.

Admission to the Summer in Tivoli events is free of charge. 

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The exhibition Prints and Impressions 2 has been extended until October 9

5. 7.–9. 10. 2022
MGLC Grad Tivoli

The exhibition is the result of a public call for submissions to Slovenian artists of all generations actively working in the field of fine art printing and printmaking. It serves as a starting point for further research into Slovenian graphic production and its involvement in the contemporary visual art practices.

An international expert jury consisting of Barbora Kundračíková (CZ), Mario Čaušić (HR) and Miloš Đorđević (RS) selected the works of 43 artists from the 114 submissions.

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Photo: Nejc Ketiš. MGLC Archive.

Summer Museum Night 2022

Saturday, 18. 6., 18.00–24.00, admission free

Summer Museum Night is a unique opportunity to visit the exhibitions and other events of the International Center of Graphic Arts in the evening and at night. We have prepared for you an open door of the Print Studio and workshops with the artist Azadeh Hashemzadeh, as well as guided tours of the exhibitions Photo/Print, On the rag and Triangulation. You are also invited to the Stojan Batič Memorial Studio and to visit the permanent exhibition on the history of Švicarija entitled The shadow is seen by my eyes, the light is seen only by my heart.

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Colin Black: Triangulation

7. 6.–10. 7. 2022
MGLC Švicarija

With his new artwork Triangulation, Colin Black explores the sonic trigonometries of acoustic ecology, which challenges our classical notions of angles and distances between selected cities. The sound work and installation are based on the laws of trigonometry – at the level of sound, landscape and maps – to show the instability and fragility of this seemingly static geospatial relationship.

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Ibrahim Mahama appointed artistic director of the 35th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts

35th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts
15 September 2023–14 January 2024

The International Centre of Graphic Arts (MGLC) is pleased to announce Ibrahim Mahama as the artistic director of the 35th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts. The artist announced that the next Ljubljana Biennale would be very simple. At the same time, it will draw connections that have been lost or even probably never been made within its context.

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Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

IN FROM THE MARGINS: Pop-Up Presentation By Maja Živko

Tuesday, 31 May, 17.00-19.00
Grad Tivoli (Print Studio)

Artist Maja Živko is being hosted on a month-long residency at MGLC in May. During her residency, she is preparing a pop-up presentation of her production. Maja Živko is a student at the Academy of Fine arts in Sarajevo, department of Printmaking. The theme she has been researching in all fields of art are feelings that are projected through various living spaces. In all her expressions of art she aims for honesty because for her that is the most important aspect in art.

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Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Lea Culetto: On the Rag

LAST WEEKEND

1. 6.–31. 7. 2022
MGLC Švicarija

After the first year of living and working in the studio for young artists at MGLC Švicarija, Lea Culetto presents her works in which she exposes taboos and ideas about the female body and the social validation and stigmatisation associated with it.The project On teh Rag consists of simple white T-shirts with prints of the artist's menstrual stain on the back. The message is also more direct, decoded, revealed – the intimate act of menstruation passes into the public space and discourse with the imprint of menstrual blood on custom-made T-shirts.

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Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

MGLC at the LJUBLJANA ART WEEKEND

Workshops and Print Studio Doors Open with Maja Živko

Saturday, 21 May,
Grad Tivoli (The Print Studio)
Workshop, 10.00 and 11.00
Studio doors open, 10.00–13.00

Artist Maja Živko is being hosted on a month-long residency at MGLC Švicarija in May. During her residency, she is preparing a doors open day with workshops for children, families and art lovers.
As part of the EU art residencies project In From the Margins.
Bookings: trgovina@mglc-lj.si

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Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Fifth anniversary of MGLC Švicarija

Saturday, 14 May 2022
10.00–18.00

You are invited to celebrate the fifth anniversary of MGLC Švicarija with us. The celebration in the middle of the park offers a varied programme that includes visits to art studios, participation in creative workshops and a Ljubljana culinary experience with a pleasant musical backdrop.

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In from the Margins - European residency programme - at MGLC

In from the Margins programme is an art residency opportunity for migrant and refugee artists or artists who identify with experience of displacement.

The programme seeks to break down barriers and create opportunities for refugee artists and local communities to share and to learn from each other while being supported by the resources and expertise of print studios. 

As part of the project, MGLC has announced six residencies and has selected the following artists for the residencies: Qëndresë Deda, Francisco Tomsich, Maja Živko, Lina Rica, Azad Karim and Azadeh Hashemzadeh.

In April 2022 MGLC was hosting Lina Rica. The artist, who knows the challenges of moving from her own experience, was working on the topic of home. In May, we hosted Maja Živka, who researched the feelings that are projected through different living spaces. In June, Azadeh Hashemzadeh created in our Print studio, whose residency was terminated early and will continue at the end of August. You will be able to see her work in the Print Studio on August 31 between 5 and 7 p.m.
 

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Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Photo/Print: The Role of Photography in 1970s Printmaking and Graphic Design

1.4.2022–19.6.2022
MGLC – Tivoli Mansion

Comprising an exhibition and monograph, the project Photo/Print attempts to highlight this phenomenon of photographic images and photographic thinking in printmaking and graphic design. We are interested in which social, technical and conceptual innovations prompted it and how – given the different artistic movements and contexts – the photographically marked print changed in a fairly short period of just over a decade from the late 1960s to the early 1980s.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Anja Jerčič Jakob: Fragile Balance

03. 12. 2021 - 27. 03. 2022
MGLC Švicarija

Painter and pedagogue Anja Jerčič Jakob has been working at the MGLC Švicarija residential and creative centre since 2017. In the exhibition Fragile Balance, she presents herself with two painting cycles, Field Residues (2020–2021) and Weeds (2021).
Since the beginning of her creative practice, the artist has been searching for motifs in nature. She experiences it as a dramatic space in which the balance between humans and flora and fauna is constantly being re-established. At the same time, she sees it as a space of silence and, for people today, often a space of overlooked details. Among the latter are the wild habitats of weeds – that untameable nature, whose symbolic and practical value we are beginning to and need to appreciate in the face of the increasing loss of the natural ecosystem. In this way, the artist critically draws attention to the disturbed relationship between man and nature.

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Photo: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Archive.

The Stojan Batič Memorial Studio Collection receives the status of a cultural monument

We are pleased to announce that the Stojan Batič Memorial Studio Collection at Švicarija has been granted the status of a cultural monument, recognising its exceptional cultural value.

The Stojan Batič Memorial Studio was established on the occasion of the opening of the renovated Švicarija. Although Stojan Batič (1925–2015) worked at Švicarija between 1954 and 1959, the studio is a reconstruction of the sculptor's later studio at Svetčeva ulica in the Rožna dolina district of Ljubljana. A visit to the space brings us closer to the creative process and enables us to get to know the sculptor's oeuvre, which left an indelible mark on post-war Slovenian sculpture. The atmosphere is created by the drafts of famous monuments and small statues on which he focused, as well as the presentation of the artist's personal belongings, documentation, the tools he used to make his works and the artworks given to him by friends. In this way, we encounter the traces of his personal and professional history.

If you have not yet managed to visit the studio, we invite you to drop in and treat yourself to a unique experience.

Photo: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Archive.

My jsem ti, které hledáme*, Poetry evening

Accompanying programme of the exhibition by Adriena Šimotová
Tuesday, 18. 1. 2022, at 17.00
Tivoli Mansion

Adriena Šimotová is closely connected to the world of poetry through her unique, pictorially authentic voice. The exhibition and the artist will be introduced by Museum Counsellor mag. Breda Škrjanec. Doc. dr. Jana Šnytova will present the characteristics of Czech poetry of the second half of the 20th century. Selected Czech poetry will be interpreted by the dramatic actor Boris Ostan.

*We Are the Ones We Are Looking for

Participation is limited, prior notice to trgovina@mglc-lj.si.
Free entry.

Photo: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Archive.

Adrijan Praznik: --WHERE OUR HEARTS HAVE LED US…

7. 1.−13. 2. 2022
MGLC Švicarija

Adrijan Praznik plays various roles in the world of art – he is a painter, illustrator, curator, producer and artistic director of Simulaker Gallery in Novo mesto. In January 2022, he completed a two-year artist residency at MGLC Švicarija. Upon his departure, he prepared the exhibition --WHERE OUR HEARTS HAVE LED US... The spatial installation of two large-scale paintings raises questions that illustrate his work and research focus in 2021 particularly. Namely, he is concerned with the form and status of the artwork, the appropriation of the media image and the combination of pictorial means of expression as well as materials.

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Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

EXHIBITION Technometry of Imprint EXTENDED

10 December 2021 to 9 January 2022
Tivoli Mansion

The exhibition Technometry of Imprint is extended till 9 January 2022.
Based on the allusion to Klein's anthropometry, the selection of works in this exhibition shows how the phenomenon of imprinting in the modern technological age continues the tradition that began tens of millennia before the dawn of contemporary civilisation when the awareness of the need to leave one's own imprint was deeply anthropologically interwoven with the essence of man at that time. The artists exhibiting are Miran Blažek, Vadim Fiškin, Vladimir Frelih, Domagoj Sušac and Dorian Trepić.The exhibition is curated by Igor Loinjak.

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Foto: Urška Boljkovac. Arhiv MGLC.

MGLC ŠVICARIJA: OPEN CALL FOR CRITIC-IN-RESIDENCE PROGRAMME 2022

Deadline for applications: 10 January 2022.
Send the application to: submission@mglc-lj.si 

MGLC Švicarija, a creative and residential centre, in collaboration with the Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory invites art critics and cultural journalists from international milieu to apply for a fully funded, one-month residency in Ljubljana during October 2022.

Our aim is to host an art critic or cultural journalist active in writing and publishing reviews and/or other forms of art writing in the international context, and who is interested in Ljubljana’s vibrant art scene and will produce at least 1 piece of writing (review, interview, column or essay) on selected artist(s), art exhibition(s) or art event(s) in Ljubljana over the course of the residency. The text should be published in the English language in a relevant periodical (printed or online), radio, television or personal blog. The selection will also take into account whether the applicant already has an agreement or confirmation for the publication in relevant media of the text to be produced during the one-month residency.

We invite to apply art critics and cultural journalist from international milieu (applicants from Slovenia are not eligible).

The period of the residency: 1–31 October 2022.

More information.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

This Happy Day of Culture at Švicarija

Anja Jerčič Jakob: Fragile Balance

3. 12. 2021–13. 2. 2022

The exhibition will be opened on This Happy Day of Culture, 3 December, at 6 pm.

Painter and pedagogue Anja Jerčič Jakob has been working at the MGLC Švicarija residential and creative centre since 2017. In the exhibition Fragile Balance, she presents herself with two painting cycles, Field Residues (2020–2021) and Weeds (2021).

All visitors to events that will be open to the public at Tivoli Mansion and MGLC Švicarija are asked to comply with the PCT (recovered-vaccinated-tested) requirements.

At the end of the biennale

The 34th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts, Iskra Delta, came to a successful close on Sunday. In 72 days, 22 events took place, 4 prizes were awarded, and 57 artists and a great number of speakers participated in imagining the future. We extend our sincere thanks to all participants, curators, organisers, supporters and visitors.

The Biennale, which we launched at the beginning of the pandemic, was originally conceived as a production, presentation and theory platform for cross-genre creators of the Millennial and Zoomer generation, who are finding their way in the subterrain of the cyber world. The splitting of reality and the dissolution of linear causal temporality through the internet and rapid technological progress have opened up the possibility of receiving messages from other worlds and timelines, which artists, musicians, curators, writers, designers and other agents have woven into a world-building mission, creating scenarios for the future and reimagining the present.

Nascent: Temporal Secessionism, project presentation and Marathon guided tour

Sunday, 21 November, at 11.00
TR3 Gallery

Join us on the last Bienale day at the presentation of the artist duo Nascent and their project Temporal Secessionism. 
The presentation will be followed by the final marathon guided tour of ISKRA DELTA: The 34th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts with its curator Tjaša Pogačar and assistant curator Lara Mejač.

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Photo: Klemen Ilovar. MGLC Archive.

The Provinces of Ladomir, presentation of the practice and conversation with Marko Peljhan

Saturday, November 20, at 7 p.m.
MGLC Švicarija

Join us for a conversation with Slovenian artist Marko Peljhan, who will present his project The Provinces of Ladomir.

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The award recipients of the 34th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts

The International Jury consisting of Lovro Japundžić, Jen Kratochvil, Sam Lackey and Poka-Yio decided that the Grand Prix of the 34th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts goes to Johannes Paul Raether.
The Jury presented the Research Residency Award to Mario Mu, who also received the Audience Award, and a Special Mention from the Jury went to the BCAA System collective.

Congratulations to all the prize winners of the 34th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts!

ISKRA DELTA talks

Friday, November 19, 17.00
MGLC Švicarija 

Kindly invited to the ISKRA DELTA talks. Talks by international speakers will touch upon approaches and ideas in art, (speculative) design, architecture and (science) fiction that are a source of inspiration behind the approach of this edition of the Biennale.
The lectures will be followed by a short performative lecture and a video projection by the Diffractions Collective.
The event will also be broadcasted on Facebook profile.

Announcement of the recipients of the 34th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts

Friday, November 19, 19.30
MGLC Švicarija

At the end of the two-day international conference ISKRA DELTA we will announce the recipients of the 34th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts. The recipients of the grand prix will be decided by the jury members: Lovro Japundžić (Croatia), Jen Kratochvil (Czech Republic), Sam Lackey (United Kingdom) and Poka-Yio (Greece), and the audience award will also be presented.

The event will be broadcast on Facebook profile.

Being a Citizen of the World Today ? conference, of the Perennial Biennial project

Thursday, 18 November
MGLC Švicarija 

On Thursday, the two-day conference entitled ISKRA DELTA begins with the Being a Citizen of the World Today ?, conference of the Perennial Biennial project. There will be two more conferences on the program on Friday: the YUFU conference and ISKRA DELTA talks. You can also follow Thursday's and Friday's events live via the MGLC Facebook profile.
You are cordially invited!

In from the margins

Five printmaking studios across Europe are inviting applications from artists to undertake a 1-month long printmaking residency as part of the European residency programme In from the Margins, funded by Creative Europe. 

Deadline for applying: Friday, 19th November 2021.

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The Millennials in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, conversation

Tuesday, 26. 10.
18.00 @ MGLC Švicarija

Meet the writers of The Millennial Files who contemplate the open possibilities offered by the new technological revolution from the perspective of Ljubljana's millennials.
The conversation is led by Muanis Sinanović

Visitors to the conversation will receive a free copy of The Millennial Files.

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Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Perennial Biennial is searching for local biennial discourse for upcoming publication

The Perennial Biennial is currently working on a new publication engaging with the biennial format as it is encountered, engaged with, and critiqued in its local context. They are reaching out to biennials, artists, collaborators and others for existing texts written in response to biennials in their local context, and specifically published outside of the international biennial discourse.

You can find more information about the open call on this link.

Deadline is 24 October 2021 at midnight (UTC+2).

The Audience Award

Vote for the best artist of ISKRA DELTA: The 34th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts. Voting will take place from 10 September to 14 November, the results will be announced at the end of the Biennale.
Vote here.

34th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts

10 September till 21 November

If you thought that the Slovenian/Yugoslavian computer company, which many saw as having the potential to become a global technological power, went dark after 1989, you are mistaken. Iskra Delta, a technology conglomerate, has been summoned from the future to present its covert production at the 34th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts. Against a backdrop of social and environmental unrest, deep in the pandemic, the story of Iskra Delta and the spectres of the “lost futures” that haunt it provide a spark for imagining and constructing possible alternative presents.
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Flash the City: Invader's Street Art (Walking Tour)

Sunday, 15. 8., 15.00, locations around the city and exhibition at Grad Tivoli

1-hour walking tour where you will join us in a real life video game, exploring Invader's pixelated urban art and other forms of street art. The tour is followed by a guided visit to the exhibition Invader: Graphics on Paper. The walking tour begins at Sax Pub and ends in the courtyard of Grad Tivoli next to Invader's Point of Invasion monument. 
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Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Most recent acquisition in the Biennial Prize Winners Collection

Eduardo Chillida
Gezna IV, 1969, etching

Chillida was a Spanish Basque sculptor best known for his monumental abstract works. In printmaking, he worked mainly in etching and aquatint. In 1971, he received the International Jury Prize at the 9th International Biennial of Graphic Arts for his etchings from the Gezna series. This is also where our most recent acquisition is from, obtained from a private collection.
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Summer in Tivoli '21

We have successfully completed another season of Summer in Tivoli. Many thanks to all the visitors who spent pleasant summer evenings in our company and to all who participated in creating a great program. We look forward to next summer!

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Invader's prints Alert 2020 are sold out

In just one day, we sold out Invader's prints entitled Alert 2020 in five color versions. The prints were printed by the renowned French artist as part of the Prints on Paper exhibition, which was on view at the MGLC until 15 August.
Thank you to everyone who purchased Invader's graphics. As a tip for those of you who haven't got your copy, follow the artist’s website where a few more copies will be available.

Invader: Alert 2020 (special)

ATTENTION!!! Invader's Alert 2020 prints are on sale at MGLC!!!

Invader’s Street Art Tour

Sunday, 27 June,  Meeting place: Tabor Park, by the fountain.

With the Invader’s Street Art Tour you will join us in a real life video game, exploring Ljubljana’s pixelated urban art and other forms of street art. Together with Katja Pavlič, we will visit the city’s largest gallery – the streets of Ljubljana, where we will get acquainted with the details of local street production. In the process, we will get to know the world-famous street artist Invader.

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Summer in Tivoli '21

July, Grad Tivoli and Švicarija

For the eleventh year in a row, Tivoli Park, the surroundings of Grad Tivoli and Švicarija transform themselves into the biggest green and fresh cultural venue in the city for the summer. Concerts, film screenings, puppet shows, exhibitions and guided tours, creative workshops – a diverse art programme from all over the world that infuses the summertime evenings in the midst of nature with a refreshing and unforgettable feel.

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Photo: Urška Boljkovac

Workshop: Mosaic prints, stencil prints and pixelated mosaics

Thursday, 1 July, 18.00–20.00
Grad Tivoli, free of charge

In the creative workshop inspired by the recent visit from street artist Invader, you will gain new mosaic-making skills. Under experienced mentorship, you will learn how to create your own pixelated mosaic.

The workshop is conducted by Miha Perne.

Admission free (limited bookings).
Bookings: trgovina@mglc-lj.si

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Riko Debenjak. Relentless Faith in Light and Matter

The book Riko Debenjak. Relentless Faith in Light and Matter has been published. It is by far the most comprehensive publication on his life and work, offering rich visual material and in-depth analysis and reflection on various areas of his art practice: printmaking, painting, illustration, as well as caricature and artworks dedicated to the public space.
The work of Riko Debenjak belongs to the most important achievements of Slovenian modernist art and is one of the pillars of the canon of 20th-century art in Slovenia.

The book is in Slovene and English language and is already on sale in our online store.

Museum Summer Night

Saturday, 19 June, 18.00 - 24.00

Museum Summer Night is a unique opportunity to visit the exhibitions and other events of the International Centre of Graphic Arts during the evening and night hours. We have prepared a guided tour of the exhibition Invader, Prints on Paper with Krešimir Golubić, a visit to the exhibition by Mladen Stropnik and Small but danger entitled DOBROJUTRO and Color white graphics: F, R, E, Š., the pop-up presentation by Danilo Milovanović, Direct Effects, while we also invite you to the Stojan Batič Memorial Studio at Švicarija.

All welcome!

The Computer History Museum at MGLC

RETRO GAMING EVENT

Tuesday–Sunday, 1–6 June, 10.00–18.00, Tivoli Mansion, Lecture Hall, free of charge

During the lecture, we will also open an exhibition that will provide a retro gaming experience using the exhibits of the Computer History Museum. Here we can get up close and personal with the games of our and your youth, and explore the pixelated aesthetics of gaming stories from the pivotal time when the digital was not yet all-encompassing.

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Photo: Nejc Ketiš. MGLC Archive.

DOBROJUTRO and Color white graphics: F, R, E, Š.

DOBROJUTRO and Color white graphics: F, R, E, Š.

Mladen Stropnik and Small but Dangers

Until Sunday 15 August

The exhibition presents two print portfolios created in the MGLC Print Studio this year.

The first, entitled DOBROJUTRO, was conceived by Mladen Stropnik and contains eight screenprints. The portfolio, entitled Color white graphics: F, R, E, Š. was conceived by the artist duo Small but Dangers and contains four screenprints.

The exhibition was curated by Božidar Zrinski.

A warm welcome!

Mladen Stropnik in MGLC Print Studio.
Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Small but dangers in MGLC Print Studio.
Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Pixels: From High Technology to Street Art

RETRO GAMING EVENT

Tuesday, 1 June, at 20.00,

Tivoli Mansion courtyard, free of charge

The exhibition Invader, Prints on Paper is on view until 8 pm that day.

Lecture, conducted by Borut Kumperščak, Computer History Museum

Pixels have been one of the most visible harbingers of the rise of digital technology over the past 50 year.

Invader: Hello My Game is (2009, screen print).
Photo: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Archive.

Selfie and animation workshop to accompany the exhibition Sonja Vulpes, Limbo

Selfie and animation workshop to accompany the exhibition Sonja Vulpes, Limbo

Monday, 31 May, 15.00–19.00, MGLC Švicarija
In collaboration with the SLON Society
The workshop is free of charge, suitable for young people 15+, girls have priority in participation!
Registration required

Sonja Vulpes presents herself in the exhibition Limbo with a series of self-portraits that reflect the fears and insecurities of our seemingly beautiful and bright society. Personal profile photos on social media usually reflect happy people. But some happy faces – selfies – are just masks, hiding other emotions that are anything but.

In this workshop, we will try to talk honestly about our feelings through selfies. The first part of the workshop will focus on making selfies in an artistic and performative way, and the second part, on transferring and merging them into the form of an animated film.

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Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

INVADER’S STREET ART TOUR, GUIDED WALK THROUGH THE STREET ART OF LJUBLJANA

Sunday, 30 May, at 3 pm, Park Tabor, at the fountain

Join us for a guided tour on bikes as we explore Ljubljana's street art and look for Invader's mosaics and other forms of street art.

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Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

INVADER animation workshop: Space Invasion

Saturday, 29 May, 11.00–13.00,

Tivoli Mansion
Free of charge
Suitable for primary school children between the ages of 8 to 12 (registration required)
In collaboration with the SLON Society

While walking around Ljubljana, have you perhaps noticed the vibrant, curious mosaics that resemble the characters in video games? Perhaps you have also seen the exhibition of the anonymous French artist Invader at Tivoli Mansion. His works, which refer to old video games, pixels, famous paintings and movies, the famous Rubik's Cube and even outer space, are a great starting point for a short and cheerful animated film!

After viewing the exhibition and the film showing how Invader travels into outer space and back, there will be an animation workshop using the stop-motion collage technique. We will be making our own Invader who travels into outer space and has a journey full of ... adventure!

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Invader on the streets of Ljubljana.
Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

BRANE ZORMAN: THE SPIRIT OF THE TREES | TOUCH

REPEAT PERFORMANCE OF LIVE SOUND EVENT
Registration required: cona@cona.si

Thursday, 3 June, at 8 pm, courtyard in front of Švicarija

Brane Zorman will once again perform a reworked version of his composition The Spirit of the Trees | Touch, which took two years to develop in all its stages and intensities.

The concert event will be implemented in spatial ambisonic technology with silent disco equipment (FM transmitter and receivers in the headphones). Ambisonic technology provides visitors with a particularly intense sonic experience of being immersed and surrounded by sound in space. It allows the artist to freely move and manipulate the sounds in the composition in a spherical 360-degree space, while transmitting them to listeners through ordinary stereo headphones.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

INVADER, PRINTS ON PAPER

Until Sunday 15 August

Invader's exhibition Prints on Paper offers viewers the opportunity to discover a lesser-known aspect of the artist's work – printmaking. The retrospective exhibition presents everything from screenprints to lithographs, from woodcuts to four-colour prints, and from invading maps to guides. The more than one hundred works on paper were created from 2001 to 2020, and the exhibition is complemented by Invader's selection of original short films. The artist also prepared the sculpture Point of Invasion especially for the exhibition, which addresses walkers in the park from its pedestal in front of Tivoli Mansion.

Invader: Point of Invasion (2020).
Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Workshop: Collagraphy

12-hour printmaking workshop, led by artist Sonja Vulpes
MGLC Print Studio, Friday–Sunday, 4–6 June 2021
Participation fee: 90 EUR, discount for members of the Friends of the Biennale Club, students and unemployed persons.

Only a few places left!

Before the start of the workshop, we invite you to join us for a public guided tour and a collagraphy presentation (for the general public).
Friday, 4. 6.: 17.00–18.00

Description
The printmaking workshop provides an introduction to the printmaking technique of collagraphy, which can behave like intaglio or relief printing. Collagraphy allows for many visual possibilities and artistic explorations with simple materials such as cardboard, glue, sand, plaster, etc. and is also known for its expressive power. With guidance, participants produce their own matrix using the above materials and print it themselves.

You can see Sonja Vulpes' creative method in a short film. Link

A warm welcome!

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Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

International Museum Day at MGLC

TODAY

Tuesday, 18 May, 10.00-21.00
free of charge

You are invited to view and join in the following exhibitions and events!

Invader, Prints on Paper
10.00–18.00
The exhibition is on view at Tivoli Mansion

EVENT
17.00–18.00 
Guided tour of the exhibition: Prints on Paper, conducted by Mitja Velikonja, PhD
To take part in the guided tour, bookings must be made at: trgovina@mglc-lj.si

Sonja Vulpes, Limbo
10.00–18.00
The exhibition is on view at Tivoli Mansion

ONLINE
We have prepared a short film about the artist's creative process.

The Stojan Batič Memorial Studio
10.00–18.00
Permanent display at Švicarija

EVENT
Brane Zorman: The Spirit of the Trees | Touch
20.00
In front of Švicarija

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Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

INVADER’S STREET ART TOUR, GUIDED WALK THROUGH THE STREET ART OF LJUBLJANA

Sunday, 9 May, at 3 pm, Park Tabor, at the fountain

Join us for a guided tour on bikes as we explore Ljubljana's street art and look for Invader's mosaics and other forms of street art.

More

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Arhive.

You are invited to view the film "Am I a manager? Yes, I am."

Živa Škodlar Vujić, a long-time curator of the Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts, and Mitja Rotovnik, the first director of Cankarjev dom, who professionally and personally followed the efforts of his friend Zoran Kržišnik, shared their views and memories in a short documentary about the international involvement of the Slovenian art scene. Their account takes us through the extremely dynamic period of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, when Ljubljana became a cosmopolitan cultural centre. These events are illuminated from a cultural and historical perspective by Aleš Gabrič, who talks in the film about, among other things, the development of the managerial mentality in Slovenia and the importance of international cultural events, which distinguish cultural goings-on in Slovenia to this day.

WELCOME TO TIVOLI MANSION AND ŠVICARIJA

We are also open during the May Day holidays (Tuesday, 27 April, Saturday, 1 May, Sunday, 2 May).

You are cordially invited to brighten up your holidays with the sensual prints by the young artist Sonja Vulpes and the extensive exhibition of prints and short films by the French artist Invader.

In Švicarija, you can also view the Memorial Studio of the sculptor Stojan Batič

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Welcome to Tivoli Mansion and Švicarija

On Tuesday, 13 April, Tivoli Mansion and Švicarija will once again open their doors wide. We kindly invite you to visit the exhibitions: Invader, Prints on Paper and Sonja Vulpes, Limbo.

And in Švicarija, you can view the Memorial Studio of the sculptor Stojan Batič.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

From the MGLC Collection

Jo-ey Tang, The Manual
(Morava Books 14, 2012)
Collection of Art Publications

An FBI manual becomes a book of poetry, together with original microscopic and infrared images. The sculpted text is a meditation of surface and the infinitesimal space above and beneath the surface in the search for evidence.

Jo-ey Tang enacts the circulation and absence of images and objects, as well as the life cycle of ideas. The work takes on various forms of photography, video, sculpture, painting, sound, text and “self-assigned tasks”, spans over many exhibitions and is often seen as both the same and new work, in a constant process of building up and cancelling out. The publication was awarded first prize in the ROOKIE competition (June 2012, www.r-o-o-k-i-e.com), organised by City Gallery Arsenal, Poznań and Morava Publishing House.

The booklet comes in a hardback cover with 64 unpaginated pages and is offset printed in a circulation of 350 copies.

-----

Milton Glaser, Dylan (1966, offset)
Collection of Art Publications

The story of this poster, which was an insert on Dylan's 1967 album Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, goes as follows. After suffering serious injuries in a motorcycle accident in 1966, the singer-songwriter Bob Dylan was bedridden and rumoured to be dead. To generate positive publicity for his forthcoming album Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, CBS Records commissioned Milton Glaser to design a special poster to be included with the album. Glaser depicted the singer in profile, with his abundant curly hair rendered in saturated colours that stand out from the background. The intense, almost psychedelic colours can also be seen as the spirit of the time and the flower power generation from the second half of the 1960s.

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Photo: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Archive.

NOTICE OF TEMPORARY CLOSURE OF MGLC AND ŠVICARIJA

The International Centre of Graphic Arts and MGLC Švicarija will be closed to visitors from 1 to 11 April 2021, in line with measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus infections. This provisional measure is being taken to ensure the health of visitors and museum workers. The upcoming programme will be adapted to the situation and recommendations on an ongoing basis.

We invite you to drop by on the MGLC social media sites: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram!

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Slovenian Printmakers in Italy

25 March–30 April
Zuccato Gallery, Poreč

Lojze Spacal: The Dark Bora of the Karst, silkscreen, 1995. MGLC Archive.

The exhibition of printmakers of Slovenian descent from Italy is an overview of the graphic work of artists who either come from Italy or have worked there. Works from the MGLC collection are also presented since most of the participating printmakers collaborated with the International Centre of Graphic Arts. The selection of artists from Italy, which is limited only to those of Slovenian descent, is complemented by a number of artists, including younger ones, who are prominent printmakers in the region.

Participating artists: Avgust Černigoj, Bogdan Grom, Matjaž Hmeljak, Zora Koren Skerk, Marjan Kravos, Anton Zoran Mušič, Klavdij Palčič, Claudia Raza, Jan Sedmak, Lojze Spacal, Franc Vecchiet, Edvard Zajec and Ivan Žerjal.

Curator: Denis Volk

The exhibition was produced in cooperation with MGLC and the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Zagreb, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, the Government Office for Slovenians Abroad and the KONS Art Association, Trieste.

Forward to the Past

"Am I a manager? Yes, I am."

Online event on the MGLC website and on the MGLC Ljubljana Facebook profile

Friday, 26 March, at 12 noon 

Following the recent publication of the book "Am I a manager? Yes, I am.", whose author is Gregor Dražil, MGLC curator, we are preparing an online video presentation highlighting interesting facts from the life and work of art historian and promoter of contemporary Slovenian art Zoran Kržišnik.

You are welcome to take a look!

Forward to the Past is an online campaign of the Slovenian Museum Association, which was taking place between 22 and 28 March.

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Open door week of galleries and museums for students

23 to 28 March
from Tuesday to Sunday

You are kindly invited to visit MGLC and see the freshly opened exhibition Limbo by Sonja Vulpes and the ever-relevant Invader at the exhibition Prints on Paper.

Free admission for all students who present a valid student card.

Sonja Vulpes, Limbo

19. 3.–18. 5. 2021

The title of the exhibition Limbo is a carefully chosen word that can aptly and directly describe the artistic and mental expression of the self-portraits in the latest series of prints by Sonja Vulpes, in which uncertainty, disunity and a sense of being trapped in a state of helplessness prevail, the only solution to which seems to be that this will simply pass. She speaks about it sincerely, without shame and without regard to being judged.

The exhibition was curated by Božidar Zrinski.

Sonja Vulpes, HA HA HA, collograph, 1/1, 2020.
Photo: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Archive.

Mosaic Prints

Workshop for primary and secondary school pupils (ages 10 and up)

Saturday, 27 March, 10.00–12.00, admission free

The workshop is part of the accompanying programme to the exhibition Invader, Prints on Paper, in cooperation with Alternative Ljubljana.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. Arhiv MGLC.

The creative workshop teaches the crafting skills of pixelated mosaic and also includes a brief presentation on the historical background of mosaic art. Under the expert guidance of the mosaicist Vasily Gogov, we will use stencil prints to create a composition suitable for any wall at home.

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The catalogue Prints on Paper, Catalogue raisonné 2001–2020

Available from today in the MGLC Museum Shop exclusively to visitors of the exhibition Invader, Prints on Paper.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

The catalogue is published by Control P Editions. It is in English, has 224 pages and was printed in a circulation of 4000 copies. The introductory text entitled Repetition, Variation, Evolution was written by the curator of the exhibition, Božidar Zrinski.

A special place in the artist's oeuvre is occupied by original art books in which Invader presents and explains his work in detail. The catalogue Prints on Paper is such a book, offering a visual presentation of the artist's works on paper and a comprehensive account of them.

INVADER’S STREET ART TOUR, GUIDED WALK THROUGH THE STREET ART OF LJUBLJANA

Sunday, 28 February, at 3 pm, Park Tabor, at the fountain

Join us for a guided tour on bikes as we explore Ljubljana's street art and look for Invader's mosaics and other forms of street art.

More

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

LET'S EXPLORE MGLC

Would you like to meet Squirlion, our master caretaker, and learn more about what goes on at MGLC?

In the booklet Let's Explore MGLC, Squirlion introduces, explains and comments on our activities, history, park and gallery, graphic arts biennial, gives us a tour of the printing studios, and much more! Otherwise, Squirlion is a mischievous squirrel teen who is really into rap.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Authors
Text and editing: Lili Šturm, proofreading: Jure Engelsberger, design: Mina Fina, Ee.

The booklet is free of charge and is aimed at primary school children, teachers, educators and families. You can find it at the Info Point at Tivoli Mansion.

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Announcing the 34th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts: Iskra Delta

18. 6.–17. 10. 2021

Iskra Delta, a technology conglomerate, has been summoned from the future to present its covert production at the 34th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts.

In the more than sixty years of its existence, the Ljubljana Biennale that was founded in 1955 in the midst of the Cold War, has tirelessly responded to the ever-changing sociopolitical context while rearticulating its own identity and strategies. From the very beginning, it sought to transcend geopolitical polarities, reflecting Yugoslavia's determination to choose its own path.

The Biennale continues to draw from its history and context, taking a specific local case of technological development and its unrealised potentials as the impetus for its 34th edition. Against a backdrop of social and environmental unrest, deep in the pandemic that has fixed our bodies in place and our eyes on screens, the story of Iskra Delta and the spectres of the "lost futures" that haunt it provide a spark for imagining and constructing possible alternative presents.

Curators:
Tjaša Pogačar, Muanis Sinanović, Nevenka Šivavec

Biennale project group:
Kukla Kešerović, Aljaž Košir,
Tjaša Pogačar, Muanis Sinanović,
Nevenka Šivavec, Andrej Škufca

RUBIK-LUDIZEM, ONLINE CABARET

Sunday, 21 February, at 6 pm

Livestream on
Nik Škrlec’s YouTube channel

With Rubicubism, Invader tore the Rubik's Cube out of its established frameworks and created a movement within which the cubes have become a means of expression. What can a theatre actor, who is otherwise an avid Rubik’s Cube player, do with them?

In Rubik-Ludizem, Nik Škrlec transfers Rubik's Cubes to the theatre and the Internet, using them as props, puppets, characters and protagonists of an online cabaret.

The event is part of the accompanying programme to the exhibition
Invader, Prints on Paper.

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Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

SLOVENIAN CULTURAL HOLIDAY AT MGLC

TODAY

Live, online and in the Tivoli Park

February 8, 10.00–18.00, free of charge

Grad Tivoli in Švicarija

A diverse programme to accompany the exhibitions Invader, Prints on Paper and Leon Zuodar, The Noodle.
A visit to the Memorial Studio of the sculptor Stojan Batič.

A stroll through Tivoli Park with the booklet The Secret Life of Sculptures and discovering the park’s artistic heritage.

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Goodbye to artist Drago Hrvacki

(1936–2021)

Drago Hrvacki is one of the main representatives of the Slovenian neo-constructivist tendencies. After studying Painting from 1958 to 1964 at the Fine Arts in Ljubljana under professors Marij Preglej, Nikolaj Omersa, Slavko Pengov and Maksim Sedej, he continued his specialist postgraduate studies in Printmaking in the class of Božidar Jakac and Riko Debenjak. After completing his studies, he undertook further study in Italy. Already in the late 1960s, he most radically, and later most consistently, developed many aspects of geometrism in painting, printmaking and sculpture. The graphic oeuvre of Drago Hrvacki is only a part of the whole neo-constructivist picture of his artistic world. He participated in many graphic art biennials. In 1994, he presented himself together with Danilo Jejčič in a retrospective exhibition at the International Centre of Graphic Arts. Several of his works are kept in the MGLC collection. He has received many accolades for his work.

Drago Hrvacki: 003/C (colour serigraph, 1973, from the catalogue Drago Hrvacki/Danilo Jejčič, MGLC 1994).

The doors of Tivoli Mansion and Švicarija remain open!

We invite you to the MGLC gallery to view the exhibitions, Invader Prints on Paper and Leon Zuodar, The Noodle.
In Švicarija, on the other hand, you can enjoy a visit to the Stojan Batič Memorial Studio.

Visit us from Tuesday to Sunday between 10 am and 6 pm.
Tickets can be purchased
untill 5:30 pm.

We are aware that the curent situation only allows for the local population to visit the exhibition and we hope to have some better news about this soon.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

WE ARE OPENING THE DOORS OF TIVOLI MANSION AND ŠVICARIJA

As of Saturday, 23 January, we are with you again.
Visit us between 10 am and 6 pm.
Tickets can be purchased
untill 5:30 pm.

On disply are two exhibitions: 

Invader, Prints on Paper
Leon Zuodar, The Noodle

You are cordially invited to visit us at Tivoli Mansion and Švicarija!

Photo: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Archive.

Closing auction of the exhibition Menažerija: 37 Days of Christmas

Sunday, 17 January 2021, 17.00, will run for 45 minutes.
The auction is conducted by the improviser Peter Frankl.
Live on the MGLC FB profile.

The new year brings new resolutions. Let's promise ourselves this year to buy at least one artwork created in the MGLC Print Studios and presented at the exhibition Menažerija: 37 Days of Christmas.

The exhibition is conceived as a large Advent calendar with artworks presented to the public one by one from 1 December until Christmas Eve, 24 December, with a new piece of art taken from the wrapping paper each day. The unwrapped artworks are on display until at least 12 January in the Lecture Room of Tivoli Mansion, taking into account all the preventive recommendations of the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ).

A great opportunity to purchase a work of art is to visit the auction of Menažerija's works, which you can follow on the MGLC Facebook profile.

The auctioneer Peter Frankl, also known as the actor in the TV show Osvežilna fronta [Refreshing Front], will present 8 artworks and their asking prices at the auction.

The auction will take place via Zoom  It will begin at exactly 5 pm and last 45 minutes.

Registration for the event is not required. We invite attendees to select the artwork they wish to bid on by posting a comment below the video.

Purchased artwork can be picked up by appointment after the auction ends; payment will be made by cash or card upon receipt. Legal entities can pay by invoice.

The list of works for auction will be posted on our website one day before the auction, on Saturday, 16 January.

NEW YEARS HOLIDAYS WORKING HOURS

Grad Tivoli and Švicarija will be open until 2 pm on Thursday, 31 December 2020, and closed on Friday, 1 January 2021.
We invite you again to view the exhibitions on Saturday, 2 January 2021, between 10 am and 6 pm.

Join us for the festive season in the graphic-coloured MGLC Museum Shop and drop by the shop in Švicarija, where you will find some original art gifts.

We wish you a happy new year 2021!

Photo: Matevž Paternoster. MGLC Archive.
 

WELCOME TO THE BIENNIAL ARCHIVE WEBSITE

bienale.si

The new website of the Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts has been conceived as an overview of Biennial events from 1955 to the present day. It presents one of the oldest international art events that began with the desire to show a graphic map of the world in Ljubljana. With the introduction of the curatorial approach after 2001, the limitations to a single medium were dispelled and it began to develop into a museum and out-of-museum entity reflecting contemporary art and curatorial practice. The website presents the structural features of each Biennial with lists of artists, prize winners and jurors. The artistic credo of the Biennial is brought closer through the photo galleries and descriptions of the Biennial's main exhibitions, the traditional exhibitions of the prize winners and the accompanying exhibitions. A special section is dedicated to Biennial publications. The Biennial Archive website is conceived as a growing document of a diverse segment of cultural heritage. It is upgraded with the research findings on the history of the Biennial of Graphic Arts as well as topical news to keep you informed about related current events.

The English website is under construction.

CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS WORKING HOURS

Grad Tivoli and Švicarija will be open until 2 pm on Thursday, 24 December, and closed on Friday, 25 December.
We invite you again to view the exhibitions on Saturday, 26 December, between 10 am and 6 pm.

Join us for the festive season in the graphic-coloured MGLC Museum Shop and drop by the shop in Švicarija, where you will find some original art gifts.

We wish you pleasant holidays and a happy new year 2021!

Photo: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Archive.

ON THE PUBLICATION OF THE BOOK “AM I A MANAGER? YES, I AM.”

“This year we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Zoran Kržišnik, one of the founders and the longtime leader of the Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts. As the end of the year approaches, we are pleased to announce the publication "Am I a manager? Yes, I am.", which provides an insight into the international work of this ambitious visionary.

The booklet by the author, MGLC curator, Gregor Dražil, is available in the museum shop in Grad Tivoli and in the online shop.

You can view the book on the link:
“Am I a manager? Yes, I am.”

NOTICE OF CLOSURE OF MGLC AND ŠVICARIJA

In accordance with the government decree, the International Centre of Graphic Arts and Švicarija are temporarily closing their doors to visitors, from Saturday 9 January, until Friday 15 January.

Until the reopening, we remain with you virtualy. For more information, follows us on the links below:

Invader, Prints on Paper
Leon Zuodar, The Noodle

Photo Nejc Ketiš. MGLC Archive.

Menažerija: 37 Days of Christmas

On 1 December, we opened the biggest Art Advent Calendar in Slovenia, which will take us through the December festive period!

The exhibition Menažerija: 37 Days of Christmas will surprise us every day with a new unwrapped piece of art, which will be available to view on the MGLC social networks from 1 to 24 December with just a single click. The unwrapped exhibition with all the works will be on display from 25 December up till 6 January 2021, when the Christmas tree is usually also tidied up at home.

Photo: Matej Tomažin. Menažerija ARCHVS.

MGLC's contribution to This Happy Day of Culture

The first act of the exhibition: the setting up of Invader's sculpture Point of Invasion on the pedestal in front of Tivoli Mansion!

The enigmatic artist Invader surprises us again with his installation in the public space. This time, he speaks to the strollers of Tivoli Park, who are greeted by a new piece on the eminent pedestal, produced especially for the Ljubljana exhibition.

We look forward to the opening of the exhibition as soon as the situation permits. Until then, stay with us on the MGLC social networks!" 

Have a peek at the video!

Invader: Point of Invasion.
Photo: Tadej Vaukman. MGLC Archive.

In the animation The MGLC Noodle 5, Leon Zuodar also brings us closer to his simply conceived but intricate stories, supported by aesthetics and effective narration!

We invite you to come and see his playful works when the situation permits. Until then, we will be keeping you amused in virtual ways together with Leon!

Have a peek at the animation!

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS

SOON

Three new exhibitions are coming up at MGLC in December:

Invader: Alert, 2020, silkscreen.

Invader: Prints on paper

Leon Zuodar, The Noodle

Menažerija: 37 days of Christmas
1. 12. 2020–6. 1. 2021
On the MGLC social media channels.

From the MGLC Collection

Honza Zamojski, Vis à Vis en Face
(J'ai quinze ans), Morava Books 12, 2012, Collection of Art Publications

Vis-à-vis en Face (J'ai quinze ans) is the 12th publication of the Morava Publishing House. The portraits collected in the book (previously drawn with a finger on the screen of a smartphone) are a free interpretation of the works in the collection of The ING Polish Art Foundation. The artist's drawing was added to the Foundation's collection in 2010 and catalogued under the number 0108. Two years later, Zamojski created more than 60 portraits, which were identified in the collection by page number, drawing number and catalogue number. He developed a closed and newly structured catalogue of The ING Polish Art Foundation.

At first glance, the book may seem like a parody of the achievements of other artists. It can also be associated with the game of a child who persistently writes on the screen of a smartphone with amazing results. Using a simple aesthetic, Zamojski refers to the idea of a direct and intense gaze, while on the cover, we see a grid, a stable structure, because of which the subject can come as a surprise to the viewer/reader. The book comes in a paperback and is saddle-stitched. The 76 pages with pagination include the front and back cover. It was published in an edition of 350 copies.

David Horvitz, My Grandma’s Recipes, Morava Books, 2011, Collection of Art Publications

The artist’s book My Grandma’s Recipes is a collection of 35 recipes that the artist’s grandmother collected throughout her life. She was born in Northern California to Japanese Immigrants and spent time in the Amache Internment Camp during the Second World War. Kay Maruyama’s (Horvitz’s grandmother) collection of recipes reflect the second and third generation culture of Japanese Americans living on the West Coast.

Most of the recipes come out of sharing, similar to how digital information is shared today. Some are clipped out of newspapers, others given by friends or family, and some typed or handwritten by Horvitz’s grandmother. The recipes were stored in a small box in his grandmother’s kitchen, in Los Angeles, California, where she lived most of her life. Horvitz remembers many of these recipes being eaten at family events and holidays.

On the 35 printed cards, stored in an ornate cardboard box reminiscent of a gingham kitchen cloth, we find recipes for fruit salad, Chinese chicken salad, Dutch apple and raisin pie, asparagus sauce and miso paste, quiche, strawberry cheesecake, chilli, tofu salad, banana bread with walnuts and more. A colophon in English is printed on the back of the box. The book was published by Morava Books in an edition of 200.

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The Kitch’n Megazine FOR SCHOOL KIDS

In March, when quarantine began because of the COVID-19 virus, MGLC issued a public call for submissions to schools to participate in the campaign Kitch’n Megazine for School Kids. Aware of the fact that difficult living conditions have never been an obstacle to creativity and that such a moment can also be an opportunity for the collective spirit and art, we invited primary, secondary and grammar schools throughout Slovenia to create an art zine. The invitation applied to the class as a whole, but the participation of individuals also counted.

We upgraded the popular creative concept of do it yourself to do it together. Participants submitted their contributions as files of pdf or jpg format and A4 size. Each participating class (or individual) received one copy of the publication, three of which are stored in the MGLC archive. All those who have joined the campaign are also entitled to a free ticket to visit MGLC in the 2020/2021 school year.

16 schools and 47 classes responded to the call and a total of 368 contributions were made.

NOTICE OF CLOSURE OF MGLC AND ŠVICARIJA

The International Centre of Graphic Arts and MGLC Švicarija will be closed to the public from October 24 in line with the official guidelines of the National Institute of Public Health of the Republic of Slovenia (NIJZ) and the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Slovenia in order to prevent the spreading of coronavirus (Covid-19). This provisional measure is being taken to ensure the health of visitors and museum workers. 

You are welcome to drop by on the MGLC social media sites:
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram!
 

Photo: Katja Goljat. MGLC Archive.

ARCHITECTURE OF DREAMS

Muzeum – 25 years

21 October – 20 November

Right Atrium, Ljubljana Town Hall
Tivoli Park
International Centre of Graphic Arts

As part of the celebration of the 25th anniversary of Muzeum’s activities, the three-part exhibition project presents the spatial installation Boat in the right atrium of the Town Hall, the exhibits Chair and Book in Tivoli Park, and a piece by guest artist Silvia Mariotti, who is, on the occasion of the Muzeum Institute’s jubilee, presenting herself at the International Centre of Graphic Arts.

Chair, Lo scrittore. Photo: Egon Kaše. Muzeum Archive.

Publicn guided tour on the exhibition eto ti na

Tuesday, 13. 10., at 17.00, Grad Tivoli

Public guided tour on the exhibition Nora Turato, eto ti na with Vladimir Vidmar, the curator of the exhibition.

The number of participants in the guided tour is limited to a maximum of 10 people.
Bookings must be made by writing to:
trgovina@mglc-lj.si

Admission payable, guided tour free of charge.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Through Play to Heritage

5–11 October

Slovenia’s museums and galleries have also teamed up this year for the campaign Through Play to Heritage, which is being run during Children’s Week, from 5 to 11 October. We have prepared a number of free programmes and events throughout Slovenia. Take advantage of this exceptional opportunity and spend some quality free time with your children.

At MGLC, we have organised a performance workshop for you, which is entitled I’m not a kid anymore, give me power and is conducted by actress, mover and performer Katarina Stegnar.

Saturday, 10 October, 10.00–16.00, MGLC Švicarija

After the introductory discussion on performance as a form of expression, we will determine the topic of the workshop, which stems from its title, and link the contents to personal experience. We will proceed by diving headfirst into the water, that is, onto the stage, and try to pour our ideas into the performance. The workshop is intended for young people 12+ and families.

The number of participants is limited to a maximum of 15 people. Advance booking to lili.sturm@mglc-lj.si.
Free of charge.

PRINTING IN CLAY II

Sculpture and printmaking workshop (36 hours)
Mentor: Veljko Zejak, sculptor

When: Fridays, from 16.00 to 19.00
Where: The Stojan Batič Memorial Studio, MGLC Švicarija

Start of workshop: 6 November 2020

The Printing in Clay II workshop is the continuation of the workshop Printing in Clay, which was conducted at Švicarija two years ago.

Its mentor Veljko Zejak works in the expanded media of sculpture, which also include printing in clay. The technique is his invention and combines ceramics, sculpture and printmaking. It is all about improvising and experimenting with the materials and knowledge available in various media. Ceramics is the base, which is part of the process as well as the final product. 

The workshop is intended for participants with skills and knowledge in the art of sculpture and printmaking. The group is limited to a maximum of 6 people. The workshop should be attended from beginning to end. The workshop will be conducted in accordance with the instructions of the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ). MGLC reserves the right to change or cancel the programme.
Workshop partner: RogLab

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Participation fee: 180 EUR
The participation fee includes value-added tax. Basic materials are included.

Members of the FRIENDS OF THE BIENNIAL CLUB receive a 15% discount on enrolment, while students, pensioners and the unemployed have a 10% discount on the participation fee.

Applications must be made on the appropriate application form outlining relevant experience or by submitting a portfolio. Applications taken up till the available quota at lili.sturm@mglc-lj.si

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Lecture: Digital Natives and the Universe of Information

Tuesday, 6. 10., 18.00,
MGLC, Grad Tivoli

Lecture by Ajda Pretnar, computational anthropologist

American lecturer, writer and educator Marc Prensky has called the generations growing up with all-pervasive technologies and global Internet digital natives. Skilled in the swift handling of any kind of technological innovation, as digital natives we sovereignly navigate the world of social networks, web browsers and applications, while being accustomed to having all the information at our fingertips. Despite the fact that global knowledge is served on a platter by way of various Wikipedias, we are facing an increase in misinformation, conspiracy theories and so-called instant experts.

There are limited places available, bookings must be made by writing to: trgovina@mglc-lj.si
Free of charge.

In collaboration with the City of Women festival

The lecture is part of the programme accompanying Nora Turato’s exhibition eto ti na.

Photo: Aljaž Ferenček.

NEW WAVE FRENCH COMICS

Lecture and presentation of the Tinta comics festival programme

Tuesday, 29 September, at 7 pm, MGLC Švicarija
Free of charge

France, the so-called Mecca of European comics, has declared 2020 as the year of comics. The Tinta Ljubljana Comics Festival has also joined in the celebration.

A short lecture by Izar Lunaček will acquaint you with the new wave in French comics – a phenomenon that flooded and shook the Gallic comics scene at the turn of the millennium, giving rise to the key authors of the recent decades: Joann Sfar, Kerascoet, Manu Larcenet, David B, and of course Lewis Trondheim, who will be hosted on Skype this year, in a book, and through a display of original works at MSUM.

The pre-festival gathering will present the highlights of this year’s festival – promising exhibitions, talks and workshops, as well as prominent authors, including the French guests Fanny Dalle Rive and Anne Baraou.

The lecture and presentation will take place in the courtyard in front of Švicarija, and in Švicarija’s Great Hall in the case of rain.

The event is organised following the recommendations of the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) and visitors are asked to respect them. To participate, please give us advance notice of your attendance by writing to: stripolislovenija@gmail.com

Welcome!

Moved by Voice

voice workshop

The event has been cancelled.
Thursday, 22 October, 17.00–20.00, MGLC Švicarija

Executed by Irena Tomažin, singer, dancer and performer.

The number of participants is limited to a maximum of 15 people. Bookings must be made by writing to lili.sturm@mglc-lj.si
The participation fee for the workshop is a paid ticket for the exhibition.

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Photo: Jani Peternelj.

European Heritage Days

Uncovering the Sculptural Heritage of Tivoli Park

Sunday, 27 September, at 10.30 am,
in front of Moderna galerija

A new leaflet will be presented, providing visitors with a personal experience of uncovering the sculptural image of Tivoli, along with the many details of the park’s art heritage. The visible, but often overlooked or even invisible sculptures (disappeared or relocated), which, in addition to their aesthetic note, also illustrate the social history of this famous park area.

On the guided stroll, the authors of the leaflet – Gojko Zupan (author of the list and descriptions of the individual sculptures), Tadej Vaukman (author of the photographs) and Yasmín Martín Vodopivec (author of the conceptual draft) – will acquaint you with some interesting facts about the sculptural depictions in Tivoli Park that echo the community, art and nature ethos, which is the foundation of the mission of the cultural heritage programme at Švicarija.

Photo: Tadej Vaukman. MGLC Archive.

Švicarija Doors Open Day

Saturday, 19 September, 12.00–18.00
free of charge

The Doors Open Day offers visitors an insight into the working environment of the artists who have their studios in Švicarija. There is an opportunity twice a year to meet the artists and take a closer look at their current art production.

Studios doors open and socialising with the artists, Švicarija studio users – Švicarija open studios
12.00–18.00

Participating artists:  Anja Jerčič Jakob, Damijan Kracina, Danilo Milovanović, Silvester Plotajs Sicoe, Tanja Pak, Marija Mojca Pungerčar, Ana Sluga, Zora Stančič, Martina Štirn Fukuhara, Miha Štrukelj, Veljko Zejak

It is mandatory to wear a mask and disinfect hands on the premises of Švicarija. The number of visitors to a studio is limited to two due to the current global situation.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

On foot and with dogs in tow to see exhibitions!

EUROPEAN MOBILITY WEEK AT THE NORA TURATO, ETO TI NA EXHIBITION

Sunday, 20 September, 10.00–18.00
free of charge

10.00–18.00, Grad Tivoli
Free-of-charge viewing of the exhibition Nora Turato, eto ti na.

10.00–12.00, in front of Grad Tivoli
Creative workshop of printing, drawing and painting for dogs and their owners. The workshop is cancelled if it rains.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

In September, we traditionally join the European Mobility Week initiative, which promotes awareness of the importance of well-organised transport, environmentally friendly vehicles and well-maintained routes. On this occasion, our museum is also holding a Doors Open Day.

Come and see us – on foot, by bike or by public transport. Your four-legged friends are also welcome.

Nora Turato, eto ti na
11. 9.– 8. 11. 2020

Installation view of the exhibition Nora Turato, eto ti na at MGLC.
Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

eto ti na is the first Slovenian presentation by the Amsterdam-based artist Nora Turato. The title is a Croatian catchphrase – a frequently used standard saying without any special meaning – that sums up Turato’s specific attitude towards language. Her performances, books, murals, posters and videos ruminate on the sentences torn from different contexts, fusing them into eclectic pastiches. The linguistic fragments taken from popular and high culture, advertising and science, have more sound to them than meaning, they vibrate in Nora’s loud performative executions, colourful murals and the energetic typographies of her spatial layouts without any nostalgia over their lost context. The experience of Nora Turato’s exhibition and performance therefore comes close to consuming language in the digital age: the immersion in a multitude of stimuli that concern us more than they address us.

Curator is Vladimir Vidmar.

COURSES IN PRINTMAKING TECHNIQUES

There are some spaces left.

We are starting with a new season of printmaking courses in the autumn. We will be learning about classical printmaking techniques in the MGLC studios and will also be creating some prints of our own in selected intaglio printmaking techniques. More information to come soon. Contact: lili.sturm@mglc-lj.si.

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Foto: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Upocoming exhibition

Nora Turato: eto ti na 

Grad Tivoli 
11. 9.–8. 11. 2020 

Nora Turato standing on a pile of pools.
Courtesy Nora Turato.

OPENING WEEKEND OF THE EXHIBITION

Nora Turato will execute her performance wow this huge wooden horse is great three times.

Friday, 11. 9., 18.00 and 20.00, MGLC, Grad Tivoli
Nora Turato: wow this huge wooden horse is great, performance

The exhibition is on view from 18.30 to 20.00 as well as from 20.30 to 22.00.
It is not possible to view the exhibition during the performance.

Saturday, 12. 9., 12.00 and 18.00, MGLC, Grad Tivoli
At 12.00, conversation with Nora Turato, led by Vladimir Vidmar, the curator of the exhibition.
At 18.00, Nora Turato: wow this huge wooden horse is great, performance.

There are limited places available for the performances and conversation; bookings must be made by writing to: trgovina@mglc-lj.si. Free of charge.

Nora Turato: pool 4.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION eto ti na

eto ti na is the first Slovenian presentation by the Amsterdam-based artist Nora Turato. The title is a Croatian catchphrase – a frequently used standard saying without any special meaning – that sums up Turato’s specific attitude towards language. Her performances, books, murals, posters and videos ruminate on the sentences torn from different contexts, fusing them into eclectic pastiches. The linguistic fragments taken from popular and high culture, advertising and science, have more sound to them than meaning, they vibrate in Nora’s loud performative executions, colourful murals and the energetic typographies of her spatial layouts without any nostalgia over their lost context. The experience of Nora Turato’s exhibition and performance therefore comes close to consuming language in the digital age: the immersion in a multitude of stimuli that concern us more than they address us.

Curator is Vladimir Vidmar.

Kitchn Megazin

The Kitchn Megazine public call for submissions has closed

On 27 March 2020, a public call to take part in the Kitchn Megazine campaign was posted, addressing all interested individuals, artists and other creative enthusiasts in isolation due to Covid-19. We invited them to team up with us to create a collective document of the time, and the unexpected situation that shocked and shook the entire world, and to collaborate in the making of the Megazine – a collective zine. We upgraded the popular creative concept of do it yourself to do it together. Participants submitted their contributions as pdf or jpg files in an A4 format. 40 individuals responded and contributed a total of 54 contributions. Megazine will be exhibited at Grad Tivoli. At the same time, a call for submissions was made to pupils and students. More than 310 pupils and students from 13 primary and secondary schools submitted more than 300 contributions.

Gallery

The Crack Up – Crack Down exhibition presents itself in Poland

Opening: Friday, 19 June 2020
19. 6.–11. 10. 2020
Ujazdowski Castle
Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw

Exhibition view of the 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts, Crack up –Crack Down. Honza Zamojski: The Gathering and The Meeting (2019). Photo: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Archive.

The Crack Up – Crack Down exhibition, curated by the Slavs and Tatars art collective and first presented as the central exhibition of the 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts in 2019, is on view as a travelling exhibition at the Center for Contemporary Art at Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw, Poland. In Ljubljana, the exhibition presented 37 artists, but this time, this global overview of satire as a graphic genre has been expanded to also include Polish artists. The curators present a broad spectrum of works by artists from Slovenia, Ukraine, Georgia, Bulgaria, but also China, Iran, UK and the US.  

Bitter jokes, teasing drawings, activist interventions, ironic memes. How has humour evolved in recent decades? The Crack Up – Crack Down exhibition by the Slavs and Tatars art collective is about satire: its strengths and its weaknesses.

Satire is equally moralising as it is critical: rampage and subversion are in its nature. It can mock but also terrorise. Humour of course changes with political shifts and technological development. Comedic expression is known to bloom particularly under authoritarian regimes – as was the case with the rich tradition of communist humour in Central and Eastern Europe, or the many examples from the Middle East. Satire can also be a tool of ideology even if it is well-fitted to unmask the mechanisms of authority. In these times of post-truth, it becomes a litmus paper of the public mood.

The exhibition showcases both historical and contemporary works, including artistic interventions, satirical magazines and academic elaborations. Slavs and Tatars have not reduced graphic art to the mere role of a “medium” but have granted it agency.

From the MGLC Collection

Andy Warhol: Andy Warhol’s Index (Book)
Collection of Art Publications

Today, this early artist’s book by Warhol is an expensive rarity and at the same time a fascinating piece of art history. It was printed by Random House in New York in 1967. It includes photos, quotes and a range of things that communicate with us. It contains pop-ups, folds and even a 45 RPM record with an audio recording. Eight pop-ups and cut-outs feature a medieval castle inhabited by Warhol’s superstars above the inscription “We’re attacked constantly”, an accordion, a plane, Hunt’s Tomato Paste can, a folded geodesic dome on a string, a paper disc that says “The Chelsea Girls”, a vinyl record by Lou Reed (Velvet Underground), an illustration of a nose with two coloured overlays on a double page, a perforated sheet of stamps and a gold balloon melted and fused onto two pages. The text in English originates from the rather monosyllabic interview with Warhol. It appears as varied and random in design and only acts as an addition to all the other elements of the artist’s book. The book was printed in a limited edition on 74 pages, each copy numbered. The first copy of the book was also equipped with an original printed cellophane bag.

John Baldessari: Falling Star
1989/90, colour etching and aquatint, photogravure on Somerset Satin paper, 164.1 × 58.4 cm, edition of 45
 Biennial Prize Winners Collection

This is MGLC’s latest acquisition for the Biennial Prize Winners Collection. Baldessari was one of America’s most influential contemporary artists. Characteristic of his conceptual works is his attitude towards the written word, while also making use of a wide range of media, most notably photography. Using existing text in combination with existing photography, Baldesari’s works question the semantics of the art world and the role of the artist within society. Baldessari identifies his own artistic lineage with a typically witty statement: “I would prefer to go to the source with Duchamp rather than credit Warhol as an influence.”

We have seen Baldessari’s works at the Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts on three occasions (1989, 1997 and 2001). In 1997, he was awarded the Prize of Honour by the jury for his contribution to contemporary printmaking.

The Falling Star piece represents his typical approach to art also in the graphic medium, in combining techniques, as well as in the appropriation and processing of already existing photographs.

Jean-Michel Alberola: Instructions Aux Domestiques
Collection of Art Publications

In 1990, a laboratory in Charlotte, North Carolina, discovered that Perrier water contained traces of benzene. Although it was later proven that the traces of benzene present were not the result of a human filtering error, the company never recovered its credibility in the US. The size and scope of the hysteria surrounding the discovery was so great that it caused some to wonder who organised the analysis of Perrier in the first place. Who told the press? 

Guillaume Dasquié, the author of a book on the subject of secret corporate practices, claimed that between 1980 and 1989, the economic growth of Perrier threatened the American superpower Coca-Cola. Alberola rests on this claim and construes his own plot from Atlanta in his book, with the intent of getting rid of the European competition. The book is full of citations from people “on the inside” and biting humour, which make for a convincing case. That the author based his artistic address on Jonathan Swift’s book Directions to Servants is evident from the title of the artist’s book.

The book was published in 2002 by Onestar Press in Paris, in French and limited to an edition of 250 copies.

Christian Boltanski: Le Club Mickey
Collection of the Institut français Slovénie

The artist’s book presents a series of newspaper photos of children from the Mickey Mouse Club in moments depicting their most vulnerable periods. By cataloguing these faces as well as the membership numbers of the Mickey Mouse Club members, Boltanski reveals his own fascination with historical memory and the way in which we construct the past.

The work of French conceptual artist Christian Boltanski explores the nature of classification and inventory-making and how these relate to our need to construct the past. Death is used by the artist as a metaphor to communicate his doubts, while at the same time managing to transcend the categories of morbidity and despondency tied to it.

The book was published by Imschoot, Uitgevers in Ghent. The first edition of 400 copies was published in 1990 and the second edition, in a circulation of 600 copies, in 1991. The book has 32 pages and 148 illustrations.

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COURSES IN PRINTMAKING TECHNIQUES

We are starting with a new season of printmaking courses in the autumn. We will be learning about classical printmaking techniques in the MGLC studios and will also be creating some prints of our own in selected intaglio printmaking techniques. More information to come soon. Contact: lili.sturm@mglc-lj.si.

More

Foto: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Summer in Tivoli is coming to an end

After many events in July and August, our summer programme is coming to an end. Thanks to everyone who has come to see us so far and do stop by in Tivoli again!

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

PERENNIAL BIENNIAL

Europe witnesses significant political and cultural changes regularly putting the cohesion of European countries and actors at risk. This unrest has brought about an urgency and desire for closer collaboration in the arts. The Perennial Biennial is a partnership of five European Contemporary Art Biennials working together to develop and explore sustainable models for perennial practices in the biennial field. 
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INTERNATIONAL MUSEUM DAY

The museums around the world are celebrating on 18 May!

Slovenian museums and galleries invite you to view the digital booklet of posters marking this year's International Museum Day, which is on this occasion dedicated to the subject of Museums and Equality: Diversity and Inclusion.

The International Center of Graphic Arts has prepared a poster created by the artist Iris Pokovec. She has portrayed the fists of fairy-tale creatures, symbolically rising to a fight for equal opportunities and overcoming stereotypes.

At the same time, we invite you to join us on 18 May 2020, at 11 am, for a webinar organised by ICOM Slovenia on this year’s theme. Access to the free webinar:

via the link:
https:
//us02web.zoom.us/j/82843329180
by entering MMD ID in Zoom: 828 4332 9180.

NEW ACQUISITIONS

Ed Ruscha: Babycakes with Weights 
Collection of Art Publications, inv. no. 5565

What is a “babycake”? Ruscha had a good idea and provided some good examples in this classic artist’s book of photographs of various kinds of cakes, bound in light blue paper and a pink ribbon. In fact, this is a unique book among Ruscha’s books in terms of content. With flocking on the cover, this extremely rare bookwork moves beyond Ruscha’s romance with Los Angeles architecture and into uncharted waters.

The artist’s book, published in 1970 by Multiples INC., New York, has a paperback cover, 52 pages with 22 offset reproductions of black and white photographs of a baby with 21 cakes (whole and cut), 1 cover page, 1 copyright page, 1 photo credits page, 27 blank pages. The book is in English. It is bound with pink satin ribbon through two drilled holes, tied in a bow on the front cover. 1200 copies are unsigned and unnumbered.

Chuck Close: A Flipbook
Collection of Artists’ Books

Flipbooks are those little books that show a movie or animation in your hands when you flip the pages with your thumb. People of all ages, backgrounds and nationalities are fascinated by flipbooks. They are fun, creative, affordable and have a universal appeal that is timeless. When people see a flipbook, they always get excited.

Chuck Close’s book is at least three times larger than the standard flipbook format. It is made in such a way that a self-portrait of the artist produced in 2000 appears to the viewer as he flips to the last page. The artist’s unique work can be viewed close-up, in detail, and also as a whole. Close is known for his hyper-realistic, large-format portraits and self-portraits, which he paints in a distinctive and recognisable manner. The elements of the painting are seen as separate abstract markings when viewed from close-up, while at the same time, the artist maintains the illusion of a realistic portrait with the pixel-like way of constructing the image when viewed from afar. The artist wants to provide the viewer with the same experience of looking at his work also in his flipbook.

The book was published in 2005 by Fliptomania Inc. Berkeley, Canada. It has 90 colour pages and a colour cover.

Robert Filliou: Livre étalon
Collection of Art Publications

Robert Filliou was a member of Fluxus, a community of artists that carried out experimental performances in the 1960s, which emphasised the artistic process over the finished product. Filliou believed that there is no need for art to be expressed in the form of an object. For him, art was a game that could take the appearance of an unrealised notion.

His mostly ephemeral works, usually made of rope, card and wood, present different but witty and partly poetic ideas and images. Filliou’s ephemeral works undermine established notions of what art is or should be. The book before us is also an ephemeral piece that cannot be understood with any clear explanation. In this case, the artist states: “All literature – past, present and future – can be objectively evaluated at last, thanks to the STANDARD-BOOK (Livre étalon), which alone ensures the faultless measurement and impartial assessment of printed matter(s).”

The book was published in 1981 by Dieter Roth in the form of a 4 x 80 cm concertina booklet.

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NEW ACQUISITIONS

Alfredo Jaar:
Let There be Light: The Rwanda Project
Collection of Art Publications

In his longstanding art career, Chilean artist Alfredo Jaar has consistently explored the politics of the image, the problematics of representation and various human rights issues. A significant part of his oeuvre focuses on the African continent. His pioneering project in this field was The Rwanda Project 1994–1998. In a masterful and subtle style, the work addresses the question of how it is possible to engender empathy and affect, in a world saturated with images of violence and suffering. For the artist, the focus of this project is the issue of human rights and the problem of representation: the dichotomy between photography and violence, suffering and pain.

The Rwanda Project generated a number of conflicting reactions. The artist’s book is its summary. It deals with the systematic murder of African Tutsi men, women and children by the Hutu ethnic group in 1994. The artist travelled to Rwanda in August 1994 to see what happened and took thousands of photographs, focusing on the survivors. In this presentation, he singled out one in particular, Gutete Emerita, a young woman who witnessed the killing of her husband and two sons and who, with her daughter, miraculously escaped, hiding in a swamp for three weeks. The Rwanda Project attempts to counter and transform the conventions of photojournalism, which frequently objectifies violence through unmediated images of victimisation. Alternatively, Jaar reverses the lens’ eye to focus on the eyes of the witnesses and the hauntingly beautiful landscape in which this massacre was enacted as a means of eliciting an emotional response from the viewer. The artist’s book is merely one element of the project, while the remaining are original photographs and films.

As the world wants to forget, Alfredo Jaar, one of the greatest moralists of our times, reminds us of the horrors of the Rwandan genocide with his images.

The book was published in 1998 by Actar Publishers, New York and has 200 pages.

Elisabetta Benassi:
Storyboard, (You'll never walk alone)
Collection of Art Publications

In this book, the artist has taken two separate stories and interwoven them. The photographs in the book are actually a collection of stories from two of the artist’s videos, You’ll never walk alone and Timecode. The common thread is Pier Paolo Pasolini.

The main protagonists of the first story are Bettagol, who is the artist’s alter ego, and a young man, strikingly similar to Pier Paolo Pasolini, riding a motorcycle. In a parallel to this story, as a comment or a video soundtrack, images appear of the old Totò and the young Ninetto, the main characters from Uccellacci e uccellini, the film where Pasolini poetically transposed the theme of the end of ideologies. Pasolini seen from the artist’s eyes, without nostalgia and with the intensity of real experience, is brought into her present. This imaginative twist offers no conclusion, giving the reader/viewer the opportunity to fill the gaps in it himself.

The book was published in 2002 by Onestar Press in Paris. It has 150 pages printed in black and white offset, it comes in a paperback with a colour cover, and was published in an edition of 250.

Damien Hirst:
I Want to Spend the Rest of My Life Everywhere, with Everyone, One to One, Always, Forever, Now…
Collection of Art Publications

This dynamic and provocative collection of Hirst’s ideas and obsessions is a powerful combination of text and visuals. It contains visual narratives based on drawings, words, photography, typography, pop-ups, special inserts as well as other special effects, which make this book unlike any other.

This extensive publication – Hirst’s first – contains the artist’s statements and words along with his selection and arrangement of images. It is a dazzling collection of the artist’s ideas and obsessions about life and art. The book encompasses the full range of Hirst’s paintings, sculptures and installations that have been produced up to the date of publication – and which continue to provoke both scorn and admiration among critics and viewers. An essay by cult novelist Gordon Burn looks at Hirst’s work and the breadth of its impact.

The book, which has more than 700 colour illustrations, was designed by Jonathan Barnbrook. This is a landmark publication that has redefined the fine art monograph. The book was published in 1998 by Booth-Clibborn Editions, London, in English, on 330 pages. It comes in a hardback, with stitch binding and an illustrated cover.

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INTERNATIONAL MUSEUM DAY AT MGLC AND ŠVICARIJA

Monday, 18 May, 10.00–18.00
free of charge

At Švicarija, you can view the ambiental and experimental video installation Agnes Momirski siXren (Verbum Medicinae).
And there is a 10% discount waiting for you at the Museum Shop in the International Centre of Graphic Arts.

Kitch'n Megazine

All creatives, artists and other enthusiasts in isolation – let’s get together and cook something up!

The call for submissions is open till 18 May.

MGLC extends an invitation to create a collective document of the time and the unexpected situation that has shocked and shaken the world over. Let’s stay at home and devote our time, which suddenly seems to be overly plentiful, to the pleasurable sides of life. Get a piece of paper ready and use the power of the recipe that you have been keeping under wraps for so long – paint, write, glue, cut, roll, rub off, fix the texture … All contributions sent in will be printed and compiled into a booklet – a zine, received by every single participant.
Learn more about our campaign!

Gallery

New acquisitions

Jan Dibbets: Roodborst territorium/Sculptuur 1969
Collection of Art Publications,
inv. no. 4329

Robin Redbreast’s Territory is a book documenting an installation, which Jan Dibbets set up in an Amsterdam park in 1969. The artist observed and recorded the movements of the Robin Redbreast bird in nature with his camera. The book, published in 1970, is the artist’s only bookwork and is one of the more important works of the time.

While reading several books about the Robin Redbreast bird, the artist learnt about its habits and decided to expand its territory by placing poles on which the bird would perch, thus establishing new boundaries. In this way, the bird participated in the artist’s work.

The left side of the slim volume features photographs and topographic studies besides the artist’s handwritten notes in three languages (English, French and German) on the right.

Jan Dibbets abandoned painting in 1967 and began to create ephemeral installations in nature, which he then also photographed. The act is not an end in itself for the artist: he is most interested in maintaining the meaning of the work as he believes that in the end, it is not the reality of the installation that matters, but the idea that inspired it.

Dibbets’ idea was to use his new understanding of the habits of the Robin Redbreast bird for the concept of drawing in space and the desire to visualise ecosystems. He realised that he could not share his idea with others until he discovered the artist’s book format, which he recognised as the right means for spreading his idea. In this sense, the book is not merely a form of documenting the installation but its physical conclusion.

A. L. Steiner: STOP 
Collection of Art Publications,
inv. no. 1235

STOP, a bookwork by photographer A. L. Steiner, is a poetic visual document of the paper industry. The book is divided into three chapters. It begins with a silent lament carved into a tree trunk: Help me! This is followed by the photographs – “portraits” of isolated trees in the landscape, further followed by documentation of their fate. From page to page, we observe how trees are felled, stacked, loaded and eventually left in giant factories. The book concludes with an inventory of disposable paper products: paper rolls, cardboard boxes, newspapers, paper cups, paper bags and, self-critically, the pages of the book itself. STOP draws attention to the physical history of the paper bound into each copy of the book and points to the viewer’s involvement in the consumer production process. The awareness of this complicity, which does usually not come to the fore during reading, is the subtext of the book. Steiner’s perspective is broad and introspective. The sharp, yet lyrical images in the book draw attention to the mass destruction of the environment in order to sustain our consumer culture.

The book was published in 2003 by Onestar Press in Paris, limited to an edition of 250 copies. It has 186 unpaginated pages printed in black and white offset. It is glue-bound and comes in a colour paperback cover.

Roni Horn: You are the Weather
Collection of Art Publications,
inv. no. 1894

American artist Roni Horn has been travelling to Iceland regularly for many years, where she stays for extended periods of time. This is where the ideas for her installations and books with drawings and photographs are born.

You are the Weather is an extremely beautiful artist's book, which is minimalist and complex at the same time. It confronts us with the mysterious surface of the face of one woman. The book is an intimate and erotic artwork without ever being sexual or explicit. The book cannot be viewed in the usual passive way. We find ourselves in front of the open face of an unknown woman while experiencing her beauty, depth and mystery. The woman's face anchors our gaze but does not return it. So before us, we have an artist's book that is as challenging and enigmatic as it is beautiful and intimate.

Roni Horn about the book: “... it concentrates exclusively on this one woman, on close-ups of her face. I photograph this woman, Margrét, in the water. This was very important, as water is a true key phenomenon in Iceland. It was quite an easy relation. I did not say anything about what she had to do. She simply got into the water and I began to take photographs. In sunlight or under a stormy, cloudy sky – the water surrounded her, her hair was sometimes wet and sometimes tousled by the wind. You can not look at this woman in the traditional manner of nude photography. You look at a woman, who is also looking at you. Through her relation to the water, the light, the wind and the weather, she takes on these different personalities.”

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From the MGLC Collection

NOISE magazine
1985–1994, Ed. Maeght, Paris

In 2018, 11 volumes of NOISE magazine were acquired for the Collection of Art Publications. The NOISE contemporary art magazine was published by the Ed. Maeght publishing house in Paris between 1985 and 1994. The 17 volumes of the magazine featured the original works by contemporary visual artists face to face with the unpublished texts by poets, writers and philosophers. The magazine was printed in French, with the original versions of the translated texts at the end of each volume. It was published in an edition of 2000 copies. An additional 120 copies, numbered and signed, were printed on Arches paper. The illustrations were both in black and white and colour. The editors of the magazine were curator Didier Ottinger, painter Pierre Antoniucci, and writer, publicist and critic Roger Salloch, whereas the artistic director was the Paris-resident Japanese painter Aki Kuroda, who also produced eight of the magazine’s covers. The authors of the other covers were David Diao, Sam Francis, Walter Dahn, David Tremlett, Jochen Gerz, Hélène Delprat and Sean Scully. Here we should also mention some of the other artists that published work in NOISE magazine: Karel Appel, Christian Boltanski, Sophie Calle, André Derain, Jean Genet, Gilbert&George, Stéphan Mallarmé among others.

François Morellet: La Chute des Angles #2 (Fallen Angles #2)
Collection of Art Publications,
inv. no. 1224

After describing his love for the right angle in a short introduction in French, the artist explains how he created the images that follow. He laid a series of 155 right angles out of white paper on a piece of black paper at 33 degrees. The gradual erasure of the black background with the unmanageable collection of organised shapes is actually what the book is all about.  

The book was published by the Onestar Press publishing house in Paris in 2002. It is unpaginated, in black and white, written in French. Published in an edition of 250 copies.

François Morellet was a conceptual French painter, sculptor and light artist, known for his intricate geometric shapes and patterns. He was interested in line, light and movement. He also combined all this in his artist’s books in his own unique way.

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster: Park-plan d'évasion
Collection of Art Publications,
inv. no. 1290

The book is packed with photographs of parks and collective public spaces intended for relaxation or recreation taken from all over the world. Grass areas, mowed swirly shapes, public markets with festival lighting, coastal cafés all offer the possibility of retreat and escape, and show the artist's wish to combine physical and sensual reality with the immediacy and emotional charge of the image.

The artist's book was published in 2002 as a project for Documenta 11 by the Imschoot, uitgevers publisher from Gent in English and French in a limited edition of 1030 copies. Of these, 30 copies are signed and numbered.

Gonzales-Foerster is a French artist known for her work in video, photography, space installations and artists’ books. She has also worked in the field of design, writing and landscape design. Her projects could be seen in Ljubljana at the Biennial in 2003 and 2007.

Notice of closure of MGLC and Švicarija

The International Centre of Graphic Arts and MGLC Švicarija will be closed to the public in line with the official guidelines of the National Institute of Public Health of the Republic of Slovenia (NIJZ) and the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Slovenia in order to prevent the spreading of coronavirus (Covid-19). This provisional measure is being taken to ensure the health of visitors and museum workers. The forthcoming programme will be adapted to the situation and the recommendations of the NIJZ as they arrive.
You are welcome to drop by on the MGLC social media sites: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram!

Photo: Katja Goljat. MGLC Archive.

--------------------------------------------

Slovenian Printmaking in Italy / L'arte grafica degli Sloveni in Italia
Group exhibition

4–31 December 2020
Lojze Bratuž Cultural Centre
Gorizia, Italy

Artists: Avgust Černigoj, Bogdan Grom, Matjaž Hmeljak, Zora Koren Skerk, Marjan Kravos, Anton Zoran Mušič, Klavdij Palčič, Claudia Raza, Jan Sedmak, Lojze Spacal, Franco Vecchiet, Edvard Zajec, Boris Zulian, Ivan Žerjal
Curator: Denis Volk

Video presentations of the exhibition will be available to view on YouTube via the website

http://www.centerbratuz.org/

The exhibition will be available to view in the exhibition space if circumstances permit.
Admission free.

Lojze Spacal: Temna burja na Krasu, 1995, silkscreen.

The exhibition provides an overview of Slovenian printmaking by artists who either come from or have worked in the borderland or wider region of Italy. Certainly, not all artists are included, but only those who regularly worked in printmaking and whose work influenced the creative ideas of other artists. The works in the exhibition date back to the interwar period.

Works from the MGLC collection are also presented since most of the participating printmakers collaborated with the International Centre of Graphic Arts. They were participants and prize winners of the International Biennial of Graphic Arts, many of them also made work in the MGLC Print Studios.

The exhibition was produced in collaboration with MGLC and the Consulate General of the Republic of Slovenia in Trieste.

Upcoming exhibition

ANDREJ ŠKUFCA, BLACK MARKET
20. 3.–24. 5. 2020

The opening of the exhibition and the evening event are cancelled in line with the official guidelines of the National Institute of Public Health of the Republic of Slovenia (NIJZ) and the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Slovenia. The exhibition can be viewed from Friday, 20 March, from 1 pm. 

Opening:
Friday, 20 March, at 1 pm, Grad Tivoli
A guided tour by the exhibition curator Àngels Miralda and the artist Andrej Škufca will accompany the event.

At 8 pm, you are invited to join us for a live experimental DJ set spun by DJ Final Form at MGLC Švicarija.

On 20 March, the exhibition is available to view from 1 to 8 pm. The opening guided tour and evening event are both free of charge.

Andrej Škufca: synthetic zero, 2019, 750 x 320 x 110 cm, acrylic, polyester, polyurethane, aluminium. Photo: Lara Žitko.

Important Notice

Given the current state of health alert and in line with the official guidelines of the National Institute of Public Health of the Republic of Slovenia (NIJZ) and the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Slovenia, we inform you that all events in the programme of the International Centre of Graphic Arts and Švicarija are cancelled until further notice. The forthcoming programme will be adapted to the situation and the recommendations of the NIJZ as they arrive.

THE OPENING OF THE EXHIBITION ANDREJ ŠKUFCA, BLACK MARKET IS RESCHEDULED TO APRIL.

Andrej Škufca: synthetic zero, 2019, 750 x 320 x 110 cm, acrylic, polyester, polyurethane, aluminium. Photo: Lara Žitko.

Black Market by Andrej Škufca is a multitude of variables. It adopts the changing shape of oil pipelines, ocean fibre optic cables, eels, exoskeletons and the earliest forms of tubular multicellular micro-organisms. It embodies the theories of modular design and self-assembly, described as "spatial software" by Keller Easterling. The sculptures represent a substance that is transformed into endless combinations. These are rooted in science-fiction narratives while embodying the biotechnical corpus of the latest speculative design and theory. The theory and the sculpture, presented together, merge into a practice for a daunting but open future. Andrej Škufca's work presents itself as a complex system characterised by technological design, industrial production processes and synthetic materials. He does not merely combine technological and fictional elements in his installations, but also shapes immersive and seemingly animated environments in which human agents no longer play a central role. The curator of the exhibition is Àngels Miralda, a curator and publicist from Barcelona.

The exhibition catalogue is out ...

SHIFTS IN THE CANON: THE NATURE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PRIZES AWARDED BY THE INTERNATIONAL JURIES OF THE LJUBLJANA BIENNIAL OF GRAPHIC ARTS

The catalogue has been edited by Gregor Dražil, with essays authored by Gregor Dražil, Giuseppe Marchiori (reprint of an article from Sinteza magazine commenting on participating in the juries of the Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts in 1970), Nevenka Šivavec and Breda Škrjanec. The catalogue is published in a bilingual (English–Slovenian) edition, with 200 pages and over 60 colour reproductions. It was designed by Ivian Kan Mujezinović. Price: 10 EUR..

The catalogue presents the juries that have been involved in the awarding of the prizes since 1955. Both the professional profiles of the participants and the patterns observed in the ideological, political and national formations, have been put under the spotlight. The three comprehensive texts with a diversified slant offer a reflection on the prize winners of the Biennial of Graphic Arts in the three periods from 1955 to the present. The publication is rounded off by a look into the past and present of the MGLC museum collection. As the organizer of the Biennial of Graphic Arts, the museum takes care of the preservation and exploration of the heritage of this event, which also includes the systematic collection and presentation of the prize winners' works.

From the Studio / M1.3

Danilo Milovanović: Docu.city #1
film projection

Friday, 28 February, at 19.30
Studio M1.3, MGLC Švicarija

Docu.city is the title of a series of one-night gatherings with video screenings, which will be hosted in 2020 by Danilo Milovanović in studio M1.3. The basic idea of the events is to reflect on the urban dynamics and issues of the public domain through examples of documentary films and video documentation of artistic interventions into the public space alongside lectures and discussions.

The theme of the first meeting will be the collision of the urban vision of the city and the private interests of unplanned construction. At the first meeting, we will watch the documentary Split, između plana i kaosa (Split, Between Plan and Chaos), an urban study of a city in transition, undersigned by young Croatian director Saša Ban. The documentary confronts the urban perspective of the city as a space of coexistence, which the active local community strives for by following the trend of privatising space that leads to the wild construction and degradation of the idea of the city as a living, functional whole.

Please be aware: The documentary is only available in Croatian, with no subtitles.

The screening will continue with examples of conceptual, urban and artistic interventions in which artists respond to the dynamics described using gestural language.

A spontaneous debate and socialising will follow.

This is an open event, intended for the exchange of experience and knowledge within the field of urban issues.

Concluding guided tour of the exhibition From the Biennial Prize Winners Collection: Shifts in the Canon

Celebrating International Women's Day

Sunday, March 8, 10.00–12.00

10.00: Concluding guided tour of the exhibition From the Biennial Prize Winners Collection: Shifts in the Canon, the guided tour of the exhibition will be conducted by its authors: Nevenka Šivavec, Breda Škrjanec and Gregor Dražil. Part of the Breakfast with Art programme (the price of € 6).
11:00: Presentation of the exhibition catalogue entitled Shifts in the Canon: The Nature and Significance of the Prizes Awarded by the International Juries of the Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts, Lecture Room (ground floor of Tivoli Mansion). Free of charge.

Photo: Katja Goljat. MGLC Archive.

After every Biennial of Graphic Arts, when the hundreds of exhibited prints disappeared from the halls and what remained was only their trace in the form of an exhibition catalogue, a handful of selected works and artists, the winners of the most prominent, international jury, were inscribed into the history of the Biennial in capital letters. The exhibition From the Biennial Prize Winners Collection: Shifts in the Canon is made up of the works by the prize winners held in the collection of the International Centre of Graphic Arts. On this occasion particularly those works that have been acquired by the museum through purchase and donation in the recent period, and works that have not been specifically exposed, will be on display The exhibition shows the breaks and continuities in the canon of art in the second half of the 20th century while opening up to a reflection on the challenges involved in adding to the prize winners collection in the future.

About the catalogue Shifts in the Canon: The Nature and Significance of the Prizes Awarded by the International Juries of the Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts

The catalogue has been edited by Gregor Dražil, with essays authored by Gregor Dražil, Giuseppe Marchiori (reprint of an article from Sinteza magazine commenting on participating in the juries of the Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts in 1970), Nevenka Šivavec and Breda Škrjanec. The catalogue is published in a bilingual (English–Slovenian) edition, with 200 pages and over 60 colour reproductions. It was designed by Ivian Kan Mujezinović.

OPEN CALL!, CRITIC IN RESIDENCE PROGRAMME 2020

MGLC Švicarija in collaboration with the Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory, both based in Ljubljana, Slovenia, invites art critics or cultural journalists to apply for a fully-funded, one-month residency in Ljubljana in October 2020.

Deadline for applications: 17 February 2020

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Photo: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Arhive.

Guided tour and demonstration of the artist's printmaking method

Helena Tahir, Somewhere Near

Thursday, February 27., 17.00–19.00
entrance fee for the exhibition,
free for members of the Biennale Club Friend

The event begins with an hour-long guided tour of the exhibition with the curator Božidar Zrinski and the artist Helena Tahir. Continuing in the MGLC Print Studio, Helena Tahir presents her creative process and attitude towards the technique and the graphic print through a demonstration of frottage and hand printing with a spoon on felt.

Warmly wellcome!

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Helena Tahir, Somewhere Near
31. 1.–8. 3. 2020

Helena Tahir represents the youngest generation of artists to deliberately explore the properties of classic printmaking techniques both in terms of form and content, hence actively co-creating the image of contemporary graphic creativity on the Slovenian art scene. The exhibition presents drawings and prints made over the recent years, some of which are here presented to the public for the first time. Helena Tahir’s graphic prints are characterised by the loquacious interweaving of various images stemming from the imagination, brimming with meaningful associations and historical references that must be carefully observed in order to make them easier to understand.

OPENNING OF THE EXHIBITION

Agnes Momirski, siXren (Verbum Medicinae)

Friday, February 21, at 6 pm, MGLC Švicarija

The opening will include a performans by Agnes Momirski, siXren (Verbum Medicinae).

Agnes Momirski is a multimedia artist, who is currently making new work as part of the residency programme at MGLC Švicarija. The artist, who has been based in Rotterdam over the past several years, explores the voice and language through a posthumanist lens in her art practice. She uses the two to explore the various methods of secret, ancient and healing rituals. These phenomena are processed by the artist in multimedia performative actions, music performances and videos.

siXren (Verbum Medicinae) has two different materialisations; it is a music performance that will premiere at MGLC Švicarija, and it is an ambient and experimental video installation. The piece was made in collaboration with beepblip (sound) and Brina Vidic (visual and costume design).

Curator: Miha Colner.

SLOVENIAN CULTURAL HOLIDAY AT MGLC AND MGLC ŠVICARIJA DOORS OPEN DAY

Free admission to view the exhibitions, studio visits in MGLC Švicarija and a diverse all-day programme.

MGLC, 10.00–19.00
10.00–13.00: FAMILY PROGRAMME AT MGLC AND MGLC ŠVICARIJA
15.00: GUIDED TOUR OF THE EXHIBITION FROM THE BIENNIAL PRIZE WINNERS COLLECTION: SHIFTS IN THE CANON

MGLC Švicarija, 13.00–19.00
13.00–19.00: DOORS OPEN DAY/ŠVICARIJA OPEN STUDIOS
14.00: CONCLUDING GUIDED TOUR OF THE EXHIBITION SUB PERSONA 
16.00, ART WORKSHOP FOR CHILDREN IN THE STUDIO OF MARIJA MOJCA PUNGERČAR
17.00: LIVE COMIC STRIPS: RED ALERT BY TOMAŽ LAVRIČ, 80 min
19.00: BRENCL BANDA CONCERT

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Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

The Centenary of the Birth of Zoran Kržišnik

A hundred years have passed since the birth of Zoran Kržišnik, the initiator and longtime director of the Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts and the International Centre of Graphic Arts.

Zoran Kržišnik has left an indelible mark on Slovenian post-war art, especially in the field of printmaking.

The openning of the 17th International Biennial of Graphic Arts, 19 June 1987.
Moderna galerija Ljubljana Archive.

He was born on 26 January 1920 in Žirovnica in the Gorenjska region. After completing his studies in Art History at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana, he became the first warden of the Museum of Modern Art in 1947. In 1957, he became director of the Museum of Modern Art and held the position until 1986. Kržišnik was one of the initiators and the longtime director of the International Biennial of Graphic Arts, which functioned under the auspices of the Museum of Modern Art between 1955 and 1986. In 1986, the organisation of the Biennial of Graphic Arts was taken on by the International Centre of Graphic Arts, which was established upon the initiative of Zoran Kržišnik and the Biennial Secretariat, receiving its spaces in Tivoli Mansion. Kržišnik was the director of the International Centre of Graphic Arts from its foundation until his retirement in 2000.

He is the co-founder of the Grupa 69 art group. He is also credited with the globally accepted term of the Ljubljana school of graphic arts. For many years, he was a member of various international juries in reputable institutions, commissions and committees around the world. He also published extensively, wrote numerous pieces on contemporary art and presented Slovenian artists in comprehensive monographs and exhibition catalogues. He made a huge contribution to the promotion of Slovenian and Yugoslav printmaking across the world. He received numerous national and international accolades for his work, including the Valvasor Award, the Silver Honorary Badge of Freedom of the Republic of Slovenia and the French Legion of Honour. Zoran Kržišnik died on 2 July 2008 in Ljubljana. In 2011, a memorial sculpture dedicated to the life and work of Zoran Kržišnik by academy-trained sculptor Matjaž Počivavšek was unveiled in front of the International Centre of Graphic Arts.

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Openning of the exhibition

Helena Tahir, Somewhere Near

Friday, 31 January, at 1 pm, MGLC

The opening will include a guided tour by the artist Helena Tahir and the exhibition curator Božidar Zrinski.

Helena Tahir: Print (4),
from the series In the Whirl
(90 x 65 cm, linocut, 2017).

Helena Tahir represents the youngest generation of artists to deliberately explore the properties of classic printmaking techniques both in terms of form and content, hence actively co-creating the image of contemporary graphic creativity on the Slovenian art scene. The exhibition presents drawings and prints made over the recent years, some of which are here presented to the public for the first time. Helena Tahir’s graphic prints are characterised by the loquacious interweaving of various images stemming from the imagination, brimming with meaningful associations and historical references that must be carefully observed in order to make them easier to understand.

WORKSHOP: MOKULITO – WOOD LITHOGRAPHY

Print workshop, conducted by artist Tihana Karlović

The event is postponed until the situation is revoked.

Friday–Sunday, 3–5 April 2020 (12 hours)
 

The mokulito technique is an alternative form of the classical printmaking technique of wood lithography and comes from Japan. 

Photo. Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

The 2-hour workshop takes place in the Print Studio at MGLC:
Friday, 3. 4.: 17.00–20.00
Saturday, 4. 4.: 10.00–18.00
Sunday, 5. 4.: 10.00–12.00

The workshop is conducted by artist Tihana Karlović (Rijeka, Croatia) and is intended for participants with some knowledge of the graphic arts. The group is limited to a maximum of 8 people. Participants should attend the workshop from beginning to end. Participation fee: 90 EUR.

We offer a 15% discount for members of the Friends of the Biennial Club and a 10% discount for students and the unemployed.

Applications must be made using the appropriate application form outlining relevant experience and/or by submitting a portfolio.

Applications taken up till the available quota at lili.sturm@mglc-lj.si

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CONTACT AS THE FOUNDATION FOR CREATIVITY, EXPERIENTIAL GESTALT THERAPY WORKSHOP WITH TOMAŽ FLAJS

The event is postponed until the situation is revoked.
Thursday, 2 April, 14.00–21.00

The workshop is conceived on the experiential learning method and based on the phenomenological principles of Gestalt therapy. Contact, as the basic concept of the workshop, is understood as a sensor-motor interaction between man and his environment, which enables the survival and growth of the human organism as well as the development of a sense of one’s own identity and awareness of otherness. This will be explored through experiential exercises and experiments. One of the main attributes of human contact as a process of formation and decomposition of perceptual and motor entities (gestalts) is precisely creativity, which can be awoken when one is ready to face a new situation with openness and uncertainty. The goal of the workshop is to explore how exactly something, which may seem like a blockage and interruption in creatively adapting to a situation, can become the foundation for our creativity if we manage to find a support for turning anxiety into excitement.

The workshop is conducted by Tomaž Flajs, educator and supervisor of Gestalt therapy.

The workshop is taking place at MGLC and includes a half-an-hour break. Drinks and refreshments will be provided (water, tea, biscuits, fruit). Attendance is required for the whole duration of the workshop. The number of participants is limited to a maximum of twelve. Admission is 5 EUR (ticket to view the exhibition at MGLC).

Advance bookings using the application form (enclosed) until the available quota should be made by writing to lili.sturm@mglc-lj.si

Warmly wellcome!

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THE CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN PUBLICATION IS OUT

The extensive MGLC book collection has just been supplemented with the Crack Up – Crack Down essayistic reflection of the 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts of the same title.

Crack Up – Crack Down, a collection of original writing and visual essays edited by Slavs and Tatars (curators of the main exhibition Crack Up – Crack Down) and Melissa Constantine (a contemporary art researcher), expands the Biennial’s discursive focus on the graphic and satire. It has been co-published in English by MGLC and Mousse Publishing. In addition to the introductory texts on the Biennial and satire, it contains essays by Emily Apter on the micropolitics of the meme, David Crowley on punk as a platform for pretence in Poland and Hungary, Melissa Constantine on the affective infrastructure of satire, and Vid Simoniti on the cult Bosnian satire Top lista nadrealista and other Balkan predecessors. Top lista nadrealista and its communicative power is also covered in the insightful dictionary entry by Goran Vojnović. A special feature of the book is the contributions made by the individual artists of the 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts: Crack Up – Crack Down. These include Hamja Ahsan (the recipient of the Grand Prize of the 33rd Biennial of Graphic Arts), Metahaven, Alenka Pirman & KULA, Mohammad Salemy, Arthur Fournier & Raphael König and Augustin Maurs.

Before you is a visually diverse odyssey through the reflections on contemporary social and cultural phenomena, art, and the close alliance between social criticism and satire.

The book was designed by Stan de Natris (Slavs and Tatars) and the illustrations were contributed by the designer of the corporate image of the 33rd Biennial Crack Up – Crack Down, Nejc Prah. He received the Brumen Award for the latter in October 2019 together with his design team and the International Centre of Graphic Arts.

Buy here

The 12th Bobri Ljubljana Festival of Culture and Art Education programme in MGLC

Experimental print workshops accompanying the exhibition From the Biennial Prize Winners Collection: Shifts in the Canon. Suitable for organised groups of children from kindergarten and the first three-year age range of primary school. In cooperation with the Department of Art Education, Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana.
Monday to Friday, 20.–24. January and
27.–30. January, 10.00–12.00, MGLC 

Bookings to lili.sturm@mglc-lj.si

How do we cure a sick artwork? The workshop on basic restorative technology is suitable for organised groups of children from the first and second three-year age range of primary school. Conducted by mag. Boge Dimovski. 
Tuesday, 21. January, 10.00–11.00, MGLC Švicarija

Bookings to lili.sturm@mglc-lj.si

FAMILY FOLD’R THE SECRET LIFE
OF ART

We have again prepared a Family Fold’r for you, which you receive free of charge when you purchase a family ticket to view the exhibition From the Biennial Prize Winners Collection: Shifts in the Canon.

You are invited to join us for a graphic adventure discovering the interesting stories as told by the works in the exhibition. And you won’t get lost, there is a pencil and a map of the gallery rooms to help you along.

Current exhibitions

From the Biennial Prize Winners Collection: Shifts in the Canon

7. 11. 2019–8. 3. 2020, MGLC

Every review of the history of the Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts is also informed by the stories inscribed by the prize winners of this exhibition. The exhibition consists of a selection of those works of the awardees that we have received in the recent period for the MGLC collection through donations and donations, or have not been particularly exposed so far.


Photo: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Archive.

PLATEAURESIDUE: Sub Persona

25. 10. 2019–9. 2. 2020,
MGLC Švicarija

PLATEAURESIDUE duo (Aljaž Celarc & Eva Pavlič Seifert) presenting their new Sub Persona research and exhibition project. The artists, whose practice usually interlaces ecology and art, this time examine the state of forest ecosystems and the human impact on them due to past and present forest management. 


Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Hyperemployment

7. 11. 2019–19. 1. 2020, MGLC

Hyperemployment – a word borrowed from media theorist Ian Bogost, describing “the Exhausting Work of the Technology User”– is a group show curated by Domenico Quaranta meant to explore these and other dimensions of what labour has become through the works of eight international artists who have focused their research on the topics of automation and gig economy, the end of free time and the rise of social media fatigue and self-improvement apps, among others.

Photo: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Archive.
 

FESTIVE OPENING TIMES MGLC and Švicarija

Tuesday, 24 December and Tuesday, 31 December 2019, open until 2 pm.

Closed: Wednesday, 25 December 2019 and Wednesday, 1 January 2020. 

THE MUSEUM SHOP IN DECEMBER
The shop with the unique ideas!

You are kindly invited to drop by the MGLC Museum Shop during these festive days, where the prices of fine art graphic prints and publications issued by MGLC have been reduced for the month of December.

Various special offers await you.
❇ Free catalogue The History of the Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts when you buy the book Mnemosyne, The Time of Ljubljana’s Biennial of Graphic Arts
❇ 20% discount on catalogues and guides of the past editions of the Biennial of Graphic Arts
❇ 30% discount on T-shirts and backpacks with the motifs of the 32nd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion

You are also invited to visit our shop at MGLC Švicarija, where you can find plenty of original artistic gifts.

Wishing you a wonderful holiday and a Happy New Year 2020!
 

Exhibition Impressions: Animated Film Workshop

In collaboration with the Slon Society.

Saturday, 14 September, 10.00–16.00

Where: Meeting point at the MGLC reception – Tivoli Mansion (Tivoli Park) at 10.00

The workshop is suitable for young people aged 9+ and is free of charge.

The number of participants is limited, advance booking is required.

What are all the things that art can tell us in an exhibition?

We will listen to some interesting stories about sea dwellers, dark cities and the Mediterranean, why we love ice cream and comfortable armchairs, what a mobile print is and what a book that is not a book looks like, what it means to be socially responsible and what the music of a birch tree sounds like. Tina Boc will take us around the exhibition From the Biennial Prize Winners Collection: Shifts in the Canon.

The tour will be followed by a stop-motion animation workshop (filming image by image).

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. Archive: MGLC.

ART EXCURSION: BELGRADE AND MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ

17–19 January 2020

Excursion programme

A retrospective exhibition by performance icon Marina Abramović is on view at the Belgrade Museum of Contemporary Art (MSU). The show entitled The Cleaner is the artist’s first major exhibition in her hometown after 44 years. More than 120 works are on display, ranging from photographs, films, paintings, objects and installations, to a unique collection of performance pieces. The exhibition follows all the stages of Marina Abramović’s art oeuvre chronologically, from her early works, joint performances with Ulay, her partner in art and life at the time, to her solo performances. The artist is the only one of the generation of radical performers from the 1970s to be still engaged in performance art. For her, this is the art of transformation, the art of “purification”, which brings the possibility of change. We will also take a look at Belgrade and its major cultural institutions, including the exhibition The Nineties: A Dictionary of Migration at the Museum of Yugoslavia.

The 2019 Turner Prize

This year’s winners of The 2019 Turner Prize include the artists Oscar Murillo and Lawrence Abu Hamdan, who participated in the 31st Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts (Over you/you, 2015, curated by Nicola Lees) and the 33rd Ljubljana Biennial ( 2019, curated by Slavs and Tatars). In addition to Murillo and Hamdan, artists Helen Cammock and Tai Shani also received the award. During a time of global political crisis, the artists decided to take up a stance of solidarity and set up a collective, with the prize being shared among them. This is how their decision was stated:

“At a time of political division in Britain and conflict in much of the world, the artists wanted to use the occasion of the Turner Prize to make a strong statement of community and solidarity and have formed themselves into a collective.”

Congratulations!

Oscar Murilo: De marcha, ¿una rumba?... no, solo un desfile
con ética y estética (2015).
31st Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts, installation view at Moderna galerija.
Photo: Jaka Babnik.

Lawrence Abu Hamdan: 
The All-Hearing (digital video, 2014).
33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts Ljubljana, installation view at MGLC.
Photo: Jaka Babnik.

Talk with the residents!

Agnes Momirski & Georgia Kareola

Tuesday, 21 January, at 6 pm
MGLC Švicarija

Talk with artist Agnes Momirski, the current participant in the resident programme at MGLC Švicarija, and special guest Georgia Kareola. The talk, hosted by publicist and curator Paola Paleari, will focus on the analysis of the art practice of Agnes Momirski, on the making of new artwork during the course of the residency, and the collaboration with Georgia Kareola under the auspices of the Specter platform.

Agnes Momirski: siXren.

In her art practice, Agnes Momirski focuses on the relationship between man and technology, as well as ancient ritual and astrological occurrences, which she executes within the framework of her performative actions, music performances and videos. She is currently developing a new project as part of the residency programme at MGLC Švicarija but will also be presenting a set of her older works at the end of her temporary residence and work in Ljubljana. Together with her close associate Georgia Kareola she is the founder of Specter, a platform where the two are engaged in curatorial projects, public debates and performances of participatory artistic interventions on the subject of human improvement. The talk will be moderated by Paola Paleari, an independent curator and publicist who is a participant in the month-long critic-in-residence programme at MGLC and will be crisscrossing the Ljubljana art scene during this time.

The exhibition by Agnes Momirski entitled siXren will be opened at MGLC Švicarija on 21 February 2020.

New studio user at
MGLC Švicarija

The Committee for the Selection of Users for the 2020 Residency Programme awarded the studio residence to artist Adrijan Praznik, who works actively in the field of visual art as a painter, illustrator and curator.

The committee considers that awarding Adrijan Praznik with the art residency will contribute to the development of his art practice as well as to the development of the community of the Švicarija.

More

Adrijan Praznik: Anything you can do, you can do better (2019, iPad keyboard, oil on canvas, ca. 31 x 21 x 25 cm). Photo: Klemen Ilovar /
© Adrijan Praznik.

Pre-festive workshop making New Year greeting cards

Thursday, 12 December, from 5 pm to 8 pm

Do you already have an idea for a New Year greeting card to which you just need to add your very own good wishes with the upcoming end to the year? At the International Centre of Graphic Arts, we are getting ready to make some unique festive greeting cards in December and share some time in a pleasant pre-holiday atmosphere. Participants will first make a sketch of a festive motif, which will then be printed in the screen-printing technique. Printmaking master Slavko Pavlin will be on hand to help. All participants are advised to plan the motif that they would like to create before the workshop so that more time can be spent on the actual making during the workshop.

The workshop is suitable for all generations and no prior knowledge is required.

It will take place at the MGLC Print Studio.

Advance bookings must be made by writing to marketing@mglc-lj.si or calling +386 1 241 38 08.

The workshop is free for the members of the Friends of the Biennial Club. The number of places is limited.

Warmly invited!

This Happy Day of Culture at MGLC and MGLC – Švicarija

This Happy Day of Culture at MGLC and MGLC – Švicarija

Tuesday, 3 December 2019

On the occasion of the birthday of France Prešeren, museums and galleries will traditionally open their doors with a variety of events for all visitors!

Programme

Viewing of the exhibitions

10.00–20.00: From the Biennial Prize Winners Collection: Shifts in the Canon

On view are the works of the Biennial prize winners from the MGLC collection, dating from the first graphic arts exhibition in 1955 to the present. The exhibition considers the message conveyed by the awards of the Biennial of Graphic Arts within the context of the canon of post-war fine art and offers an insight into the collecting policy of MGLC, an institution based precisely on the heritage of the Biennial.

MGLC

10.00–20.00: Hyperemployment

In cooperation with the Aksioma Institute.

International artists focus on topics such as automation and gig economy, the end of free time and self-improvement apps, social media fatigue and quantification.

MGLC

10.00–20.00: Sub Persona

The PLATEAURESIDUE artist duo (Aljaž Celarc and Eva Pavlič Seifert) usually mix ecology and art in their practice, whereas the Sub Persona exhibition focusing on the state of forest ecosystems and man’s impact on them.

MGLC – Švicarija

Public guided tour

17.00: From the Biennial Prize Winners Collection: Shifts in the Canon; conducted by the authors of the exhibition Nevenka Šivavec, Breda Škrjanec and Gregor Dražil

MGLC

Discussion

18.00: Independent Journalism Now; with the participation of Anže Boh Voštic, Arne Zupančič and Matej Zwitter, moderated by Miha Turk

The guests will present their views on the work of journalists. They will discuss the eternal aspiration to be independent within the journalistic profession, point out the challenges posed by constant technological change and try to answer the relentless question of journalistic objectivity.

MGLC – Švicarija

Both events are in Slovenian.

Admission to MGLC and MGLC – Švicarija is free on This Happy Day of Culture.

A happy time will also be had in the MGLC museum shop with a 10% discount awaiting visitors on Doors Open Day (discounts cannot be added up). 

There are other benefits to be enjoyed from 1 December 2019 to 23 February 2020 alongside the exhibition From the Biennial Prize Winners Collection: Shifts in the Canon:

❇ Free catalogue The History of the Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts when you buy the book Mnemosyne, The Time of Ljubljana’s Biennial of Graphic Arts

❇ 20% discount on catalogues and guides of the past editions of the Biennial of Graphic Arts

❇ 30% discount on T-shirts and backpacks with the motifs of the 32nd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts

All welcome!

Kiki Febriyanti, invitation

LJUBLALALALA

Invitation to take part in the performance, on Saturday, 23 November at noon in the underpass in Tivoli park. The public action will be conducted by artist and filmmaker Kiki Febriyanti, current artist-in-residence at MGLC – Švicarija.

The event will be recorded on video.

Meeting place: underpass on the alley of Tivoli Park [podhod pri Jakopičevem sprehajališču].

Usually we see people gather in public spaces to do yoga, jogging, rave party, or protest but what if we gather in public space to release our emotions and thoughts?

Everyone shall bring their own smartphones and headphones. We will listen to the music together through our headphones and in the same time, everyone is free to tell anything what we feel, our thoughts, our fear, our happiness, our sadness, our complain to our boss that was never expressed, our love to our crushes that we always keep to ourselves, our tiredness from school, our anxiety to the society, anything…

The event will be recorded on a video but the audio will be removed for the editing. People are also free to bring drinks or snacks and can continue to hangout in the alley or in the park after the performance.

The International Centre of Graphic Arts has received the Brumen Award

The Brumen Award

The International Centre of Graphic Arts has received the Brumen Award

The International Centre of Graphic Arts has received the Brumen Award for Outstanding Slovenian Design at the 9th Brumen Biennial of Slovenian Design.

The international jury awarded the commissioning and design team for the image of the 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts.

Justification of the jury for the Brumen Award

A superbly made example of postmodernist design with a clear original voice. The set of basic motifs is used with humour – the recognisable illustrations and playful use of lettering elements combine in the exciting festival image.

List of Brumen Award winners

The 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts:

Client: International Centre of Graphic Arts

Klemen Ilovar, photography, Ansambel

Nejc Prah, project management, Ansambel

Dan Adlešič, production of 3D hedgehogs, Ansambel

Nejc Prah, design, Ansambel

From Prah's project description: “The theme of the 33rd Biennial of Graphic Arts was satire. Spikes, stings and pricks play an important role in how we talk about satire. One of the Slovenian words for a joke, if that joke is aimed at someone, is zbadljivka. It comes from the verb zbosti, which means to prick someone. The names of the early 20th century satirical newspapers in Slovenia include Osa (Wasp), Bodeča neža (Silver Thistle), Jež (Hedgehog), Rogač (Stag Beetle) ... They were all named after animals or plants that prick, sting or bite. A combination of whimsical hedgehogs was paired with photos of spikes and thorns. The goal was to show both the humorous aspects of satire, as well as its more serious and often political undertones.”

The Brumen Awards are the highest-ranking professional design awards in Slovenia. They are awarded by the Brumen Foundation, an organisation that has been committed to promoting quality visible messages and raising public awareness of their importance for 16 years.

The Foundation bears the name of Jože Brumen, the Slovenian pioneer of visual communication design. In 1963, he also designed the symbol for the Biennial of Graphic Arts, which was adopted by MGLC upon its foundation.

The Brumen Biennial is a two-year review of the highest quality of Slovenian production within visual communications. It consists of several events, the central of which is an international conference, a review exhibition of selected works and the Brumen Awards ceremony.

The Brumen Biennial was held for the ninth time this year. The review exhibition, which was opened at the National Gallery of Slovenia, on this occasion included the best projects as selected by the international jury, showcasing 124 of the 354 projects submitted. The applicants – both the designers and the clients that commissioned the design projects – operate in the spheres from business and public administration to culture, so the Biennial selection presents a wide range of design products. Hence, the following are represented in the exhibition: corporate identity, product packaging, posters and other communication materials, various publications, websites and apps, as well as exhibition set-ups, infographics and typographic products.

The members of the international jury also selected the best of the entries, the recipients of the Brumen Award for Outstanding Slovenian Design: the Brumen Grand Prize and another 31 awards in 7 categories.

Hyperemployment

Sebastian Schmieg, Hopes and Deliveries (Survival Creativity), 2017–2018

Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, presents:

Hyperemployment

An exhibition curated by Domenico Quaranta

Featuring works by Danilo Correale, Elisa Giardina Papa, Sanela Jahić, Silvio Lorusso, Jonas Lund, Michael Mandiberg, Sebastian Schmieg, Guido Segni

Production: Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, 2019

Co-production: MGLC – International Centre of Graphic Arts

Partner: Italian Cultural Institute, Ljubljana

MGLC – International Centre of Graphic Arts

Grad Tivoli, Pod turnom 3, Ljubljana

Exhibition opening: Thursday, 7 November 2019 at 6 pm

Open through: 19 January 2020

Labour – one of the defining aspects of our capitalistic societies – is also one of the sides of contemporary life that has been more affected by technological innovations and by the advent of post-Fordism. Although increasing automation has actually caused many forms of human labour to disappear, it has not – as many thinkers have predicted – brought an end to labour. Instead, it has led to – together with other innovations, such as the rise of device culture and social networks – its fragmentation into plenty of micro labours and its infiltration into every moment of life. In other words, today, no matter if we are unemployed, self-employed or working at a regular full-time job, as “technology users” we are always working.

Hyperemployment – a word borrowed from media theorist Ian Bogost, describing “the Exhausting Work of the Technology User”– is a group show curated by Domenico Quaranta meant to explore these and other dimensions of what labour has become through the works of eight international artists who have focused their research on the topics of automation and gig economy, the end of free time and the rise of social media fatigue and self-improvement apps, among others.

In Reverie, On the Liberation from Work (2017), Danilo Correale collaborates with a New York-based hypnotherapist in drafting two guided hypnosis scripts aimed at relaxing the body and mind in preparation for a post-work society. Elisa Giardina Papa’s Labor of Sleep (2017) consists of a series of short video clips humorously referencing self-improvement apps that illustrate how we use technologies to regulate human sleeping habits within the rhythms of a wider system – one that includes humans and non-humans. In The Labour of Making Labour Disappear (2018–2019) Slovenian artist Sanela Jahić presents an ambitious ongoing research based on the programming of a predictive algorithm meant to conceive artworks in her place. Shouldn’t You Be Working? (2016) by Silvio Lorusso, originally presented as a series of stickers to be placed in any leisurely environment, ironically summarises the schizophrenic attitude towards work and leisure of the “technology user”. Launched in 2017 as an online project, Jonas Lund’s Talk To Me was a chatbot, trained and modelled on online conversations by the artist himself to create a machine-learned version of the artist. The exhibition will present a book version designed by Federico Antonini that reveals a twist which makes the project even more meaningful. Quantified Self Portrait (One Year Performance) (2016–2017) is a video installation documenting a performance by Michael Mandiberg, who used self-tracking technology to capture screenshots and images every fifteen minutes – a technique used to monitor freelance labour – and for one year thus tracked the artist’s mental, physical and emotional states. In Hopes and Deliveries (Survival Creativity) (2017–2018) Sebastian Schmieg exploited Fiverr’s lax security and downloaded thousands of videos, produced by gig workers for their clients. The work addresses voyeurism on two levels: it makes visible the people ordering such videos, while also offering a glimpse into the world of the gig economy. And finally, Demand Full Laziness (2018–2023) is a five-year plan and a durational performance about art, labour, self-sustenance and laziness by the Italian artist Guido Segni.

This exhibition is part of the programme Hyperemployment, a year-long series of events focused on post-work, online labour, AI and automation, co-curated by Domenico Quaranta and Janez Janša.

From the Biennial Prize Winners Collection: Shifts in the Canon

Robert Jančovič, Rez I Nazenie-Pasca/, 1996, colour woodcut

Exhibition:

From the Biennial Prize Winners Collection: Shifts in the Canon

7 November 2019–23 February 2020

Every review of the history of the Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts is also informed by the stories inscribed by the prize winners of this exhibition. The selection made by the jury members – esteemed and influential art critics, curators, art dealers and other experts from all over the world – was, for many years, the only intervention into the seemingly multitudinous mass of exhibited artworks. The eagerly awaited and often critically-acclaimed decisions imparted the event with a touch of creative competition and were the driving force of the discourse that was generated by the exhibition in the professional and general public as well as the media. After every Biennial, when the hundreds of exhibited prints disappeared from the halls and what remained was only their trace in the form of an exhibition catalogue, a handful of selected works and artists – the winners chosen by the most prominent international jury – were inscribed into the history of the biennial in capital letters, and hence into the annals of worldwide printmaking.

In a sense, the exhibition of works by the prize winners from the collection of the MGLC – International Centre of Graphic Arts aims to get us thinking about the message of the awards of the Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts in the context of the canon of post-war art. Most often, the jury did not validate the Biennial’s basic guidelines regarding the quality of the artworks, nevertheless, their decisions spoke volumes in various other ways. The wavering between the need to consolidate already established directions and discover new, unknown ones can be noticed throughout.

On the other hand, the exhibition offers an insight into the collecting policy of MGLC, an institution based precisely on the heritage of the Biennial. Particularly those works that have been acquired by the museum through purchase and donation in the recent period and works that have not been especially exposed will be on display. They have been arranged chronologically into three main sections from the first exhibition of prints in 1955 to the present.

The shifts in the exhibited works from the first two periods, from 1955 to 1977, and from 1979 to 2001, can primarily be seen in the form and content of the graphic print. The prints demonstrate the emergence and consolidation of new artistic directions in the 1960s and 1970s, especially the distinct aesthetics of art informel, geometric abstraction and pop art. From the pool, not lacking in art celebrities of the older generation, the juries often awarded the most coveted prizes to young artists, the rising stars with highly innovative artistic insights.

The shifts in the printmaking of the late 1970s can also be seen in the award-winning works. With the era of popularity of the more contemporary printmaking techniques having subsided, classical ones, especially intaglio printing, came to the fore again, along with the greater popularity of smaller formats and more intimate subject matter. The award-winning works from the 1980s and 1990s do not bring about any essential artistic innovation, but rather exhibit an interlacement and diversification of established aesthetics and approaches.

With the new millennium, the Biennial experienced some radical shifts and breaks. The display of works in national pavilions was replaced by an original, curatorial approach, which has recently undergone attempts at inquiry and experimentation. At the same time, the range of artwork formats has gradually expanded. A leap from classical printmaking to the art of printing in a diversity of techniques occurred, whereas later the Biennial has also adopted performative as well as other contemporary practices. The two processes have, of course, also impacted the meaning of the prizes and the physical dimensions of the awarded works.

Authors of the exhibition: Nevenka Šivavec, Breda Škrjanec and Gregor Dražil

Pop-up exhibition: Ola Jonsrud & Miha Štrukelj

Ola Jonsrud: Ridder, 2013 (woodcut)

MGLC Ljubljana and NKD Dale invite you to the opening of the exhibition!

Ola Jonsrud & Miha Štrukelj

Opening: Thursday, 17 October, at 7 pm

MGLC – Švicarija / Studio M1.4

[2nd floor, Pod turnom 4, Ljubljana]

The two artists, Ola Jonsrud and Miha Štrukelj, who have attended the residency exchange between Norway and Slovenia, will present themselves in a joint exhibition as part of the inter-institutional cooperation between the Nordic Artists’ Centre Dale and the International Centre of Graphic Arts in Ljubljana.

The joint exhibition will showcase predominantly new works that have been produced as a direct result of temporary relocation and artistic creation in a new environment.

Ola Jonsrud (1982) is an artist whose practice extends into various mediums and techniques such as drawing, installation and printmaking, especially woodcut. He lives and works in Hønefoss, Norway.

Miha Štrukelj (1973) is an artist whose art practice is concerned particularly with the language of painting, which he uses to explore the manifestations of the contemporary landscape. He lives and works in Ljubljana.

MGLC recipient of the ŽIVA 2019 Award: Special Recognition for Attention to Visitors and Openness

MGLC – The International Centre of Graphic Arts (Ljubljana) received the Special Recognition for Attention to Visitors and Openness at the Živa Awards 2019 gala ceremony in Bar, Montenegro. MGLC put in a bid for the award on the basis of the newly acquired Švicarija and the 2018 year-long project entitled Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature, its multifaceted exhibitions and wide-ranging innovative programme for all target groups, which was co-funded by the City of Ljubljana.

Twenty-five finalists from the Slavic countries made their applications for the award, which were visited in the recent months by the 12-member international jury of experts from the European Museum Academy and the Forum of Slavic Cultures in order to decide on the winners.

The jury justified its decision as follows: The Institution is a lively and special museum, an international centre devoted to printed and contemporary art, which has been internationally acclaimed. The expansion of its work oriented to audience development and various forms of communication with creators and visitors is marked by its new recently renovated unit. The very nature of the institution plays a considerable and invaluable role in constantly redesigning and resituating its public activities in the light of the content and context of its both museum’s units.

The Živa Award is presented by the Forum of Slavic Cultures, an international organization established in 2004. The award, which has been presented since 2012, is named after the Slavic goddess of life, youth, beauty, vitality and fertility. The key selection criteria for the Živa Award also follow these values, which are: social responsibility, creativity, interpretation, communication, good use of resources, education, conservation and research. All type of museums – from technology to history, natural sciences to architecture, ethnography and art – can apply for the award. The most important criterion is the openness of the museum and the belief that knowledge and the exchange of experience are crucial for shaping a more influential role of museums in our society.

RogLab Open: Active Aging, exhibition of prototypes

Opening: 10 October 2019, at 7 pm

MGLC – Švicarija, Ljubljana

The exhibition, at the conclusion of the international project RogLab Open: Active Aging, will feature four award-winning prototypes from the proposals submitted that best addressed the problems of the elderly. The teens who triggered of Beatlemania and the hippies from the Woodstock era are now around seventy years old. RogLab points out precisely to their needs and presents solutions that allow them to live an active and independent life: an intergenerational playground toy by André Vanzolin (Brazil), a hydroponic garden for the physically disabled by Eamon Durey (Northern Ireland), additions for steps by Dušan Uršič (Slovenia) and classically tailored clothing for fashion-conscious seniors, developed by Ina Nathalie Bölsing, Kaja Čufer, Tajda Dražić and Katarina Ekart from the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering under the mentorship of Alenka More (Slovenia). All these prototypes will be on view at Švicarija until 20 October 2019.

The exhibition was produced in collaboration between RogLab (MGML) and MGLC.

The project is supported by the City of Ljubljana.

Part of the partner network of the Center for Creativity, this project is co-financed by the European Union from the European Regional Development Fund and the Republic of Slovenia.

Dušan Uršič: additions for steps, prototypes

Open Studio Day at Švicarija and Festival Art Island

Photo: Jaka Babnik. Archive: MGLC.

Open Studio Day at Švicarija

5 October 2019, 13.00–19.00 

MGLC – Švicarija

Open Studios’ Day enables public access to the work environment of artists who have their studios at Švicarija; furthermore there is also prolific accompanying programme.

13.00–19.00: Open Studio Day

16.00: performance by the Hupa Brajdič art collective

19.00: concert by Ana Kravanja & Samo Kutin

Festival Art Island

5-6 October 2019, MGLC – Švicarija

Pop-up festival which brings together series of artistic interventions and live events at Švicarija is primarily focused on the omnipresent questions on relationship between nature and culture. In case of Švicarija this fragile relationship is inevitably established as the building is situated on the very frontier between carefully maintained park of completely anthropogenic nature and the forest which is to great extent left to brute forces of nature. The festival offers series of in-situ interventions in the communal spaces as well as Open Studio Day on 5th October when between 1 and 7pm the studios of artists who live and/or work at Švicarija will be open for visitors.

Participating artists: Anja Jerčič Jakob, Nadežda Kirćanski, Neža Knez, Damjan Kracina & Sašo Kalan, Danilo Milovanović, Ryts Monet, Tanja Pak, Silvester Plotajs Sicoe, Marija Mojca Pungerčar, Ana Sluga, Zora Stančič, Martina Štirn, Miha Štrukelj, Ana Zejak & Veljko Zejak.

Exhibition producer: Društvo Hibrid

Co-producer: MGLC

Marathon Guided Tour: Exhibitions are visited ON FOOT!

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. Archive: MGLC.

On Saturday, 21 September, for European Mobility Week, we have prepared the themed guided tour Exhibitions are visited ON FOOT!, whilst we also host the Biennial Doors Open Day.

You will be taken around the venues of this year's Biennial by Museum Information Officer, Gregor Dražil. The meeting point for the guided tour is in front of MGLC at 11.00, and in front of the National Gallery of Slovenia at 12.30.

The tour will be accompanied by impro interventions in collaboration with Impro liga, therefore get ready for one of the more exciting guided tours so far!

P. S.: Please wear appropriate footwear (our hedgehog has also put on his trainers).

Guided tour with Slavs and Tatars

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. Archive: MGLC.

Friday, 27 September, 15.00–18.00, starting at Equrna Gallery:

Guided tour with Slavs and Tatars, curators of the 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts

Given the wealth of knowledge of the contemporary art scene, the Slavs and Tatars artist duo have been transformed into the curator of the 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts, inviting artists from the territory east of the Berlin and west of the Chinese wall to take part in exhibitions in Ljubljana. Their joint gesture was the power of satire and humour today, which they expressed through various executions of the medium and highlighted subject matters, all of which were interlinked by a distinctly ironic note. The Biennial was seen as a reflection on the graphic as a way of acting in terms of clarity and multiplicity of meaning.

The guided tour will also include the announcement of the voting that took place during the course of the Biennial:

The Aspergistan Referendum

The secession referendum at the venues of the Ljubljana Biennial invited visitors to vote on joining the Aspergistan Federation. The original work by Hamja Ahsan, the recipient of the Grand Prize of the 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts, further develops the idea from Ahsan's book Shy Radicals published in 2017, which is a kind of manifestation of introverted people with radical beliefs; it is an activist-artist platform about a federation that would be a homeland to shy, introverted and autistic people.

The Audience Award

The Audience Award for Best Artist was first awarded at the 30th Biennial of Graphic Arts in 2013. Visitors were also able to vote for their favourite Biennial artist on the MGLC website this year.

The guided tour begins at Equrna Gallery (Gregorčičeva 3) and ends with a social gathering at MGLC – International Centre of Graphic Arts in Tivoli; in English.

If you book in advance, you receive a ticket to the exhibition and guided tour free of charge. Bookings can be made until 24 September by writing to info@mglc-lj.si. Tickets should be collected before the guided tour on 27 September at the Info Point at Equrna Gallery.

A note to visitors of the 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts: Crack Up – Crack Down

We notify you that the exhibition of work by Hinko Smrekar The Seven Deadly Sins was on view at the National Gallery of Slovenia until the end of August. The works were exhibited as part of the Biennial and announced a major retrospective of the artist's works next year.

Photo: Jaka Babnik. Archive: MGLC.

About Unserious Science in Serious Art

Thursday, 26 September 2019, at 6 pm in the Grand Hall of Švicarija

About Unserious Science in Serious Art

Round table organised by the Kula Slovenian Ethnological and Anthropological Association

Alenka Pirman, Blaž Bajič, Rajko Muršič and Miha Horvat will join in the discussion.

At least at first glance, it seems that ethnography and satire could not be more different: the first tends towards respectfully describing ways of life, understanding the world from the point of view of the "native", striving to produce new knowledge, etc., whereas the second, makes a protest against a person, group, habit or system through more or less frank foolery. Yet both can be defined as ways of describing or portraying reality and – more than that – it could be said that both grab the truth of the phenomena under consideration in the moments of fiction, inherent to the most factual of descriptions. And if an ethnographic turn has occurred in art, then no satirical turn has taken place in ethnography or anthropology as such. The naive question arises – why? Are the reasons epistemological in nature, are ethnography and satire conceptually incompatible? Has anthropology imposed a limitation on itself for ethical reasons? Or is ethnography perhaps not interested in satire, quietly rejecting it because of its implicit political stance? At the same time, another naive question arises – what, if anything, can we learn from satire, and what, if anything, can we do with satire in a world that seems beyond satire because it is already satire itself?

Alicja Rogalska: Citizens of Nowhere, Artist talk

25th International Festival of Contemporary Arts – City of Women

Friday, 13. 9.
18.00, Švicarija

Alicja Rogalska is this year’s City of Women’s artist-in-residence at Švicarija, commissioned by the curatorial duo osborn&møller. During the one-month residency programme, Rogalska will address the issue of The Erased, the around twenty thousand people, who were left without citizenship shortly after Slovenia declared independence in 1991. The newly founded state (Republic of Slovenia) stripped The Erased of a social existence, prompting the artist to question how this identity which was taken away could even begin to be represented. The artist will share some possible answers and performative actions that will ensue from the residency programme with audiences at the artist talk taking place at Švicarija (13 September), as well as in the screening and conversation at Škuc Gallery as part of the solo exhibition Kinds of Pressure (2–18 October).

Alicja Rogalska mostly works in specific contexts, making situations, performances, videos and installations in collaboration with other people to collectively search for emancipatory ideas for the future. She is currently artist-in-residence at the Stuart Hall Library/INIVA in London and is working on a commission for Art Exchange in collaboration with the Faculty of Social Sciences at Essex University and Focal Point Gallery. She has recently presented her work at Biennale Warszawa, Kyoto Art Centre, Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka and MuseumsQuartier in Vienna.

Artist talk will be delivered in English!

Free entry!

Local research assistant: Olga Michalik; Alicja Rogalska assistant: Linnea Hansander; produced by: City of Women; co-produced by: MGLC – International Centre of Graphic Arts, Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Kunstencentrum Vooruit; supported by: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, City of Ljubljana.

Drop-in zine workshop with Hamja Ahsan

Saturday, 28 September, 10.00–18.00, DobraVaga

Hamja Ahsan – the recipient of the Grand Prize of the 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts – is an artist, activist and curator, who lives and works in London. He is the author of Shy Radicals: Antisystemic Politics of the Militant Introvert and the founder of the DIY Cultures festival of creative activism, fanzines and independent publishing. He is presenting himself at the Biennial with a referendum and inviting visitors to the venues of the Ljubljana Biennial to vote for these zones to join the seceded Aspergistan Federation. He will be conducting a drop-in (fan)zine workshop with visitors over the age of 18, which will reflect the message of the Biennial exhibition.

Advance bookings are appreciated, to be made to petra.derganc@mglc-lj.si.

Free of charge.

Foto: Urška Boljkovac. Archive: MGLC.

WE WISH YOU GOOD MORNING AT MULTIVISION!

As part of the Multivision project (www.multivizija.si), which explores the diversity of identities through multimedia creation, we are organising relaxed morning conversations with interesting dialogue partners to talk about identities, otherness as an experience of social exclusion, and socially engaged creation in response to the social challenges of contemporary society.

We invite you to join us for relaxed morning conversations with three interesting women over tea or coffee at Švicarja in Tivoli, in the inspiring ambience of the Batič Sculpture Studio, from 10.30 to 11.00.

On 7 August 2019, with singer-songwriter, researcher, mentor and publicist Katarina Juvančič, who will take us through the musical creation of stories about women.

On 21 August 2019, with researcher and scientist Mirjam Milharčič Hladnik, PhD, who will introduce us to the concept of assembled identities.

On 4 September 2019, with writer, researcher and scientist Svetlana Slapšak, PhD, who will take us into the interweavings of science and art that talk about women, identities and love.

All welcome!

The event is part of the Multivision: Multimedia, Dance and Theatre Training for Vulnerable Groups project. The project is funded by the European Union from the European Social Fund and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia. 

The event is organised by the APIS Institute in collaboration with the International Centre of Graphic Arts.

* The conversations will be recorded and subsequently posted on the web and the social networks.

TUESDAY GUIDED TOURS

6. 8.–27. 8. 2019  Multiple venues

Every Tuesday in August a guided tour of the galleries in the city centre will be held, starting at 18.30, meeting point at Equrna Gallery.

Guided tour with reflection on the Biennial

Tuesday, 17 September, 17.00

Guided tour starts at MGLC.

Admission payable, guided tour free of charge.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. Arhiv: MGLC.

Mathieu Asselin, Monsanto: A Photographic Investigation

Lecture:

Mathieu Asselin, Monsanto: A Photographic Investigation

Wednesday, 4 September, at 6 pm

MGLC  ̶  Švicarija

As part of the year-long programme at Švicarija, which pursues the motto of community, art and nature, whose focus in 2019 rests on the analysis of the state of independent journalism and the issue of the right of the public to information, the French researcher, photographer and artist Mathieu Asselin will present his long-term project Monsanto: A Photographic Investigation.

Mathieu Asselin has been continuously devoted to researching the activities of the multinational Monsanto Company over several years now, which produces, sells and patents seeds, and manufactures various types of pesticides. Both are extensively used in industrial agriculture. The artist therefore wishes to confront the public with the consequences of Monsanto’s operations, which has in the recent years become a synonym for a corporation that is monopolising the food industry, farming practices and introducing genetically modified seeds in the name of short-term profit. In the long term, however, the corporation is deliberately destroying small food producers through exclusive contracts and by supplying the market with generic products of questionable quality. Despite the company’s notorious reputation, mass media reports on its activities remain very scarce. Asselin’s long-term project uses investigative journalism to confront the principles of operation and the consequences of such a business model. He has collected information on Monsanto’s global lobbying on changes to legislation that would permit the use of genetically modified seeds and the use of pesticides. He has uncovered the history of the company, which, among other things, produced the Agent Orange warfare gas used in the Vietnam War, and he has documented the consequences of the corporation’s civilian operations on people and the environment.

The lecture will be delivered in English!

Mathieu Asselin (1973) is a photographer and artist whose work is mainly dedicated to long-term investigative documentary projects, such as his artist book Monsanto: A Photographic Investigation, which has received huge international acclaim. Asselin is a member of the Editorial Committee at Disclose, the first NGO dedicated to investigative journalism in France. He lives and works in Arles, France.

https://www.mathieuasselin.com/

METABOLIC MUSEUM-UNIVERSITY

25th July 2019–2nd August 2019

Various Venues

The Metabolic Museum-University offers an experimental educational program to all visitors of the 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts, as well as visitors of participating museums in Ljubljana.

Over seven days, selected exhibitions are transformed into an unusual and ironic clash between a museum, a university and a body. Unique furniture based on a home-camping style provides visitors with the means to sit down, read, write, and take part in lectures, conversations, experiments, and exercises. Special metabolic chairs have their own table, light and mini-beamer enabling participants to spam the hang by projecting their own visuals into the gaps between artworks.

Each of the seven days corresponds to an Organ of the Week and is directed by a Faculty Member of the Metabolic Museum-University. In addition, innovative Stimuli prepared by guest artists and scientists interrupt the daily sessions with creative and intellectual impulses.

The Metabolic Museum takes place from Friday 26th July 2019 until Friday 2nd August 2019 between 14.00-18.00, except for Sunday 28th July when it runs all day from 11.00-13.00 and 14.00-18.00. On Monday 29th July 2019 there is no session.

The Metabolic Museum-University is open and free to all visitors with entry tickets to the Biennial venues and museums. It encourages participants to take part in all sessions for the full week if possible, but sporadic visits are also welcome. Sessions will be held in English.

SCHEDULE

Children’s Studio at Švicarija: Hedgehog draws, prints and rolls about!

Every Friday during the Biennial, 10.00–12.00, Švicarija, Tivoli Park

We carry out relief printing workshops for our youngest group of “hedgehogs” (4–12 years old), tell each other jokes and talk about large-scale exhibitions.

Free of charge.

For groups of three or more children please make an appointment: petra.derganc@mglc-lj.si.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. Archive: MGLC.

TUESDAY GUIDED TOURS

Short guided tours in Slovene and English

Every Tuesday in July at 18.30: of MGLC and Švicarija (meeting point at MGLC).

Every Tuesday in August at 18.30: of the galleries in the city centre (meeting point at Equrna Gallery).

Guided tour with reflection on the Biennial

Tuesday, 17 September, 17.00

Guided tour starts at MGLC

Admission payable, guided tour free of charge

HOW TO BE AN ARTIST AND AN ENTREPRENEUR?

6. 7. 2019,10:00–14:30

We invite you to take part in a one-day workshop:

Business School for Artists: A Creative Approach to Business Planning

The workshop programme encompasses addressing business as a creative practice, being a step ahead of others, taking into account resources, time and costs, analysis of profitability, business plan as a narrative aid, as well as conclusion and questions. The workshop is led by Amy Whitaker, Assistant Professor at New York University. She completed her postgraduate studies in Management at Yale School of Management and postgraduate studies in Painting at the Slade School of Fine Art. She is the author of the books Museum Legs (2009) and Art of Thinking (2016).

Programme

Students and graduates of art schools and academies have priority in applying.
Participation fee: 35 EUR

Application form
Bookings: petra.derganc@mglc-lj.si

Amy Whitaker, Assistant Professor, Visual Arts Administration, NYU. Personal archive.

Summer in Tivoli

In July, every Tuesday and Thursday, at MGLC and Švicarija

Tuesday concerts at 20.00, MGLC courtyard:

9 July: Duo Ponte, world music that winds among the traditions of diverse cultures

16 July: Tony Rose, travel blues and folk music from Scotland

23 July: Grain Hunt, a contemporary singing-songwriting treat from Ireland

30 July: Klarisa Jovanović (feat. Igor Bezget), ethno music from the Mediterranean worlds

A public guided tour of the Biennial will be held before the concert, starting at 18.30 at MGLC, in Slovene and English.

In case of bad weather the concert will be held at the Caffe Bienale.  

Thursday concerts at 21.00, Švicarija Great Hall:

4 July: Your Gay Thoughts, electronic music and audio-visual treats

11 July: Dubzilla, experimental dub fusion

18 July: BeatMyth, hybrid electro-punk and breakbeat

25 July: Bowrain, a cineastic fusion of electronic and acoustic music

Free admission to all events.

MGLC and Švicarija are open till 20.00 on Tuesdays.

RAINBOW PRINTMAKING WORKSHOP

RAINBOW PRINTMAKING WORKSHOP

Wednesday, 26 June 2019, at 4 pm, Švicarija

This time, we are inviting you to Švicarija for a rainbow-coloured printmaking workshop, since the Pride Parade takes place in June, when we join forces to support the LGBTQ+ community. The two-hour printmaking workshop will be held on Wednesday, 26 June, at 4 pm, at Švicarija.

We will get to know the basics of printmaking and the processes of printing. Using the collage technique, we will produce artworks, upgrading them by printing everyday objects, as well as those that one would not have thought suitable to be used for printing. The workshop will take us into the world of experimental printmaking, where almost anything goes.

The workshop is run in cooperation with ŠKUC – Q Cultural Centre, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this year. As you get creative, you will be taken on a brief tour through the history of the LGBTQ+ community in Slovenia.

We’re meeting in front of MGLC.

Warmly invited!

Summer Museum Night at MGLC

Summer Museum Night at MGLC!

Saturday, 15 June, 18.00–24.00

MGLC and Švicarija, Tivoli Park

PROGRAMME:

18.00–21.00: Children’s Studio, workshops for children, Švicarija

21.00–22.00: Guided tour of the 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts, the tour starts at MGLC; led by Nevenka Šivavec, Director of MGLC

22.00–22.30: Stand-up performance, Jan Kreuzer, Švicarija

Admission free!

Illustration by Janja Kosi.

Opening of the 33rd Biennial of Graphic Arts

Satire is the main theme of this year’s 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts organised by the International Centre of Graphic Arts (MGLC). The opening will take place on Friday, 7 June 2019, in Švicarija (Tivoli Park). The selection of participating artists is undersigned by the Slavs and Tatars art collective, while the Biennial that bears the title Crack Up – Crack Down will be on show at nine venues across Ljubljana and will be open till the end of September. The main exhibition will be held in the spaces of MGLC and in the nearby Švicarija. The works of individual artists will be displayed at the National Gallery of Slovenia, National and University Library (NUK), Equrna Gallery, ZVKDS Gallery, ISIS Gallery, DUM Project Space and at the DobraVaga exhibition space. The exhibition of the Grand Prize recipient of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts will be on view at the Plečnik House, where the artist will present his architectural intervention, The Garden of Epicurus.

The Biennial will include artists that come from Slovenia, Poland, Ukraine, Georgia, Bulgaria, China, Iran, Great Britain and the USA, who use their own unique graphic languages as part of a range of diverse practices. They wish to stimulate the emergence of highly resilient and topical forms of criticism or infra-politics through irony and ridicule. Besides the historical part, the exhibition will also present the works of contemporary artists, including the interventions of various activists and new-media polemicists, as well as the performances of stand-up comedians and others.

The exhibition will be enriched by a series of accompanying events and the Crack Up – Crack Down publication that will, in addition to presenting the satirical and graphic practices, include the contributions of well-known experts and academicians, and will introduce the reader to the subject and guide him through it.

PROGRAMME: Opening of The 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts

You are cordially invited to attend the opening of the 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts on Friday, 7 June 2019, at 18.00 at Švicarija, Tivoli Park in Ljubljana with the Slon in Sadež duo.

PROGRAMME

18.00
The Biennial will be opened by 
Nevenka Šivavec, Director of MGLC 
Zoran Poznič, Minister of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia
Tjaša Ficko, Deputy Mayor of Ljubljana

Presentation of the Grand Prize of the 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts. 

19.00
Concert
Being Out of Tune – Favourite Songs of my Neighbours, Abusers and Despots, 2019
Augustin Maurs
Also performing:
Igor Feketija
Leon Firšt
Peter Firšt

20.00
Stand-up comedy:
Boštjan Gorenc aka Pižama (Slovene) Marina Orsag (Croatian)
Dragoș Cristian (English)
hosted by Anja Wutej (Slovene/English)

BIENNIAL OPENING DAYS

Saturday, 8 June

11.00
Saturday breakfast
ZVKDS Gallery
Trg francoske revolucije 3 
Ajdin Bašić in conversation with Branko Đurić - Đuro and presentation of Top lista nadrealista

16.00
Symposium
Moderated by Slavs and Tatars
Švicarija, Tivoli Park

16.00–17.45:
Vid Simoniti: Equality and Cynicism: Satire and Martin Krpan, Top lista nadrealista and Borat
30 min

Mohammad Salemy: Between Three Revolutions: Notes on the History of Iranian Political Satire (1900–1980) in the Age of Social Media
30 min

Arthur Fournier with Raphael Koenig: 
No More Fuchs Left to Give
30 min

18.00–19.30:
Emily Apter: Micropolitics of the Meme. How are we to understand and implement the political vocabulary of a genre of communication native to the 21st century?
30 min

keynote:
Vinca Kruk and Daniel van der Velden/Metahaven:
Sleep Walks The Street
45 min

Sunday, 9 June

11.00
Opening of the exhibition. 
With the Celje String Orchestra.
Plečnik House, Karunova 4–6
Alejandro Paz, The Garden of Epicurus
Recipient of the Grand Prize of the 32nd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts

Free admission to all events.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS

Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Hamja Ahsan, Pablo Bronstein, Cevdet Erek, Arthur Fournier & Raphael Koenig, Martine Gutierrez, Flaka Haliti, Stane Jagodič, Zhanna Kadyrova, Dozie Kanu, Sachiko Kazama, KRIWET, Ella Kruglyanskaya, Tala Madani, Augustin Maurs, Marlie Mul, Woody De Othello, Alenka Pirman & KULA, Amanda Ross-Ho, Lin May Saeed, Hinko Smrekar, Top lista nadrealista, Endre Tot, Anna Uddenberg, Martina Vacheva, Nicole Wermers, Giorgi Xaniashvili, XIYADIE, Honza Zamojski 

Dragoș Cristian, Boštjan Gorenc - Pižama, Marina Orsag, Pavlo Voytovich, Anja Wutej

Curators: Slavs and Tatars

EXHIBITION VENUES

The exhibition venues of the 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts are open from 16.00 to 18.00 on 7 June.

MGLC – International Centre of Graphic Arts 
MGLC – Švicarija 
National Gallery of Slovenia
National and University Library
Equrna Gallery
ZVKDS Gallery
Isis Gallery
DUM Project Space
DobraVaga
Plečnik House

More info: http://bienale.si/en/

THE LAST GUIDED TOUR OF THE EXHIBITION

Photographic Images and Matter: Japanese Prints of the 1970s and Japan, Yugoslavia and the Biennial of Graphic Arts: Documents of Collaboration

Tuesday, May 7, at 5.30 pm
in English
at 5 pm in Slovenian

Admission for the exhibition, the guided tour is free.
Conducted by the co-author of the exhibition Gregor Dražil, Museum Information Officer.

Warmly welcome!

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

MGLC AND ŠVICARIJA ARE OPEN FOR THE HOLIDAYS

MGLC and Švicarija are open on 1 and 2 May, from 10 am to 6 pm.

Join us to view the exhibitions:
Photographic Images and Matter: Japanese Prints of the 1970s and Japan, Yugoslavia and the Biennial of Graphic Arts: Documents of Collaboration and Nataša Berk, 1st Unlimited Edition.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

GUIDED TOUR OF THE EXHIBITION

Photographic Images and Matter: Japanese Prints of the 1970s
and
Japan, Yugoslavia and the Biennial of Graphic Arts: Documents of Collaboration

Tuesday, April 23, at 5.30 pm
in English
at 5 pm in Slovenian

Admission for the exhibition, the guided tour is free.
Conducted by the co-author of the exhibition Gregor Dražil, Museum Information Officer.

Warmly welcome!

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Theme-based guided tour of Švicarija

Robert Simonišek: Following the Tracks of Ciril Metod Koch 

Thursday, 18 April, at 5 pm
admission: 2 EUR

Art historian and writer Robert Simonišek will conduct a guided tour of Švicarija, presenting the legacy of architect Ciril Metod Koch (1867–1925) and the specific location of Tivoli Hotel (Švicarija) in his oeuvre.

After the Ljubljana earthquake in 1895, architect Ciril Metod Koch drew up plans for several iconic buildings in the city, including Tivoli Hotel and Švicarija, which in many ways deviates from the other buildings by this very prolific architect. Švicarija was built in the “Alpine and national style” in 1909. No other such building was later constructed in Ljubljana, therefore Švicarija remains an architectural lone. In the guided tour, Robert Simonišek will evaluate and analyse the architect’s eclectic style through the perspective of time and space.

The public guided tour Following the Tracks of Ciril Metod Koch is part of the year-long programme of Švicarija, which in 2019 focuses on the analysis of the state of independent journalism and the right of the public to information in the pursuit of the moto community, art and nature.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

GUIDED TOUR OF THE EXHIBITION

Photographic Images and Matter: Japanese Prints of the 1970s and
Japan, Yugoslavia and the Biennial of Graphic Arts: Documents of Collaboration

Tuesday, April 9, at 5.30 pm
in English
at 5 pm in Slovenian

Admission for the exhibition, the guided tour is free.
Conducted by the co-author of the exhibition Gregor Dražil, Museum Information Officer.

Warmly welcome!

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

ANNOUNCING THE 33RD LJUBLJANA BIENNIAL OF GRAPHIC ARTS: CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN

7. 6.–29. 9. 2019

Curator:
art collective Slavs and Tatars
35 artists on 9 venues in Ljubljana

Crack Up – Crack Down will take an expansive view of the genre of satire today, featuring works by historical and contemporary international artists, as well as interventions by activists, new media polemicists, performances by stand-up comedians, and others. For the 33rd edition of the Biennial, Slavs and Tatars consider ‘the graphic’ not as a medium, but as an agency. They question how graphic language engenders a form of infra-politics via irony and ridicule as a particularly resilient and contemporary form of critique. Purported to speak truth to power, satire has proven itself to be a petri dish in a world of post-truth bacteria

Click for more

POVEZUJEM/TIVOLI CREATIVE CIRCLE

The PovezujeM/Tivoli Creative Circle
programme, which is organised by the museums around Tivoli Park, will take place again during the summer holidays.

Two time-frames are available:
8–12 July and 26–30 August,
from 8 am to 4 pm. 

Further details will be available soon!

You can pre-book your place by writing to: petra.derganc@mglc-lj.si

Part of the circle: National Museum of Slovenia, Museum of Modern Art, National Museum of Contemporary History, National Gallery of Slovenia and International Centre of Graphic Arts.

THE 1ST GUIDED TOUR OF THE EXHIBITION

Photographic Images and Matter: Japanese Prints of the 1970s and
Japan, Yugoslavia and the Biennial of Graphic Arts: Documents of Collaboration

Tuesday, March 26, at 5.30 pm
in English
at 5 pm in Slovenian

Admission for the exhibition, the guided tour is free.
Conducted by Gregor Dražil, Museum Information Officer.

Warmly welcome!

NATAŠA BERK: 1ST UNLIMITED EDITION

2. 4.–19. 5. 2019

Opening:
2 April, at 7 pm
Švicarija

The exhibition is part of the year-long programme of Švicarija, which in 2019 focuses on the analysis of the state of independent journalism and the right of the public to information in pursuit of the slogan community, art and nature. The participating artists question the credibility of images and their meanings at a time of the oversaturation with visual impulses and analyse the ambiguity of media messages on the world wide web.

The spatial intervention by Nataša Berk and the group of artists at Švicarija presents their diverse visual production, which usually takes place in the virtual space of the world wide web and social networks. On this occasion, it has moved into a physical space. Together, they explore the phenomenology of the image within public circulation and its impact on the perception of reality. In ironic ways, they address the norms of the advertising industry, the tendencies of the mass media, voyeurism and the social convention of the individual’s appearance. Thus, works devoted to the consideration of the nature of the image in everyday life are presented as part of the exhibition. In such a way, photographs, videos and collages open up the questions of understanding visual culture in an era when the public space has become saturated with contents and images, questions about the manipulation of the image and the ambivalence of its meanings.    

Curator: Miha Colner

Photo: Nataša Berk.

EVENING WITH MANCA KOŠIR: STORIES ABOUT BOOKS AND PEOPLE

Tuesday, May 14, at 6 pm

On the second Tuesday of May, on 14 May, LOVE will colour the subject of debate, starting at 6 pm. Manca’s guests will be television host Ana Tavčar Pirkovič, PhD, with the book by D. Ladinsky Love Poems from God and Željko Čurić, psychiatrist and psychotherapist, who is fascinated by the work of F. M. Dostoevsky. Saxophonist Vida Vatovec will add a musical touch to the evening.

ANIMATION WORKSHOP

Sunday, May 19, 11.00–14.00,
Švicarija

After a brief viewing of Švicarija and the exhibition by Nataša Berk, 1st Unlimited Edition, we will create a video in the world of pixelation by using our own bodies. Mentor Jelena Dragutinovič will lead us through the process.

This workshop is the last in the series of animation workshops during this school year, which are run by the Slon Society in cooperation with MGLC.

Suitable for young people aged 8+. Free of charge.

Obligatory booking; https://bit.ly/2vl5BqZ

The World Water Day in Švicarija

Thursday, 21 March, 6 pm – 9 pm
Švicarija

As part of the year-long programme of Švicarija, which is in 2019 focusing on the analysis of the state of independent journalism and the issue of the public right to information through the pursuit of the slogan community, art and nature, a lecture by nature conservationist Andreja Slameršek on the industrialisation of aquatic habitats is taking place, along with the opening of the installation Palingenesis 2.0 by artist Miha Godec.

Lecture, at 6 pm
Andreja Slameršek: The Industrialisation of Aquatic Habitats

Through the lecture, Andreja Slameršek will present the consequences of the industrialisation of aquatic habitats in Slovenia, both those already implemented and those planned.

Nature conservationist Andreja Slameršek has been an active campaigner against the construction of hydroelectric power plants on the Mura River and other Slovenian rivers for many years. The planned interventions present a threat by causing immense destruction of authentic natural habitats, while the increase in the electricity produced would be negligible. The expert will explain about the reasons and the effects of the planned interventions, given that such interventions to the environment are often portrayed as an example of green energy to the public even though the damming of a river, reorganisation of its banks and stoppage of its flow constitute an ecological catastrophe with far-reaching consequences. On the other hand, the Sava River is already utterly industrialised, and the first effects of damming on natural river habitats are beginning to show.

Opening of the installation, at 7 pm
Miha Godec: Palingenesis 2.0

Artist and researcher Miha Godec will present the Palingenesis 2.0 installation, which shows one of the ways to purify polluted water, a burning issue in many parts of the world.

The kinetic audio-visual installation Palingenesis 2.0 will be presented in the spaces of Švicarija, which is the result of a preceding workshop. The installation produced with water as the central medium creates a meditative space in which the visitor can listen to the sound of the purification of water. The work refers to the idea of re-birth or processing, which is mentioned in various philosophical, theological, political and biological contexts. The dirty water becomes clear and potable again. Godec has explored the issue of drinkable water in various countries, such as Indonesia, Gambia, Costa Rica and Senegal, where he studied the technical solutions for the simple and inexpensive production of the mentioned water installation.

The event is being organised on the eve of World Water Day in observance and as part of it.

Photo: Goran Šafarek.

EVENING WITH MANCA KOŠIR: STORIES ABOUT BOOKS AND PEOPLE

Tuesday, March 12, at 6 pm

The Evening with Manca Košir in March will be coloured by the silence intoned by Erling Kagge’s book Silence: In the  Age of Noise. Manca’s guests will be meditative painter Joni Zakonjšek and pilgrim Viljem Gogala, the author of the book POTopis. MOL Scholarship holder, cellist Kim Kozlevčar, will add a musical touch to the evening.

Visiting artists!

Public talk:
Thibault Scemama de Gialluly (Paris) & Dejan Kaludjerović (Vienna)

Wednesday, March 13, at 5 pm
Švicarija

You are kindly invited to attend a public talk by the artists who are currently part of two “artist in residence” programmes in Ljubljana. Currently resident at Švicarija is Thibault Scemama de Gialluly from Paris, while Tobacco 001 Cultural Centre is hosting Dejan Kaludjerović from Vienna. The public talk will be moderated by Alenka Trebušak (MGML – Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana) and Miha Colner (MGLC – International Centre of Graphic Arts). The guest artists will present their creative practices, showcase the works which have been in the making during the residency period, share their world views and much more.

Thibault Scemama de Gialluly (1987) is an artist who is seeking to act as a geographer of the future by creating extra territories. He is working to establish a user manual that would be shaped like a perpetual scalable scenario going through a drift across the world and a plausible new practical history. The artist, who lives and works in Paris, is building a setting for new common fictions. Thibault Scemama de Gialluly is the recipient of the three-month residency programme at Švicarija, which is part of an inter-institutional exchange between Parc Saint Léger, Nevers and MGLC – International Centre of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana.

Dejan Kaludjerović (1976), born in Belgrade, completed his undergraduate studies at the Academy in Vienna, where he lives and works, and his postgraduate studies at the Academy in Belgrade. From the start of his art career at the beginning of this millennium, Kaludjerović has been exploring the conjunction between consumerism and childhood, with a view to analysing how the identity and stability of representative forms are established. Dejan Kaludjerović is the current resident on the Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana’s two-month residency programme. At the end of the residency, the artist will showcase his new exhibition project at Tobacco 001 Cultural Centre, opening on 24 April 2019.

Project supported by Institut Franҫais Slovénie.

Thibault Scemama de Gialluly. 

SYMPOSIUM ON THE EXHIBITION JAPAN, YUGOSLAVIA AND THE BIENNIAL OF GRAPHIC ARTS: DOCUMENTS OF COLLABORATION

Japan, Yugoslavia and the Biennial of Graphic Arts: Documents of Collaboration

Wednesday, 15 May, 14.00–18.00, 
International Centre of Graphic Arts

Symposium timeline
13:45 Introductory Speech
14:00 Gregor Dražil: An Outline of Collaboration between Japan and Slovenia in the Area of Printmaking
*14:40 Bert Winther-Tamaki: The Wood Aesthetic of the “Creative Prints” Movement of Japan, 1945 to 1965
15:20 Wiktor Komorowski: From Washi to Politics: Printmaking and the Cold War Japonisme
16:00–16:20 Break
16:20 Marjeta Ciglenečki: Forma Viva in Slovenia and Japanese Artists
17:00 Noriaki Sangawa: The Japanese Art Group Ryu and Its Collaboration with the Slovenian Moderna galerija and the Biennial of Graphic Arts

Visiting lecture
*Bert Winther-Tamaki: What Happens to Contemporary Art Made in Japan When Exhibited Outside of Japan?
*The lecture will take place on Monday, 13 May, at 18:00 at the Faculty of Arts, room 343. The lecture is co-organised by the Department of Art History.

The symposium will be held in English.

More

Photo: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Archive.

The Family fold’r 

Dear families, you are kindly invited to explore the MGLC gallery!
We have again prepared the Family fold’r for you, which you receive free of charge when you purchase a family ticket to view the exhibition.
This time, some curious cards are waiting for you inside, and they need to find their places in the gallery with your help and the help of your children.

Good luck!

opening:
Friday, March 22, at 6 pm

22. 3.–19. 5. 2019

The exhibition is made up of two sections. The first, bearing the title Photographic Images and Matter: Japanese Prints of the 1970s, is dedicated to Japanese printmaking of the 1970s and was organised by the Japan Foundation, while the second, the documentary section, is entitled Japan, Yugoslavia and the Biennial of Graphic Arts: Documents of Collaboration and has been prepared by the International Centre of Graphic Arts.

The travelling exhibition Photographic Images and Matter, with a selection of the most representative artists, presents the orientations within Japanese printmaking of the 1970s, which was the golden age of the print medium in Japan. The curator of the exhibition Kyoji Takizawa has made an attractive selection of artists, who have received many awards within the international arena and form the core of the modernist and avant-garde scene of the 1970s.

The documentary exhibition Japan, Yugoslavia and the Biennial of Graphic Arts: Documents of Collaboration, on the other hand, illuminates one of the many socio-artistic chapters tied to the history of the Biennial of Graphic Arts in Ljubljana. Through the selection of pictorial, archival, photographic and other material, it aims to show the communication between the geographically and politically disparate countries as part of an ambitious international art event like the Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts. Exhibition authors are Nevenka Šivavec and Gregor Dražil.

The exhibition is accompanied by an international symposium under the same title, taking place in the month of May.

Exhibition design: Ivian Kan Mujezinović and Mina Fina.

Tetsuya Noda: Diary, September 11, '68 (woodcut and silkscreen).

GUIDED TOUR WITH KATE SUTTON, THE CURATOR OF THE EXHIBITION FAIR GAME

Tuesday, 26 February at 5 pm

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

THE LAST GUIDED TOUR OF THE EXHIBITION MILTON GLASER, POSTERS

Tuesday, February 19, at 5.30 pm
(in Slovene at 5 pm)
admission is free

Conducted by Gregor Dražil, Museum Information Officer.

Milton Glaser: I Love NY More Than Ever, 2001.

Lecture: Robertina Šebjanič & Gjino Šutić: aqua_forensic

Thursday, 28 February, at 6 pm, Švicarija

As part of the year-long programme at Švicarija pursuing the motto community, art and nature, whose focus in 2019 rests on the analysis of the state of independent journalism and the issue of the right of the public to information, the artists and researchers Robertina Šebjanič (Ljubljana) and Gjino Šutić (Zagreb/Dubrovnik) will prepare a lecture on the subject of invisible water pollution.

Through a profound lecture, the artists and researchers will present their research project entitled aqua_forensic that exists at the intersection of art and science. Within this framework, they illuminate and reflect upon the invisible anthropogenic pollutants in the world’s water habitats (heavy metals, oils, antibiotics, leftovers of phytopharmaceutical products) and open up a discussion on human empathy towards (sub)aquatic habitats. The project therefore raises questions on so-called aquafarming in the period of the Anthropocene and on so-called terrafarming, i.e. the human imprint on the waters. But more than that, the artists raise the crucial question: How do the oceans feel our impact?

In all Directions

performance at the exhibition Fair Game

Sunday, February 17, at  4 pm

The Korean dancer Yong Min Cho will carry out a dance intervention at the Fair Game exhibition based on the language of the body, setting up and articulating unusual and new trajectories among the individual artworks. Nathalie Du Pasquier has designed and selected some of the accessories that will be used in the performance by Yong Min Cho. These include graphic pieces reminiscent of road signs. And it is precisely these signs that have inspired the title Tutte le Direzioni – taken from an Italian road sign, which indicates the way leading in all directions.

Yong Min Cho: Other Objects,
performance at the exhibition by Nathalie Du Pasquier, Other Rooms 
(Camden Arts Center: September 2017 - January 2018). Photo by: Camden Arts Centre.

GUIDED TOUR OF THE EXHIBITION OF NATHALIE DU PASQUIER, FAIR GAME

Tuesday, February 12, at 5.30 pm
(in Slovene at 5 pm)
admission payable to see the exhibition

Conducted by Gregor Dražil, Museum Information Officer.

Guided tour with Kate Sutton, the curator of the exhibition, will take place on Tuesday, 26 February at 5 pm.

Warmly welcome!

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

SLOVENIAN DAY OF CULTURE AT THE POSTERS EXHIBITION

Friday, February 8

10.00–18.00, free entrance to the exhibition
11.00, guided tour and worshop for families
We will viewing of the posters by Milton Glaser, one of the most important graphic designers in the world. We will also be creating our own posters based on our visual impressions.

15.00, Presentation of the Milton Glaser exhibition, conducted by the expert of visual communications Petra Černe Oven

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

SLOVENIAN DAY OF CULTURE AT THE FAIR GAME EXHIBITION

Friday, February 8

10.00–18.00, free entrance to the exhibition
11.00–15.00, drop-inguided tours of the exhibition with the curators 
10.00–11.30, the dance-coloured guided tour When a Stroll Through the Exhibition Becomes a Dance 
We observe the exhibition through movement and get to know the artworks with the body and the senses. Led by dancer and dance teacher Evin Hadžialjević.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Slovenian Day of Culture at MGLC and Švicarija

and Doors Open Day at the Švicarija studios

Friday, 8 February, 10.00–20.00

10.00–18.00, MGLC
You are invited to join us for a free tour of Milton Glaser’s posters and viewing of the exhibition by Nathalie Du Pasquier, Fair Game (drop-in guided tours of the exhibition with the curators are taking place from 11.00 to 15.00).

Morning programme for children and families
10.00–11.30, MGLC: The family programme begins with the dance-coloured guided tour When a Stroll Through the Exhibition Becomes a Dance at the exhibition Nathalie Du Pasquier, Fair Game. We observe the exhibition through movement and get to know the artworks with the body and the senses. Led by dancer and dance teacher Evin Hadžialjević.

The guided tour is followed by the viewing of the posters by Milton Glaser, one of the most important graphic designers in the world. We will also be creating our own posters based on our visual impressions.

12.00–12.30, Švicarija: Art, This is a Battle of Life, kamishibai performance with excerpts from The White Chrysanthemum by Ivan Cankar. Through her interpretation, Tatjana Rupnik Hladnik informs us that Cankar’s thinking about the relationship between the artist and society is just as interesting and relevant today as it was at the beginning of the 20th century when The White Chrysanthemum was produced on the premises of Švicarija.
The performance is followed by a short creative workshop.

Doors Open Day at the Švicarija studios
12.00–18.00
Anja Jerčič Jakob / Neža Knez / Damijan Kracina / Silvan Omerzu / Tanja Pak / PLATEAURESIDUE (Aljaž Celarc & Eva Pavlič Seifert) / Silvester Plotajs Sicoe / Marija Mojca Pungerčar / Ana Sluga / Zora Stančič / Martina Štirn Fukuhara / Miha Štrukelj / Veljko Zejak

10.00–18.00, Studio N8
Marie Lukáčová (Czech Republic): Oddcher’s Eco Trip, 2018 / presentation of the music video that was created in 2018 as part of the Švicarija residency programme.

10.00–18.00, Star Studio
Printing in Clay: Svetlana Jakimovska Rodić, Alenka Štante, Uršula Orel, Mojca Založnik, presentation of works from the sculpture workshop, mentor Veljko Zejak

Afternoon: Guided tour and round table
15.00, MGLC: Presentation of the Milton Glaser exhibition, conducted by the expert of visual communications Petra Černe Oven
With his viewpoints and his work, graphic designer Milton Glaser sets up very high standards for us. We can re-examine them again and again and they give us something more each time, explains Petra Černe Oven in the accompanying text to the exhibition. And just as there can only be one [I ©] NY, symbol in the world, there can only be one Milton Glaser in the history of visual communications. Defined in time and space, with a body of work extensive enough to enable the exploration of the strong symbolic connotations of the visual language of the 20th century.

16.00–17.00, Švicarija
Discussion Contemporary Art in Contemporary Mass Media (participating: Maja Kač, MMC RTV Slovenija, Iza Pevec, Radio Ars, Matjaž Zorec, Radio Študent)

Musical ending to the cultural holiday
18.00–20.00, Švicarija: Rok Zalokar Trio concert
The end of the Doors Open Day features the appearance of one of the most highlighted and active local jazz ensembles that has been giving performances in unchanged composition on local and international stages regularly since 2010. Rok Zalokar Trio, composed of Jože Cesar (drums), Dejan Hudoklin (bass) and Rok Zalokar (piano), has formed an unusually expressive language during the eight years of its activities, bringing together various musical genres, from classical jazz elements, rock riffs to synthetic electronic sound. Despite two studio album releases, the Rok Zalokar Trio is a live attraction, which should therefore not be missed.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Arvhive.

GUIDED TOUR OF THE EXHIBITION MILTON GLASER, POSTERS

Tuesday, February 5, at 5.30 pm
(in Slovene at 5 pm)
admission is free

Conducted by Gregor Dražil, Museum Information Officer.

Next guided tour will be on Tuesday, February 19.

Warmly welcome!

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Travelling into the body

dance and movement workshop in the programme of the exhibition Fair Game

Sunday, 3 February, 11.00–12.30

At the dance and movement workshop, adult participants will express their feelings while observing the artworks through the language of the body and the senses. The workshop is led by Evin Hadzialjević, MA (Art of Movement), dancer and dance teacher.

The workshop offers the opportunity to explore visual art through the body – the body will become a brush, sketching out lines, numbers, colours, shapes and shadows in relation to the observed within the space. We will try to connect with the artworks in different ways, with all the senses that are available to us. Movement has a positive effect on many of the body’s functions, it is also important for the brain. Each space, which differs from the previous one in terms of theme, dictates a different approach to the observed and allows for cognitive training, as we will be developing the different brain functions in unconventional ways, focusing on attention, object recognition and spatial processing. The emphasis will be particularly on exploring and seeking more intimate connections with the artworks while moving the body within the space.

The participation fee for the workshop is the ticket to see the exhibition (5 EUR, 2.5 EUR).

Advance bookings up till the available quota must be made to lili.sturm@mglc-lj.si.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

GUIDED TOUR OF THE EXHIBITION OF NATHALIE DU PASQUIER, FAIR GAME

Tuesday, January 29, at 5.30 pm

(in Slovene at 5 pm)
admission payable to see the exhibition
Conducted by Gregor Dražil, Museum Information Officer.

Warmly welcome!

Photo: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Archive.

MILTON GLASER, POSTERS

THE LAST WEEKEND FOR THE EXHIBITION

23. 11. 2018–3. 3. 2019

Milton Glaser (1929, New York) is one of most important graphic designers in the world, who has designed hundreds of corporate images, magazines, newspapers, books, LP covers, and has created thousands of posters during his career spanning over fifty years. He has been inscribed into the world history of design with his iconic “I love NY” logo. Milton Glaser has decided to donate thirty-five original posters (created between 1966 and 2016) to the City of Ljubljana, which will enrich the collection of the International Centre of Graphic Arts after the exhibition.

A special thanks on the occasion of the exhibition goes to Mirko Ilić, who came up with the idea for the donation in 2017, when he was hosted at the Festival of Tolerance as a lecturer and the author of the TOLERANCE exhibition. The show is organised every year by Mini teater and the Ljubljana Jewish Cultural Centre with the support of the City of Ljubljana (MOL).

Accompanying Programme to the Exhibition

Milton Glaser, Posters, 2018.

GUIDED TOUR OF THE EXHIBITION MILTON GLASER, POSTERS

Tuesday, January 22, at 5.30 pm
(in Slovene at 5 pm)
admission is free
Conducted by Gregor Dražil, Museum Information Officer.

Warmly welcome!

Foto: Nejc Ketiš. MGLC Archive.

GUIDED TOUR OF THE EXHIBITION OF NATHALIE DU PASQUIER, FAIR GAME

Tuesday, January 15, at 5.30 pm
(in Slovene at 5 pm)
admission payable to see the exhibition

Conducted by Gregor Dražil, Museum Information Officer.

Warmly welcome!

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS FOR VISUAL ARTISTS AT THE ŠVICARIJA CREATIVE CENTRE

The Švicarija Creative Centre and MGLC are looking for a visual artist, who will attend a one-month residency programme in Ljubljana. The candidate we are seeking ideally works across different mediums and genres, touches upon the notions of “community, nature and art” in their work, and/or whose practice is focused on the themes of social engagement, right to information and/or independent journalism.

Call for applications - full text

The deadline for applications is 18 February 2019.

The period of the residency is 1–30 November 2019.

Additional information:
miha.colner@mglc-lj.si or
+386 (0)30 708 469

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS FOR ART CRITICS / CULTURAL JOURNALISTS AT THE Švicarija Creative Centre

Švicarija Creative Centre and MGLC Ljubljana are looking for an art critic or cultural journalist, who is active in writing and publishing reviews and/or other forms of art writing in an international context. We are therefore aiming to host a critic or journalist, who has an interest in the vibrant art scene of Ljubljana and who is able to produce at least two (2) pieces of writing (reviews, interviews, columns, etc.) on selected artworks or art events in Ljubljana over the course of the residency. The articles are to be published in the English language in a relevant magazine (printed or online), radio, television or personal blog. We will select the candidate, who will provide the best possible outreach for the articles produced during the one-month “critic in residency” period in Ljubljana.

Call for applications - full text

Deadline for applications is 18 February 2019.

The period of the residency is 1–31 October 2019.

Additional information:
miha.colner@mglc-lj.si or
+386 (0)30 708 469

Foto: Jaka Babnik. Arhiv  MGLC.

Call for applications for an artist residency in Norway

MGLC/Švicarija Creative Centre and NKD/Nordic Artists’ Centre Dale are publishing a call for submissions for an artist residency in Norway in 2019.

On the basis of an inter-institutional exchange between the Švicarija Creative Centre (MGLC, Ljubljana) and the NKD Dale artist-in-residence centre (Dale, Norway), we invite visual and/or intermedia artists from Slovenia, or those that live and work here, to apply for an artist residency in Norway. The selected artist will take part in a two-month artist residency at the NKD Dale artist-in-residence centre, which operates under the auspices of the Norwegian Ministry of Culture. As part of the reciprocal exchange of residency artists between MGLC, Ljubljana and NKD Dale, a selected Norwegian artist will be staying at the residence in Ljubljana during the summer months, while an artist from Slovenia will take up their residency in Norway.

Entire call for submissions

The deadline for applications is 11 February 2019!

Guided tour of the exhibition Milton Glaser, Posters

Tuesday, January 8, at 5.30 pm (in Slovene at 5 pm)
admission is free
Conducted by Gregor Dražil, Museum Information Officer.

Warmly welcome!

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

THE CONCLUSION EVENT OF THE
Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

Sunday, 6 January, 10.30–16.00
admission free

10.30–12.00, The White Chrysanthemum or the Artist in Motion, final festive performance (film and performance).
12.00–15.00, Films about the creative pursuits at Švicarija.
15. 00, concluding guided tour of the exhibition Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature, conducted by the curators of the exhibition Yasmín Martín Vodopivec.

Click for the programme

EVENING WITH MANCA KOŠIR: STORIES ABOUT BOOKS AND PEOPLE

Tuesday, 8 December at 6 pm

Guests: professor of the Slovene language Zora A. Jurič and director, painter and puppet artist Silvan Omerzu
Music: cellist Sara Čano

FESTIVE OPENING TIMES

MGLC and Švicarija Creative Centre

Closed: 24, 25 and 31 December 2018 and 1 January 2019.

THE MUSEUM SHOP IN DECEMBER

The shop with the unique ideas

You are kindly invited to drop by the MGLC Museum Shop during these festive days, where the prices of fine art graphic prints and publications issued by MGLC have been reduced for the month of December. There is a 30% discount waiting for you.

You are also invited to visit our shop at the Švicarija Creative Centre, where you can find plenty of original artistic gifts.

FAMILY FOLD´R: SHUFFLE AND SHAPE / FASCICOLO DI FAMIGLIA: CREA MESCOLANDO

For Families at the Nathalie Du Pasquier exhibition!

Available in Slovenian, English and Italian, free of charge with the purchase of tickets.

Family Fold´r: Shuffle and Shape

Fascicolo di famiglia Crea mescolando

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

Guided tour with the curator of the exhibition and author of the project Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature, conducted by Yasmín Martín Vodopivec
Saturday, December 8, 3 pm
admission: 2 EUR

The multifaceted exhibition consists of four sections: History, The Stojan Batič Memorial Studio, Architecture and Art. The exhibition takes us through the history and social life of the building, it presents us with activities of the artists in it and highlights its recent renovation. 

Participating artists in the exhibition: Nika Autor, Stojan Batič, Dragica Čadež, Jure Detela, Meta Grgurevič, France Gruden, Sergej Kapus, Janez Lenassi, Karel Plemenitaš, Karel Putrih, Drago Tršar, Dušan Tršar, Lujo Vodopivec, Bilal Yilmaz.

Author of the project: Yasmín Martín Vodopivec

Photo: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Archive.

ALEJANDRA PIZARNIK, NOCTURNAL SINGER

The book Cantora nocturna / Nocturnal Singer, which presents the work of the cult Argentinian poet Alejandra Pizarnik (1936–1972) in a bilingual Spanish-Slovenian edition, has been published. The book was one of the projects of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Art: Birth as Criterion.

It offers a representative selection of the poet’s work from all her poetry collections and from the poems that had not yet been collected into books, her essential prose Bloody Countess and notes in which she spoke about her work.

The editor of the book is Miklavž Komelj; its translators are Nada Kavčič and Miklavž Komelj. The essays on the poet and her creations have been contributed by Nada Kavčič, Miklavž Komelj and Yucef Merhi. The book was designed by Ivian Kan Mujezinović.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

Sunday guided tour of the exhibition
Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature with the project curators

Sunday, November 25, at 3 pm
admission: 2 EUR

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature project, by which the Švicarija Creative Centre is being introduced into the cultural life of the capital, derives from three basic elements that have marked the history of the building: community, art and nature. The project consists of an exhibition and supplementary exhibition programme inspired by the building that actualises the history of Švicarija, in such a way providing the guidelines for its activities in the future.

The multifaceted exhibition consists of four sections: History, The Stojan Batič Memorial Studio, Architecture and Art. The exhibition takes us through the history and social life of the building, it presents us with activities of the artists in it and highlights its recent renovation. These sections are connected by the artwork.

Participating artists in the exhibition: Nika Autor, Stojan Batič, Dragica Čadež, Jure Detela, Meta Grgurevič, France Gruden, Sergej Kapus, Janez Lenassi, Karel Plemenitaš, Karel Putrih, Drago Tršar, Dušan Tršar, Lujo Vodopivec, Bilal Yilmaz.

Author of the project is Yasmín Martín Vodopivec.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

From Biennial to Biennial

28–30 November
International Centre of Graphic Arts and Švicarija Creative Centre

Opening of exhibition
Nathalie du Pasquier: Fair Game
curator: Kate Sutton
Friday, November 30, at 1 pm
MGLC

A symposium
The Irrational in a Biennial
Thursday, November, 29,10 am – 6 pm
Švicarija Creative Center

Book presentation
Nocturnal Singer by Alejandra Pizarnik (1936–1972)
Selected Poems by Jure Detela (1951–1992) 
Wednesday, November 28 at 6 pm
MGLC

From Biennial to Biennial is a 3-day event which is a postponed reflection on the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion. Composed of a presentation of the books Nocturnal Singer by Alejandra Pizarnik and Jure Detela's Selected Poems, an international symposium The Irrational in a Biennial that will discuss and challenge the traditional biennial structure, and a solo exhibition by Nathalie Du Pasquier: Fair Game, the event attempts to bring together diverse mediums of perception.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

EVENING WITH MANCA KOŠIR: STORIES ABOUT BOOKS AND PEOPLE

Tuesday, 13 November, at 6 pm

Guests: radio presenter Darja Štravs Tisu and painter Miha Štrukelj 
Music: singer Neža Vasle

NATHALIE DU PASQUIER, FAIR GAME

THE LAST WEEKEND FOR THE EXHIBITION

30. 11. 2018–3. 3. 2019

Nathalie Du Pasquier’s compositions transform the interiors of the International Centre of Graphic Arts into a series of immersive microenvironments, sampling from over three decades of the artist’s paintings, prints, drawings and murals, as well as a new series of silkscreen prints, which was produced precisely in the screen-printing studio of the International Centre of Graphic Arts in Ljubljana.

Du Pasquier first made her name with vibrant, eye-catching graphics and textile prints shaped by the artist’s eclectic influences, boundless imagination and impulse towards experimentation. Since the late 1980s, she has focused primarily on painting, building up a tremendous body of work, much of which has yet to be exhibited publicly. Fair Game shuns a chronological ordering in favor of forging more intuitive formal affinities between the various series. Assorted elements or objects appear and reappear in different compositional configurations, like a card in a deck that takes on new powers and limitations with each hand dealt. This visual vocabulary is distilled in a new series of silkscreen printed modules – or as the artist calls it, “virtual furniture.”

Curator of the exhibition is Kate Sutton.

ACCOMPANYING PROGRAMME TO THE EXHIBITION

Nathalie Du Pasquier: Mensola piena, 2011, oil on canvas.

TODAY WE'RE CELEBRATING THIS HAPPY DAY OF CULTURE

with open doors at MGLC and at the Švicarija Creative Centre and free viewing of the exhibitions from 10 am to 6 pm.

We invite you to see the exhibitions:
Nathalie Du Pasguier, Fair Game
Milton Glaser, Posters
Švicarija: community, art and nature

At 18.00, we invite you to MGLC, where a conversation with the artists Helena Tahir and Sonja Vulpes, conducted by Anja Šolar, will take place as part of the Printmaking to the Youth! programme.

INTRODUCTION TO THIS HAPPY DAY OF CULTURE IN TIVOLI

Sunday, 2 December 2018, 10.00–18.00
Admission free
MGLC and Švicarija Creative Centre

Programme at MGLC

You are cordially invited to view the exhibition of posters by Milton Glaser from 10 am, accompanied by a guided tour at 12 noon, as well as the exhibition Fair Game by Nathalie Du Pasquier, with a guided tour at 3 pm.

Museum Information Officer, Gregor Dražil will take us around both exhibitions.

Programme at the Švicarija Creative Centre
You can view the exhibition Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature from 10 am.

The following events will also take place:
10.00 The White Chrysanthemum or the Artist in Motion, interactive stroll and animation for children
11.00 Waitress Fani’s Tour of Tivoli Hotel, adventure guided tour
14.00 and 16.00 Hotel Tivoli between Memories and Dreams, sensorial guided tour
17.00 Eyewitnesses, conversation with painter Janko Testen, conducted by curator Miha Colner

Riko Debenjak, Retrospective Exhibition

LAST WEEKEND

9. 8.–11.11. 2018

Riko Debenjak (1908–1987) established himself as a leading representative of contemporary colour experimental printmaking. The beginning of Debenjak's "classical" work in printmaking is marked by the year 1953. The exhibition is dedicated to the 110th anniversary of the artist's birth. Also displayed along with the graphic prints are the artist's other works: drawings, paintings, illustrations and printing plates. The exhibition was produced in cooperation with the Debenjak family, the Kanal ob Soči Riko Debenjak Gallery and the Museum of Modern Art.

Curator: Breda Škrjanec
Installation design: Damijan Kracina

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

Cycle of Lectures on Stojan Batič

MARIJA SKOČIR: BETWEEN FAMILY LEGACY AND PROFESSIONAL CHALLENGE

Tuesday, 6 November, at 6 pm
admisssion: 2 eur

The conversation with Jerneja Batič, art historian and daughter of sculptor Stojan Batič, is led by Marija Skočir, co-curator of
Batič's retrospective exhibition at the Jakopič Gallery (2015).

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

Sunday guided tour of the exhibition
Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature with the project curators

Sunday, October 28, at 3 pm
admission: 2 EUR

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature project, by which the Švicarija Creative Centre is being introduced into the cultural life of the capital, derives from three basic elements that have marked the history of the building: community, art and nature. The project consists of an exhibition and supplementary exhibition programme inspired by the building that actualises the history of Švicarija, in such a way providing the guidelines for its activities in the future.

The multifaceted exhibition consists of four sections: History, The Stojan Batič Memorial Studio, Architecture and Art. The exhibition takes us through the history and social life of the building, it presents us with activities of the artists in it and highlights its recent renovation. These sections are connected by the artwork.

Participating artists in the exhibition: Nika Autor, Stojan Batič, Dragica Čadež, Jure Detela, Meta Grgurevič, France Gruden, Sergej Kapus, Janez Lenassi, Karel Plemenitaš, Karel Putrih, Drago Tršar, Dušan Tršar, Lujo Vodopivec, Bilal Yilmaz.

Author of the project is Yasmín Martín Vodopivec.

Stojan Batič: Composition II (glass, bronze), 1977.
Photo: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Archive.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

Tivoli – Art with Nature, lecture
THE SCULPTURES OF TIVOLI

Thursday, 25 October, at 6 pm
admission: 2 EUR

lecture by Gojko Zupan

Many sculptures have found their place in Tivoli, which tell the stories of prominent personalities and pivotal historical events. Furthermore, we can observe the development of sculptural thought through them and meet the artists behind it. In such a way, Jakopič tells us about the former exhibition pavilion, the Ballet sculpture about the art of movement, and the Little Shepherd about the forgotten Arcadia. Each has its own story and each connects with the green surroundings in a particular way.

Stojan Batič: Ballet, 1957.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

Today's panel is cancelled.

The Secret Life of Books,
literary panel discussions
Nature, Society, People

Wednesday, 24 October, at 6 pm
free of charge

Book: James Lovelock, A Rough Ride to the Future

How are nature and society connected? Do people also create and build nature? What are the links between the environment and social change? How does nature affect an individual? The starting point for the discussion is drawn from the ideas of the Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature project.

Guests: Janez Markeš, Mitja Pucer and Ajda Pistotnik, led by Nika Kovač.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

CONCLUDING GUIDED TOUR OF THE RETROSPECTIVE EXHIBITION BY RIKO DEBENJAK AND PRESENTATION OF THE EXHIBITION BY MATJAŽ GEDER

TODAY

Tuesday, 6 November, at 6 pm
Admission payable to see the exhibition, the guided tour is free of charge.

We will be escorted around the exhibition by Breda Škrjanec, the author of the exhibition, and artist Damijan Kracina, who designed the exhibition.

After the guided tour, there will also be a presentation of the exhibition Matjaž Geder, Preparations for Improvisation. The artist’s work and exhibition will be presented by the curator of the exhibition, Božidar Zrinski.

Theme-based guided tour of the retrospective exhibiiton by Riko Debenjak

dr. Asta Vrečko, art historian: Riko Debenjak and the Social Setting of the First Half of the 20th Century

30 October, at 6 pm, admission for exhibition

Photo: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Archive.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

Tivoli – Art with Nature, lecture
Olga Paulič: Tivoli Architecture

Thursday, 18 October, at 6 pm
admission: 2 eur

The beginning of the architectural design of Tivoli Park is represented by the stately architecture of Tivoli Mansion and Leopoldsruhe Mansion (the Cekin Mansion of today). Later, buildings intended for leisure activities started to appear, especially sports and recreational facilities, as well as entertainment facilities. We must also not forget the important cultural buildings on the edge of Tivoli, which are, unfortunately, cut off from the rest of the park because of the railway line.

Tivoli Mansion.
Photo: Matevža Paternoster. MGLC Archive.

Matjaž Geder, Preparations for improvisations

LAST WEEKEND

17. 10.–11. 11. 2018

opening: Wednesday, October 17,
at 6 pm

Matjaž Geder is an art teacher at the Murska Sobota  II  Elementary School. It is precisely the pedagogical profession that has a profound influence on his creative world, which is constantly in passing from a direct and illustrative visual language to more complex conceptual and symbolically conceived images. He puts the rigid school system, which is based on a way of thinking that is both clichéd and indiscriminate, under critical comparison with the attitude towards the destigmatisation of mental illness, which come surprisingly close in his works.  A selection of works created in the recent years is on view, as well as a series of new prints, produced specifically for the exhibition.

Matjaž Geder: Step-ping, 2018, monoprint, 66 x 100 cm.

Concluding guided tour 

Tuesday, 6 November, at 6 pm
Admission payable to see the exhibition, the guided tour is free of charge.

After the guided tour of the exhibition by Riko Debenjak, there will also be a presentation of the exhibition Matjaž Geder, Preparations for Improvisation. The artist’s work and exhibition will be presented by the curator of the exhibition, Božidar Zrinski.

THEME-BASED GUIDED TOUR OF THE RETROSPECTIVE EXHIBITION BY RIKO DEBENJAK

16 October, at 6 pm, admission for exhibition
The Karst World of Riko Debenjak and Zoran Mušič
dr. Nataša Ivanović, art historian

Photo: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Archive.

ARTISTS ON A VISIT!

TODAY

Talk: Marie Lukačeva (Prague) and Fokus Grupa (Rijeka)

Tuesday, 16 October, at 6 pm
Tobacco 001 Cultural Centre, free of charge

The talk presents the artists visiting Ljubljana, who are staying at the residency centres of Švicarija Creative Centre (MGLC) and Tobačna 001 Cultural Centre (MGML). Currently resident and working at the Švicarija Creative Centre is artist Marie Lukačeva from Prague, whereas the Fokus Grupa duo from Rijeka is having its residential stay at Tobačna 001 Cultural Centre. We will talk with the guests about creative practice, the emerging work as part of the residency stay and other related issues.

Marie Lukačeva is a participant of the two-month residency programme at the Švicarija Creative Centre, which is taking place as part of an inter-institutional exchange between the Futura Project, Prague and MGLC, Ljubljana.

Fokus Grupa is a duo that is being hosted as part of the residency programme of the Museum and Galleries of the City of Ljubljana and will present itself with an exhibition project at Tobačna 001 Cultural Centre at the end of its stay on the 24 October of this year.

More

Photo: Fokus Grupa.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

NI AMOS! / COMMUNITY, ART, NATURE

Experimental laboratory of performance, happening and popular culture, conducted by Uroš Kaurin, theatre actor
start: Sunday October 7, 14.00–18.00

Free of charge. Book to:  lili.sturm@mglc-lj.or petra.derganc@mglc-lj.si

Together, we will learn about the history and the present of the Švicarija Creative Centre.
Together, we will create its future or one of its futures.
Together, we will explore the performative possibilities and capabilities offered to us amid Tivoli Park. Together, we will create an event and offer it to the public.
With all responsibility and joy.

• Public presentation: Saturday, 17 November 

Alja Košar, Point

12. 9.–14. 10. 2018
opening: Wednesday, September 12, at 7 pm

Alja Košar embarks upon researching the expressive possibilities of intaglio printmaking with technical expertise, patient preparation and precise implementation. She creates a unique pictorial world of her own through the two distinctively pictorial elements of point and line, upgrading this in her more recent works by using paint. Initially, a considered colour palette appeared only in her drawings, but later this was transferred into printmaking through points and lines. The exhibition presents a selection of fine art prints produced in the last two years as well as some graphic works created in the Print Studios of the International Centre of Graphic Arts specifically for this exhibition. Curator of exhibition is Božidar Zrinski.

Alja Košar: Untitled, 2018, aquatint and etching.

LECTURE AT THE EXHIBITION RIKO DEBENJAK

The Newly Discovered Fresco from the Period of Socialist Realism in the Former Dom Maksa Perca

Tuesday, 9 October, at 18.00

lecture at the exhibition, conducted by Gregor Dražil, art historian

During research on the work of Riko Debenjak, a large-scale wall painting was discovered in the building at Kotnikova 8 in Ljubljana following the citations in the artist’s catalogues. The exact location of the fresco had not been known till now, the date of its production, the author and subject matter of the painting were either lost or were inconsistently quoted in sources and expert literature. A photograph of this monumental piece from the period of so-called socialist realism will be shown in the presentation for the first time. The question of authorship and the role of Riko Debenjak in the creation of the fresco will be discussed and the circumstances of the work’s production will be highlighted.

Riko Debenjak and Maksim Sedej, The Fresco in the Former Dom Maksa Perca at Kotnikova 8 in Ljubljana, second half of the 1940s (detail). Photo: Jaka Babnik. MGLC archive.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

2–13 October

Cycle of Lectures on Stojan Batič
ANDREJA RAKOVEC
THE MONUMENT TO BORIS KIDRIČ IN MARIBOR OR
AN EXAMPLE OF BOLD SCULPTURAL CONCEPTION
IN THE MONUMENT OEUVRE OF STOJAN BATIČ

Tuesday, October 2, at 6 pm,
admission: 2 eur

The monument to Boris Kidrič is Batič's most monumental
work in Maribor. It is marked by boldness in both composition
and technical execution. The lecturer illuminates the
circumstances surrounding the creation of the monument.

Stojan Batič, Monument to Borisu Kidriču, 1963, Maribor
Photo: Damjan Švarc, Umetnostna galerija Maribor.

Tivoli – Art with Nature, lectures
INES BABNIK, FROM THE GARDENS TO TIVOLI PARK

Thursday, 4 October, at 6 pm
admission fee: 2 EUR

In the 17th century, taking a walk became a popular way of
spending leisure time among the townspeople, so a necessity
also sprung up in Tivoli Park to create green spaces, especially
in the surroundings of Tivoli Mansion and Cekin Mansion. The
Latterman Avenue was formed between the two mansion
gardens in the 19th century and gradually Ljubljana also
received a city promenade and thus an official city park.

Photo: Matjaž Tančič. MGLC Archive.

HE BUDDING HUB

Friday, October 6, at 6

The exhibition is open until Sunday 7 October

The members of the Novi dijak student club (Association of
Ljubljana Gymnasium Students) are presenting themselves
in a one-day event with artworks that mirror their personal
attitude to nature. They have expressed their views in
various mediums such as illustration, video, photography,
installation ... The event will be rounded off by a recital
of original poetry and prose as well as an audio-visual
appearance with a projection of works and original
music. The participants of the project also publish a small
publication – a zine, which will integrate and connect
the individual original works into an artistic whole.

EVENING WITH MANCA KOŠIR: STORIES ABOUT BOOKS AND PEOPLE

Tuesday, 9 October, at 6 pm

Guests: visual artist Zora Stančič and architect Andrej Mercina
Music: violinist Nikola Pajanović

Tivoli – Art with Nature, lecture

Marko Dobrilovič: GREEN TIVOLI IN THE 20TH CENTURY

Thursday, 11 October, at 6 pm
admission: 2 EUR

From the late 19th century onwards, Tivoli Park did not develop only in terms of content, but also in view
of landscape architecture. Here we can observe the considerations of several park designers, and can, therefore, follow the varying park designs and greenery arrangements. We can find stylistically diverse designs that range from secessionist motifs to the elements of the English landscape park.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Discussion
Thinking Tivoli – Challenges of Holistic Urban Park Management

Friday, 12 October, 9.00–16.00

The autumn discussion illuminates the multi-faceted significance of the central city park and encourages reflection on its holistic management. 

Discussion organizer: Slovenian Association of Landscape Architects

Theme-based Saturday public tours

IGOR GRDINA: THE ARRIVAL OF RUSSIAN IMMIGRANTS TO
LJUBLJANA AFTER THE EVENTS IN PETROGRAD
IN 1917

Saturday, 13 October, 16.30
admission: 2 EUR

The guided tour outlines the events in Švicarija after the closure of Tivoli Hotel. The building, which was in a decaying state in the 1930s, was handed out to Russian immigrants by the city municipality. They had fled to Ljubljana after the October Revolution.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

GUIDED TOUR OF THE RETROSPECTIVE EXHIBITION BY RIKO DEBENJAK

Tuesday, 2 October, at 6 pm, admission payable to view the exhibition, guided tour free of charge

The guided tours are conducted in Slovenian (beginning at 18.00) and in English (beginning at 18.45), led by Museum Information Officer, Gregor Dražil.

The part of the guided tour is also the presentations of the exhibition Point by Alja Košar.

Photo: Nejc Ketiš. MGLC Arhive.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

Sunday guided tour of the exhibition
Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature in English and Slovenian, conducted by Matic Ferlan

Sunday, September 30, at 3 pm
admission: 2 EUR

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature project, by which the Švicarija Creative Centre is being introduced into the cultural life of the capital, derives from three basic elements that have marked the history of the building: community, art and nature. The project consists of an exhibition and supplementary exhibition programme inspired by the building that actualises the history of Švicarija, in such a way providing the guidelines for its activities in the future.

The multifaceted exhibition consists of four sections: History, The Stojan Batič Memorial Studio, Architecture and Art. The exhibition takes us through the history and social life of the building, it presents us with activities of the artists in it and highlights its recent renovation. These sections are connected by the artwork.

Photo: urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Luka Prinčič: Jitakami v.2018

Friday, 28 September, at 8 pm, free of charge, Švicarija Creative Centre

The audio-visual and performative-choreographic performance is based on the research of the interaction between man and the computer, between nature and technology, with an area of interfaces between the two. Through movement choreography and a computer-generated audio-visual image, this interdisciplinary event exposes the traps of uncritical acceptance of technology, raising questions about the integrity of the human body in the all-encompassing digitisation of life.

Author: Luka Prinčič
Choreography and movement: Maja Delak
Visual-conceptual consultation: Maja Smrekar
Light design: Urška Vohar
Production: EMANAT Institute in collaboration with the International Centre of Graphic Arts

Theme-based guided tour of the retrospective exhibition by Riko Debenjak and presentation of the exhibition by Alja Košar, Point

Tuesday, 25 September, at 6 pm, admission payable to view the exhibition, guided tour free of charge

The tours of both exhibitions will be conducted by mag. Breda Škrjanec, the curator of the exhibition of Riko Debenjak.

The theme-based guided tours present Riko Debenjak as a person, his creativity, his relationship to printmaking, his place in the time and space of post-war modernism, connection to the Biennial of Graphic Arts and the Ljubljana school of graphic arts. Followed by a presentation of the exhibition by Alja Košar, Point.

Photo: Nejc Ketiš. MGLC Archive.

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS FOR AN ARTIST RESIDENCY IN POUGUES-LES-EAUX

MGLC/Švicarija Creative Centre and the Parc Saint Léger Contemporary Art Centre, Nievers, France, are announcing a public call for applications for an artist residency in Pougues-les Eaux in 2019. Visual and/or intermedia artists who come from Slovenia or live and work in Slovenia are invited to apply. The selected artist will attend a three-month artist residency at the Parc Saint Léger Contemporary Art Centre.

The deadline for applications is
17 September 2018!

Candidates are applying for the time frame of 1 September–30 November 2019. 

Additional information:
miha.colner@mglc-lj.si or
+386 (0)30 708 469.

Click here for full details of the call for applications!

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

EUROPEAN YEAR OF CULTURAL HERITAGE 2018 AND DAYS OF EUROPEAN CULTURAL HERITAGE

Marathon of lectures on the architectural history, life in Švicarija and its renovation

Friday, 21 September, 17.00–19.00
Sobota, 22 September, 10.00–13.00

The cycle of lectures by conservators and restorers focuses on the architectural history and life in Švicarija. Also presented will be the conservation and restoration starting points for the refurbishment, with an emphasis on the renovation of the wooden architectural elements and stencil murals. The integral renovation of Švicarija took place between August 2015 and May 2017.

Lectures
Friday, September 21

17.00 TATJANA ADAMIČ:
THE ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY IN THE AREA OF TODAY'S ŠVICARIJA
An outline of the captivating history of the architectural activities on the plateau above Tivoli Mansion in Ljubljana's Tivoli Park from the first half of the 19th century to the construction of the Tivoli Hotel between 1908 and 1910.

18.00 ALEKSANDRA RENČELJ ŠKEDELJ:
LIFE IN ŠVICARIJA
Since its beginnings in the middle of the 19th century when a guest house was opened there up till its recent renovation, Švicarija has been a witness to a lively social and artistic life.

Saturday, September 22

10.00 MATEJ ZUPANČIČ:
CONSERVATION STARTING POINTS FOR THE RENOVATION OF ŠVICARIJA
The conservation plan serves as the starting point for a comprehensive renovation of a monument. The structure of the plan as well as the use of the results in the subsequent production of project documentation and the physical restoration of Švicarija will be shown.

11.00 JOŽE DREŠAR:
THE RESTORATION OF WOODEN ARCHITECTURAL ELEMENTS IN ŠVICARIJA
A special challenge in the renovation of Švicarija was to preserve as many original wooden architectural elements as possible from different types of wood for their original use.

12.00 ANKA BATIČ:
THE WALL PAINTINGS IN ŠVICARIJA
Would you like to learn more about sounding, detecting and documenting wall paintings? You are invited to the presentation of the finds that adorned some of the walls in Švicarija.

After the lecture, you can join us at the workshop for making stencil murals and take a piece of Švicarija home with you. 

Švicarija in the interwar period.
Source: SI ZAL LJU 342 Fototeka, G4-027-008.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

The Secret Life of Books: Migrations

Wednesday, 19 September, at 6 pm

In the first autumn event of The Secret Life of Books cycle, we will discuss books dealing with migration issues. How do they appear in literary works? Can we break prejudice and spread empathy through literature? Or does literature only help to maintain the status quo? 

The focus is on the books Samira Kentrić: A Letter to Adna and Vesna Lemaić: Welcome.

Guests of the evening:
Samira Kentrić, Vesna Lemaić, Dino Bauk, Dragan Nikčević.
The debate is led by: Nika Kovač.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Theme-based guided tour of the retrospective exhibition by Riko Debenjak and presentation of the exhibition by Alja Košar, Point

Tuesday, 18 September, at 6 pm, admission payable to view the exhibition, guided tour free of charge

The tours of both exhibitions will be conducted by mag. Boge Dimovski, Museum Councillor at MGLC.

The theme-based guided tours present Riko Debenjak as a person, his creativity, his relationship to printmaking, his place in the time and space of post-war modernism, connection to the Biennial of Graphic Arts and the Ljubljana school of graphic arts. Followed by a presentation of the exhibition by Alja Košar, Point.

Photo: Nejc Ketiš. MGLC Archive.

ŠVICARIJA CREATIVE CENTRE DAY

Saturday 15 September, 10.00–20.00

Open studio and socialising with the artists, studio users of the Švicarija Creative Centre
•11.00–12.00 Guided tour of the exhibition Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature with the project curators Yasmin Martin Vodopivec and Vladimir Vidmar
•15-00–17.00 Ni amos!, experimental laboratory, introductory meeting, conducted by Uroš Kaurin
•17.00–18.00 Waitress Fani’s Tour of Tivoli Hotel, adventure guided tour
•18.00–19.00 Eyewitnesses, talk with Dragica Čadež, led by Miha Colner 

Photo: Nejc Ketiš. MGLC Archive.

ART IN YOU: THE STOJAN BATIČ MEMORIAL STUDIO
Workshop for people with dementia and their relatives

Sunday, 16 September, 10.00–12.30
The Stojan Batič Memorial Studio, Švicarija Creative Centre (Ground Floor)

Photo: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Archive.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

4 – 11 September

Cycle of Lectures on Stojan Batič

Tuesday, 4 September, at 6 pm
admission: 2 EUR, The Memorial Studio of Stojan Batič

Stojan Batič: Journey to Ithaca, Accompanied by Music
Lecture by Svetlana Slapšak

Theme-based Saturday public tours
Saturday, 8 September, at 4.30 pm
admission: 2 EUR

Ljubljana between Ambition and Capability during the Decades before the First World War
conducted by Blaž Vurnik

Evening with Manca Košir: Stories about Books and People

Tuesday, 11 September, at 6 pm

Guests: dr. Glorjana Veber, winner of the Knight of Poetry title, and Silvester Plotajs Sicoe, painter and resident of the Švicarija Creative Centre. Music: Miha Debevec and Dejan Kušer accordion duo.

GUIDED TOUR OF THE RETROSPECTIVE EXHIBITION BY RIKO DEBENJAK

Tuesday, September 11, at 6 pm
admission payable to see the exhibition

The guided tours are conducted in Slovenian (beginning at 18.00) and in English (beginning at 18.45), led by Museum Information Officer, Gregor Dražil.
Occasionally also theme-based guided tours are organised, please follow www.mglc-lj.si.

Riko Debenjak
Retrospective exhibition
9. 8.–11.11. 2018

Riko Debenjak (1908–1987) established himself as a leading representative of contemporary colour experimental printmaking. The beginning of Debenjak's "classical" work in printmaking is marked by the year 1953. The exhibition is dedicated to the 110th anniversary of the artist's birth. Also displayed along with the graphic prints are the artist's other works: drawings, paintings, illustrations and printing plates. The exhibition was produced in cooperation with the Debenjak family, the Kanal ob Soči Riko Debenjak Gallery and the Museum of Modern Art.

Curator: Breda Škrjanec
Installation design: Damijan Kracina

Photo: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Archive.

Theme-based guided tour of the retrospective exhibition by Riko Debenjak

TODAY

23 October, at 6 pm, admission for exhibition

Traces on Paper, Canvas, Wall ...
Tatjana Pregl Kobe, art historian

Riko Debenjak, illustration for the book Nikolaj V. Gogolj: Taras Bulba, 1948.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

Sunday guided tour of the exhibition
Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature in English and Slovenian, conducted by Matic Ferlan

Sunday, August 26, at 3 pm

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature project, by which the Švicarija Creative Centre is being introduced into the cultural life of the capital, derives from three basic elements that have marked the history of the building: community, art and nature. The project consists of an exhibition and supplementary exhibition programme inspired by the building that actualises the history of Švicarija, in such a way providing the guidelines for its activities in the future.

The multifaceted exhibition consists of four sections: History, The Stojan Batič Memorial Studio, Architecture and Art. The exhibition takes us through the history and social life of the building, it presents us with activities of the artists in it and highlights its recent renovation. These sections are connected by the artwork.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

GUIDED TOUR OF THE RETROSPECTIVE EXHIBITION BY RIKO DEBENJAK

Tuesday, September 4, at 6 pm
admission payable to see the exhibition

The guided tours are conducted in Slovenian (beginning at 18.00) and in English (beginning at 18.45), led by Museum Information Officer, Gregor Dražil.
Occasionally also theme-based guided tours are organised, please follow www.mglc-lj.si.

The part of the guided tour is also the presentations of the exhibition The Anonyms by Tina Mohorović.

Riko Debenjak
Retrospective exhibition
9.8.–11. 11. 2018

Riko Debenjak (1908–1987) established himself as a leading representative of contemporary colour experimental printmaking. The beginning of Debenjak's "classical" work in printmaking is marked by the year 1953. The exhibition is dedicated to the 110th anniversary of the artist's birth. Also displayed along with the graphic prints are the artist's other works: drawings, paintings, illustrations and printing plates. The exhibition was produced in cooperation with the Debenjak family, the Kanal ob Soči Riko Debenjak Gallery and the Museum of Modern Art.

Curator: Breda Škrjanec
Installation design: Damijan Kracina

Photo: urška Boljkovacl. Arhiv MGLC.

Tina Mohorović
The Anonyms
9.8.–9. 9. 2018

Tina Mohorović (1988) is devoted to the intaglio printing techniques, particularly etching, because of its special quality of line, which is produced by the resistance of the zinc plate when drawing with a needle and the subsequent manipulation with the timing and intensity of the etching process. The exhibition presents a series of fine art prints created by the artist in the most recent period as well as printed works produced in the Print Studios of the International Centre of Graphic Arts especially for the exhibition.

Curator: Božidar Zrinski

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. Arhiv MGLC.

TRUDE JOHANSEN & MARUŠA MEGLIČ

23. 8.–9. 9. 2018
Lectur Room, ground floor

Artists Trude Johansen and Maruša Meglič, who attended the first residency exchange between Norway and Slovenia, are presenting themselves in a joint exhibition as part of the inter-institutional cooperation between the Nordic Artists' Centre Dale and the International Centre of Graphic Arts in Ljubljana.

The exhibition showcases predominantly new works that have been produced as a direct result of temporary relocation and artistic creation in a new environment. The latter is also the central thematic link of the exhibition, which focuses on the idea of dislocation and the impact of an unfamiliar environment on artistic expression. The Lecture Room on the ground floor of MGLC hosts the works by the two artists produced in close collaboration in a variety of mediums and techniques – from found objects and images, fine art prints, drawings and artists' books, to textual interventions and installations.

Trude Johansen (1981) is an artist and printmaker whose particular emphasis is on the woodcut, however, she uses various creative media, such as appropriation of objects and images, art publishing and textual works in her art practice. She lives and works in Moss, Norway.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Maruša Meglič (1989) is an artist who works across different art media. Trained as a painter, she developed a distinctive practice based on sculpture and installation as well as on the appropriation of objects and materials. She lives and works in Ljubljana.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Opening of exhibition: TRUDE JOHANSEN & MARUŠA MEGLIČ

TODAY

Thursday, 23 August, at 7 pm
(Lectur Room, ground floor)

On the night of the opening, the viewing time of the exhibition by Riko Debenjak and Tina Mohorović is extended till 9 pm.

23. 8.–9. 9. 2018

In frames of interinstitutional collaboration between Nordic Artists' Centre Dale and MGLC – International Centre of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana a common exhibition of the artists, Trude Johansen and Maruša Meglič, who took part in the first residency exchange between Norway and Slovenia, will take place at Lecture Room in the ground floor of MGLC.

The joined exhibition will showcase predominantly new works that were produced as a direct result of temporary relocation and artistic creation in new environment. The latter is therefore central thematic focus of the show which focuses on the idea of displacement and impact of unfamiliar surrounding on the artistic expression. Based on joined constellation and close cooperation, diverse works of both artists – appropriation of found objects and images, printmaking, drawing, artist books textual interventions and installations – will be presented in the Lecture Room in the ground floor of MGLC.

Trude Johansen (1981) is an artist and printmaker whose particular emphasis is on woodcut; however, she uses various creative media such as appropriation of objects and images, art publishing and textual works. She lives and works in Moss, Norway.

Maruša Meglič (1989) is an artist who works across different artistic media. Trained as a painter she developed a distinctive practice based on sculpture and installation as well as on appropriation of objects and materials. She lives and works in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

ARTISTS ON A VISIT!

Talk: Marie Lukačeva (Prague) and Fokus Grupa (Rijeka)

Tuesday, 16 October, at 6 pm
Tobacco 001 Cultural Centre, free of charge

The talk presents the artists visiting Ljubljana, who are staying at the residency centres of Švicarija Creative Centre (MGLC) and Tobačna 001 Cultural Centre (MGML). Currently resident and working at the Švicarija Creative Centre is artist Marie Lukačeva from Prague, whereas the Fokus Grupa duo from Rijeka is having its residential stay at Tobačna 001 Cultural Centre. We will talk with the guests about creative practice, the emerging work as part of the residency stay and other related issues.

Marie Lukačeva is a participant of the two-month residency programme at the Švicarija Creative Centre, which is taking place as part of an inter-institutional exchange between the Futura Project, Prague and MGLC, Ljubljana.

Fokus Grupa is a duo that is being hosted as part of the residency programme of the Museum and Galleries of the City of Ljubljana and will present itself with an exhibition project at Tobačna 001 Cultural Centre at the end of its stay on the 24 October of this year.

Guided tour of the retrospective exhibition by Riko Debenjak

Tuesday, August 14, at 6 pm
admission payable to see the exhibition

The guided tours are conducted in Slovenian (beginning at 18.00) and in English (beginning at 18.45), led by Museum Information Officer, Gregor Dražil. Occasionally also theme-based guided tours are organised, please follow www.mglc-lj.si.

The part of the guided tour is also the presentations of the exhibition The Anonyms by Tina Mohorović.

On Wednesday, August 15, the MGLC Gallery is open (from 10 am to 6 pm).

Riko Debenjak
Retrospective exhibition
9.8.–11. 11. 2018

Riko Debenjak (1908–1987) established himself as a leading representative of contemporary colour experimental printmaking. The beginning of Debenjak's "classical" work in printmaking is marked by the year 1953. The exhibition is dedicated to the 110th anniversary of the artist's birth. Also displayed along with the graphic prints are the artist's other works: drawings, paintings, illustrations and printing plates. The exhibition was produced in cooperation with the Debenjak family, the Kanal ob Soči Riko Debenjak Gallery and the Museum of Modern Art.

Curator: Breda Škrjanec

Riko Debenjak: Traces on Plaster XII, etching and aquatint, 51 x 66 cm.

Tina Mohorović
The Anonyms
9.8.–9. 9. 2018

Tina Mohorović (1988) is devoted to the intaglio printing techniques, particularly etching, because of its special quality of line, which is produced by the resistance of the zinc plate when drawing with a needle and the subsequent manipulation with the timing and intensity of the etching process. The exhibition presents a series of fine art prints created by the artist in the most recent period as well as printed works produced in the Print Studios of the International Centre of Graphic Arts especially for the exhibition.

Curator: Božidar Zrinski

Tina Mohorović: On the Back of the World, 2018, etching, 70 cm x 50 cm.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

Sunday guided tour of the exhibition
Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature in English and Slovenian, conducted by Matic Ferlan
Sunday, July 29, at 3 pm

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature project, by which the Švicarija Creative Centre is being introduced into the cultural life of the capital, derives from three basic elements that have marked the history of the building: community, art and nature. The project consists of an exhibition and supplementary exhibition programme inspired by the building that actualises the history of Švicarija, in such a way providing the guidelines for its activities in the future.

The multifaceted exhibition consists of four sections: History, The Stojan Batič Memorial Studio, Architecture and Art. The exhibition takes us through the history and social life of the building, it presents us with activities of the artists in it and highlights its recent renovation. These sections are connected by the artwork.

Photo: Nejc Ketiš. MGLC Archive.

SUMMER IN TIVOLI

In July at MGLC and the Švicarija Creative Centre

We have taken care to pamper the body and spirit in the city park this year too, given that the Summer in Tivoli traditionally fills the warm and carefree summer evenings with a rich array of cultural events. Visit us on Tuesday, Thursday or Sunday.

The performans by Mala Kline, SONGI III/XII, due to take place on Tuesday, 31 July, is cancelled.

Tuesday, 17. July: International Centre of Graphic Arts

19.00–20.00: Public guided tour of the exhibition David Lynch, Fire on Stage in English and Slovenian
18.00–21.00: Extended viewing of the exhibition David Lynch, Fire on Stage and STOP AND GO, The Art of Animated GIFS exhibition
20.00–21.00: concert Vladimir Kuzman

Tuesday, 24. July: International Centre of Graphic Arts

19.00–20.00: Public guided tour of the exhibition David Lynch, Fire on Stage in English and Slovenian
18.00–21.00: Extended viewing of the exhibition David Lynch, Fire on Stage and STOP AND GO, The Art of Animated GIFS exhibition
20.00–21.00: concert Jakob Kobal

Thursday, 19 July, Švicarija Creative Centre

20.00–21.00: Public guided tour of the exhibition Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature in English and Slovenian
21.00–22.00: Concert of contemporary electronic and hybrid music: Futurski

Thursday, 26 July, Švicarija Creative Centre

20.00–21.00: Public guided tour of the exhibition Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature in English and Slovenian
21.00–22.00: Concert of contemporary electronic and hybrid music: Kukushai

Sunday, 15 July, Platform of the Švicarija Creative Centre

Film cycle on Sundays: Films in the Woods, 21.00–23.00 + 
21.00: Film aperitif: 'КУКЛА' (Kukla) 
21.30–23.00: Wild roses, 2017, Polish

Sunday, 22 July, Platform of the Švicarija Creative Centre

Film cycle on Sundays: Films in the Woods, 21.00–23.00 + 
21.00: Film aperitif: Federmaister
21.30–23.00: Twilight Portrait, 2011, Russian

Sunday, 29 July, Platform of the Švicarija Creative Centre

Film cycle on Sundays: Films in the Woods, 21.00–23.00 + 
21.00: Film aperitif: Delirium Tremens Band
21.30–23.00: Les Ogres, 2015, French

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

Theme-based Saturday public tours

MARTINA MALEŠIČ:
ŠVICARIJA AND THE COFFEE SHOPS OF LJUBLJANA IN AROUND 1900

Saturday, 10 November, at 4.30 pm

On a walk, we present Švicarija as a speciality in a series of Ljubljana coffee shops, a phenomenon in around 1900,
in which both fashionable interior design and social circumstances were reflected.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

EVENING WITH MANCA KOŠIR: STORIES ABOUT BOOKS AND PEOPLE

Tuesday, 13 November, at 6 pm

Guests: radio presenter Darja Štravs Tisu and painter Miha Štrukelj 
Music: singer Neža Vasle

YOU ARE INVITED TO JOIN US IN THE CHILDREN'S STUDIO IN THE ŠVICARIJA CREATIVE CENTRE!

Creative workshops, animations and guided tours of the building are held for children every Friday. The studio operates free of charge every Friday from May to November 9, from 10 am to 1 pm. The activities are led by the gallery mentors Petra Derganc, Tina Boc, Petja Kolenko and Katja Kovše.

You may like to book your visit by writing to the following e-mail: petra.derganc@mglc-lj.si.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

The Secret Life of Books, literary panel discussion
Wednesday, 20 June, at 6 pm
Švicarija Creative Centre, admission free

The literary panel discussion cycle consists of monthly meetings and debates. We touch upon current topics that are in one way or another connected to the Švicarija Creative Centre through the selected books.

Guest is writter and publicist Vladimir P. Štefanec, the debate is led by Nika Kovač.

David Lynch: Fire on Stage

Tuesday guided tours of the exhibition

Tuesday, June 19, at 6 pm.

On Tuesday, 19 June, at 6 pm, film publicist Stojan Pelko will give a guided tour of the exhibition David Lynch, Fire on Stage.

The starting point of Pelko's guided tour is: Can the knowledge of Lynch's films help us to enter his paintings – and what do we hear, once we have entered?

Admission payable.

The guided tour also announces the film cycle The Art Life with David Lynch in collaboration with The Slovenian Cinematheque.

The introductory film of the cycle is David Lynch: The Art of Life.

David Lynch: The Art Life
Rick Barnes, Jon Nguyen, Olivia Neergaard-Holm, USA, 2016, DCP, colour, 98', no subtitles
Thursday, 21 June, at 9 pm, The Slovenian Cinematheque

David Lynch: The Art of Life is a film imbued with Lynch's art, music and early films, illuminating the dark nooks and crannies of his world and offering the audience a better understanding of Lynch as a person and an artist. We are invited to join a private tour of Lynch's complex and studio in the hills high above Hollywood, during which Lynch tells lets us in on the personal stories from his past that unfold as scenes from his films.

David Lynch: Someone is in My House, 2014, lithography (detail).
Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Summer Museum Night in the Švicarija Creative Centre

Saturday, June 16, 6 pm–midnight

at 6 and 8 pm
first public presentation of sensorial workshop
Tivoli Hotel between Memories and Dreams 

at 7 pm
adventure guided tour
Waitress Fani’s Tour of Tivoli Hotel

at 9.30 pm
musical-visual projection
VJ Ticho Pixel

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Cycle of films by David Lynch at The Slovenian Cinematheque to accompany the exhibition Fire on Stage

The art of living with David Lynch

Thursday to Thursday, 21–28 June, The Slovenian Cinematheque (Miklošičeva 28)

Opening projection:
Thursday, 21 June, 21.00
In Slovenia for the first time!

David Lynch: The Art Life
Directed by: Rick Barnes, Jon Nguyen, Olivia Neergaard-Holm, USA, 2016, colour, 98'
Biographical documentary about David Lynch as a multifaceted artist.

Programme

Blue Velvet, 1986, 120', sp, Friday, 22 June, 20.00

Blue Velvet Revisited, documentary, Friday, 22 June, 22.15 
Directed by: Peter Braatz, Germany/Slovenia, 2016, 85', sp

Inland Empire, 2006, 180', sp, Saturday, 23 June, 20.00

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, 1992, 135', sp, Sunday, 24 June, 20.00
Before the projection: Mirt Komel: The Golden Circle of Appetite and Satisfaction, lecture

Lost Highway, 1997, 135', sp, Tuesday, 26 June, 21.00

Dune, 1984, 140', sp, Wednesday, 27 June, 20.00

Eraserhead, 1977, 89', sp, Thursday, 28 June, 21.00

Admission payable

A ticket to the David Lynch exhibition comes with free admission to a chosen projection in the David Lynch film cycle. The holders of The Slovenian Cinematheque tickets for a film from the David Lynch cycle receive a 50% discount on the purchase of a ticket for the David Lynch exhibition.

Courtesy by Film Constellation and Slovenka kinoteka

David Lynch: Fire on Stage

SUMMER MUSEUM NIGHT
Saturday, June 16, 6 pm–midnight

20.00: Public guided tour 
Conducted by painter and printmaker Silvester Plotajs Sicoe.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

David Lynch: Fire on Stage

Tuesday guided tours of the exhibition

Tuesday, June 12, at 6 pm.

Every Tuesday in May and June
at 6 pm.
Every Tuesday in July at 7 pm.

Guided tours in Slovenian and English, conducted by Museum Information Officer, Gregor Dražil.
Admission payable.

Occasionally also guided tours by curators and guests; please follow www.mglc-lj.si.

Photo: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Archive.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

theme-based guided tour
Tivoli – A Park for People’s Use
conducted by Ana Kučan
Saturday, June 9 at 4.30 pm

We will take a stroll along the tree-lined avenues and fields of meadows to the garden motifs, including the garden in front of the Švicarija Creative Centre, and learn about the characteristics of Tivoli as a park for people's use.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

NI AMOS! / COMMUNITY, ART, NATURE

Experimental laboratory of performance, happening and popular culture

Together, we will learn about the history and the present of the Švicarija Creative Centre.
Together, we will create its future or one of its futures.
Together, we will explore the performative possibilities and capabilities offered to us amid Tivoli Park. Together, we will create an event and offer it to the public.
With all responsibility and joy.

Programme
• First introductory meeting: Friday, 15 June, 16.00–17.30
• Second introductory meeting: Friday, 7 September, 16.00–17.30
• Workshops: October
• Public presentation: Saturday, 17 November 2018

The programme is intended for ages 15+ (priority is given to KUL abonma subscribers), participation is free of charge.
Places are limited. Book yours by writing to petra.derganc@mglc-lj.si.

The programme is part of the Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature project.

You are invited to the Children's Studio at the Švicarija Creative Centre!

Every Friday, creative workshops, animations and guided tours of the building are held for children. The studio operates free of charge every Friday, from May to October, from 10 am to 1 pm. The activities are lead by the gallery mentors Petra Derganc, Tina Boc, Petja Kolenko and Katja Kovše.

You can let us know of your visit by sending an e-mail to petra.derganc@mglc-lj.si.

David Lynch: Fire on Stage

LAST WEEKEND OF THE EXHIBITION

13. 4.–29. 7. 2018 

Take advantage of the last few days to see the exhibition and purchase some Lynch souvenirs at the Museum Shop with a 30% discount.

The first presentation of the American film director, scriptwriter, photographer, painter, musician and printmaker David Lynch in Slovenia. The Fire on Stage show offers a selection of seventy fine art graphic prints produced in the lithography technique. The presentation is rounded off by paintings from private collections, watercolours, as well as a selection of experimental and animated films. What all the displayed works have in common is the intertwining of the surrealistic, expressive and grotesque, by which a Lynchian atmosphere is established. This is followed in the exhibition set-up with a stage-like feel conjured up by set designer Branko Hojnik.

Curator: Božidar Zrinski.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Tuesday guided tours of the exhibition

THE LAST GUIDED TOUR

Tuesday, 24, at 7 pm

Every Tuesday in July at 7 pm.
Guided tours in Slovenian and English, conducted by Museum Information Officer, Gregor Dražil.

Admission payable.

Occasionally also guided tours by curators and guests; please follow www.mglc-lj.si.

Photo: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Archive.

CONCLUDING EVENT TO THE EXHIBITION

Friday, 20 July, 19.00–21.00

Admission to the exhibition (5, 2.5 EUR for both events)

19.00 David Lynch and Transcendental Meditation, presentation,
conducted by dr. Andrej Rus, teacher of transcendental meditation
20.00 Miroslav Karić: Under the surface ... Lynch as a Visual Artist. Interweaving of pictorial and film motifs, lecture of the exhibition Fire on Stage. (The lecture is in the Serbian language.)

RABBITS
puppet show

Friday, 29 June, 21.00

The gallery is open till 9 pm on that day.
Admission 5 EUR (ticket for the exhibition)

Rabbits are a conceptual puppet interpretation of Lynch's comedy-horror-sitcom internet TV series Rabbits (David Lynch, 2002).

Author: Patricija Šošter
Puppets: Barbara Stupica
Set: Marko Turkuš
Directed by: Mirt Komel
Animation: LG Patana
Sound: Samo Pavlica - Linč
Voices: Marija Glavaš, Mirt Komel, Ana Šega

Photo: Patricija Šoštar.

EXHIBITION: BLUE VELVET REVISITED

The photographs from the film Blue Velvet are back on view at Kinodvor from 1 June.

To accompany the exhibition
David Lynch: Fire on Stage you are invited to the Kinodvor Gallery, where the photographs from the shooting of the film Blue Velvet taken by Peter Braatz will be on view again.

Photo: Peter Braatz. 

Programme of the Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project in June

Sunday guided tour of the exhibition
Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature in English and Slovenian, conducted by Matic Ferlan
Sunday, June 24, at 3 pm

theme-based guided tour
Jože Plečnik and Tivoli Park
conducted by Darja Pergovnik
Thursday, June 21, at 4.30 pm

Photo: Nejc Ketiš. MGLC Archive.

THE ŠVICARIJA: COMMUNITY, ART AND NATURE PROJECT

The Secret Life of Books, literary panel discussion

Wednesday, 23 May, at 6 pm
Švicarija Creative Centre, admission free

The literary panel discussion cycle consists of monthly meetings and debates. We touch upon current topics that are in one way or another connected to the Švicarija Creative Centre through the selected books.

Ivan Cankar also lived, created and socialised in Švicarija. This time we will present him as a political activist and thinker, but
we will also take a peek into his private life.

The following invited guests are taking part in the debate: Marjetka Krapež and Andrej Koritnik; the debate is led by: Nika Kovač.

The books selected for debate is A Bouquer of Cankar's Letters.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

Sunday guided tour of the exhibition Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature in English

Sunday, 27 May at 3 pm

One-hour long guided tour with adaptations in the Slovenian language.
Conducted by art historian Matic Ferlan
admission: 2 eur

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature project, by which the Švicarija Creative Centre is being introduced into the cultural life of the capital, derives from three basic elements that have marked the history of the building: community, art and nature. The project consists of an exhibition and supplementary exhibition programme inspired by the building that actualises the history of Švicarija, in such a way providing the guidelines for its activities in the future.

The multifaceted exhibition consists of four sections: History, The Stojan Batič Memorial Studio, Architecture and Art. The exhibition takes us through the history and social life of the building, it presents us with activities of the artists in it and highlights its recent renovation. These sections are connected by the artwork.

Warmly invited!

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

EXHIBITION: BLUE VELVET REVISITED

The photographs from the film Blue Velvet are back on view at Kinodvor from 1 June.

To accompany the exhibition David Lynch: Fire on Stage you are invited to the Kinodvor Gallery, where the photographs from the shooting of the film Blue Velvet taken by Peter Braatz will be on view again.

Photo: Peter Braatz.

LEARNING ABOUT PROFESSIONS THROUGH THE CAMERA

22. 5.–6. 6. 2018

Lecture Room (MGLC ground floor)

The photographic exhibition Learning about Professions through the Camera arose as part of the photographic project Through My Eyes, organised for the fourth year in a row by the City Association of Friends of Youth Ljubljana under the guidance of Tanja Povšič and in cooperation with photographers Tina Ramujkić and Polona Ponikvar.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

Cycle of Lectures on Stojan Batič
Barbara Savenc, From the First Studio to Švicarija

Tuesday, 8 May, at 6 pm
The Memorial Studio of Stojan Batič (ground floor)
admission fee: 2 eur

The Memorial Studio of Stojan Batič at the Švicarija Creative Centre is the reconstruction of the sculptor's studio at Svetčeva ulica in Ljubljana's Rožna dolina district. The lecturer explains what this insight into the sculptor's hidden world reveals to us.

The Memorial Studio of Stojan Batič is not only open to view but also to use. It is fitted with the artist's sculptures and the work tools from his bequest. It hosts lectures which reveal a thorough insight into the artist's life and work, as well as two sculpture courses that continue the spirit of the author's creativity.

Stojan Batič (1925–2015) was one of the artists to work in the studio at Švicarija between 1954 and 1959. In 1959, Batič moved into a new studio at Svetčeva 1, and his work followed a new direction under the influence of Ossip Zadkine. The current studio reconstruction revives the atmosphere and set-up of exactly this studio. It provides us with the opportunity of becoming acquainted with the sculptural oeuvre – both, the drafts for the famous monument works, and the small sculpture pieces upon which Stojan Batič bestowed his undivided attention.  

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC.Archive.

Promenade Family Festival and the Voices of Tivoli, storytelling about Švicarija

Saturday, 19 May, 10.00–20.00
Švicarija Creative Centre, Tivoli Park, free of charge

How did they dress in the past, how did they carry themselves, what did they say and what did they do? Ljubljana Promenade, Tivoli and Švicarija in the past and today! The Promenade Family Festival consists of two all-day workshops and a conclusion in the form of storytelling. It is intended for children, families and all generations!

Creative workshops at which we explore the social history of Švicarija, 10.00–17.00

The Promenade like Once Upon a Time
A scenographic workshop at which we produce mini-scenes – the scenery of the former promenade life in Tivoli.
Concept: Samo Lapajne, academy-trained painter, set and costume designer.

Seeing and Placing Oneself on View
We make large-scale paintings, which we then place into the space.
Concept: Ana Sluga, Švicarija Creative Centre studio user, painter, photographer and video artist.

Closing event of the day at 18.00

The Voices of Tivoli, recounting true stories about Švicarija
Tivoli is full of stories, the wildest and juiciest are only known to the trees, never to be passed on to you. But some have remained written down, some have been told and some are being whispered about. We have dug up some special ones about the restored Švicarija. They will be given original interpretations by narrators and musicians who are known to many from the radio waves of Radio Študent and from the CDs Za 2 groša fantazije.

Stories recounted by: Ciril Horjak – dr. Horowitz, Boštjan Napotnik- Napo, Katja Preša, Srečko Meh and Ana Ličina. Music: Andrej Fon.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Visiting artists!
Public talk: Declan Clarke (Berlin) and Nikita Kadan & Anna Zvygintseva (Kijev)

Tuesday, 15 May at 5pm
Švicarija Creative Centre

You are kindly invited to attend public talk of the artists who are currently part of two 'artists in residency' programmes in Ljubljana; they are hosted by Tobacco 001 Cultural Centre (MGML) and Švicarija Creative Centre (MGLC).

At Švicarija Creative Centre currently resides Berlin-based artist Declan Clarke, while Tobacco 001 Cultural Centre hosts artist's tandem Nikita Kadan and Anna Zvygintseva from Kyev.

Public talk will be moderated by Alenka Gregorič (MGML - Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana) and Miha Colner (MGLC - International Centre of Graphic Arts). The guest artists will present their creative practices, showcase the works which are in the making during the residency period, share their world views and much more.

Declan Clarke is the laureate of the 31st Biennial of Graphic Arts in Ljubljana (2013) and is now included in the programme of research residency programme at Švicarija Creative Centre.

Nikita Kadan & Anna Zvygintseva, current residents at Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana, will showcase their new exhibition project at Tobacco 001 Cultural Centre at the end of the month.

The talk will be held in English language!

Declan Clarke: Group Portrait with Explosives (2014).
Photo: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Archive.

Animation workshop as part of the David Lynch exhibition programme for young people of 12+

Sunday, 13 May, 11.00–14.00

The workshop is free of charge, advance bookings must be made by writing to: lili.sturm@mglc-lj.si

Socialising, playful creativity and meeting with the giant of film art! All this and more is coming up in the creative animation workshop, which is intended for young people of 12+ and their accompanying parents as part of the David Lynch, Fire on Stage exhibition programme.

In the company of gallery mentor Petra Derganc, we will view a series of five short animated and experimental films at the exhibition, which have been created by the cult director and multifaceted artist David Lynch. We will also visit the Lynch Lab, a gallery studio that provides visitors with an opportunity for an active and creative response.

This will be followed by a stop-motion animation workshop (filming image by image), where we will create a collective animated film under the guidance of mentors Andreja Goetz and Jelena Dragutinović. The workshop is the last in the series of animation workshops for this school year, which have been run by the Slon Society at the MGLC exhibitions.

What the products – the animated short films – look like can be seen by following the links:

Animated film of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion

Animated film to accompany the exhibition Boris Jesih, Connections

The workshop is also part of the Magic Day in Tivoli Sunday event.

Welcome!

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

Presentation of The White Chrysanthemum or the Artist in Motion workshop

Saturday, May 12, at 1.30 pm
Švicarija Creative Centre, we are starting on the 1st floor (at the end of the hallway on the left), free of charge

Presentation of the workshop with a concluding guided tour of the first part of the creative process From Image to Form. Through the creative process, children conceived a character of their own choice from the passages of The White Chrysanthemum, doing so in various creative ways (visual, technological, dramaturgical and handcrafted) and producing moving figures that are similar to puppets, yet different. The workshop is conducted by director and puppeteer Barbara Bulatović.

You are invited to join us for the concluding part of the creative workshops with music, strawberries and a group photo!

Photo: Barbara Bulatović.

Theme-based Saturday public tours
Aljoša Harlamov: The Slovenian Modernist Novel and the (Non)Subject of Modernism

Saturday, 12 May, 4.30 pm
Taking Slovenian modernist novels as examples, Aljoša Harlamov explains the process of desubjectivisation of the subject and the context of antihumanism, into which it is integrated as such.

Dragica Čadež: Story of a Tree, installation, 2018.
Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

David Lynch: Fire on Stage

David Lynch is a Slovenian
Round table on the influence of David Lynch on the Slovenian identity.

Tuesday, 24 May, at 6 pm
Švicarija Creative Centre
admission free

When the whispers started in public that MGLC was organising an exhibition of David Lynch in Ljubljana and, in fact, his first presentation as a visual artist in Slovenia, the first and foremost question was: Is he coming? At one of the preparatory meetings, we also presented the project to Marcel Štefančič Jr, who, among other things, immediately found the answer to the frequently asked question: But, he's already here! In an instant, the idea was born that David Lynch was actually a Slovenian. So, how much of the Slovenian is there in Lynch, and how much of Lynch is there in the Slovenian?

We will discuss this and similar questions in a talk with the following participating guests: Marcel Štefančič, Jr, film critic, television presenter and publicist; Mirt Komel, philosopher, sociologist and writer; Stojan Pelko, philosopher and sociologist, and Ana Jovanovič, philosopher and sociologist.

David Lynch: Fire on Stage

13. 4.–29. 7. 2018

The first presentation of the American film director, scriptwriter, photographer, painter, musician and printmaker David Lynch in Slovenia. The Fire on Stage show offers a selection of seventy fine art graphic prints produced in the lithography technique. The presentation is rounded off by paintings from private collections, watercolours, as well as a selection of experimental and animated films. What all the displayed works have in common is the intertwining of the surrealistic, expressive and grotesque, by which a Lynchian atmosphere is established. This is followed in the exhibition set-up with a stage-like feel conjured up by set designer Branko Hojnik.

Curator: Božidar Zrinski.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

(Psychodrama) Encounter with Lynch

Sunday, 27 May, 11.00–16.00

The workshop is part of the programme of the exhibition David Lynch, Fire on Stage.

The experiential workshop involves becoming acquainted with the main ideas about creativity from Lynch's book Catching the Big Fish along with psychodrama techniques. It is intended to actively explore one's own creativity through enactment. Would you like to (as you put yourself into their role) meet with your own ocean as well as the big and small creative fish in it, or perhaps even with Lynch himself?

The workshop is conducted by Tomi Janežič, theatre director and associate professor at the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television (AGRFT).

The workshop will be held in two parts with one break. Participants must be present from beginning to end. The number of applicants is limited. Advance bookings taken up till the available quota at lili.sturm@mglc-lj.si.

Admission fee: 5 EUR (ticket to view the exhibition)

Welcome!

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGCL Archive.

International Museum Day 

Friday, 18 May, 10.00–18.00

Free entrance on the exhibition
David Lynch, Fire on Stage.

MGLC and the Švicarija Creative Centre are open during the public holidays

The International Centre of Graphic Arts and the Švicarija Creative Centre are open during the May Bank Holiday (27 April, 1 May and 2 May).

Closed on Monday, 30 April.

You are invited to view the exhibition David Lynch, Fire on Stage at MGLC, and the exhibition Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature at the Švicarija Creative Centre every day between 10 am and 6 pm.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

TOUCH AND FEEL BOOK ABOUT ŠVICARIJA

Wednesday, 25 April, 11.00–13.00, Švicarija Creative Centre
Lecture and workshop, conducted dr. Aksinja Kermauner

The public lecture with workshop is an introduction to the process of making a touch and feel book about the Švicarija Creative Centre.

To participate in the workshop, which will take place in the second part of the meeting, please book due to limited space by writing to lili.sturm@mglc-lj.si .

How do people with visual impairment see? Who are they? How to provide them with as friendly a life as possible in an environment that is not adapted for them? The lecture and workshop will be an attempt to overcome stereotypes, prejudices, fears ... since the participants, wearing black blindfolds and simulation glasses, will try to touch the world of the blind and the visually impaired, and at the same time experience themselves what could be improved.

Dr. Aksinja Kermauner is writer, poet and teacher, as well as specialist teacher for the blind and visually impaired.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

David Lynch: Fire on Stage

13. 4.–29. 7. 2018

The first presentation of the American film director, scriptwriter, photographer, painter, musician and printmaker David Lynch in Slovenia.
The Fire on Stage exhibition offers a selection of seventy fine art graphic prints produced in the lithography technique. The presentation is rounded off by paintings from private collections, watercolours, as well as a selection of experimental and animated films. What all the displayed works have in common is the intertwining of the surrealistic, expressive and grotesque, by which a Lynchian atmosphere is established. This is followed in the exhibition set-up with a stage-like feel conjured up by set designer Branko Hojnik.

Curator of the exhibition is Božidar Zrinski.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

David Lynch: Fire on Stage

TODAY

Guided tour of the exhibition David Lynch, Fire on Stage

Tuesday, 24 April, 18.00, admission payable to see the exhibition

Conducted by the curator of the exhibition, Božidar Zrinski.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

The Secret Life of Books, literary panel discussion
The House – The Woman Artist Today

Wednesday, 18 April, at 6 pm
Švicarija Creative Centre, admission free

The literary panel discussion cycle consists of monthly meetings and debates. We touch upon current topics that are in one way or another connected to the Švicarija Creative Centre through the selected books.

The event, as part of The Secret Life of Books cycle, will make us question the position of the artist in the society of today. For many years, Švicarija represented a shelter to many artists, who created, organised themselves and worked there. Do we know of any such place in the contemporary times? Can art even provide a decent living nowadays? 

The following invited guests are taking part in the debate: Ivana Djilas, Dan Juvan, Petra Meterc; the debate is led by: Nika Kovač.

The books selected for debate are: Dubravka Ugrešić, Europe in Sepia, Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day, Ivana Djilas, The House.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

Theme-based Saturday public tour: Švicarija in Time and Space
Jaka Železnikar: Interweaving the Word and Image in Švicarija

Saturday, 14 April, at 16.30

Švicarija Creative Centre, admission: 2 EUR

We will take a stroll around the building of the Švicarija Creative Centre through the eyes of a fictional couple who eventually met at Švicarija and fell in love. But this is not just a love story since we will take a look at Švicarija through their eyes and see Ljubljana in a time of the past. The guided tour, with a focus on the period around 1910, will not be a strictly art-historical or sociological portrayal, it will be accompanied by various anecdotes about the famous people of the time, with a surprise or two thrown in.

Jaka Železnikar is an e-literature author and a web artist. He will take us through the building of the Švicarija Creative Centre, the meeting place of many different artists in the hustle and bustle of social events.

You are invited to join us for a documentary about the Švicarija building, real and fictional at the same time. There are no repeats, so don't miss it!

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

David Lynch: Fire on Stage

11th Cultural Studies Symposium on Truth
Post-reality

Friday, 20 April, 17.00–20.00, Švicarija Creative Centre, admission free

The 11th Cultural Studies Symposium will be held in Ljubljana from 18 to 20 April, this time on the subject of truth, entitled Post-reality, and organised by the Kult.co cultural studies society. You are invited to listen in on the Art and Truth panel on the closing day of the symposium.

•lectures (in Slovenian language) and performances
•participating guests: Maja Burja, Urška Aplinc, Bor Bevc, Vesna Liponik, Bojana Vasića, Marija Glavaš, Teja Tegelj, Bara Kolenc

ABOUT NOON – Opening day

David Lynch, Fire on Stage

Friday, 13 April, 12.00

12.00: Opening guided tour by the director of MGLC Nevenka Šivavec and the curator of the exhibition Božidar Zrinski.
21.00: an evening audio-visual live performance with jesusonecstasy + izland, Švicarija Creative Centre.
Where drawing, movement and mechanics meet, this is where the Izland + jesusonecstasy duo come in and a special fluid atmosphere starts to flow.

Admission free to both events.

The exhibition is open to view between 12.00 and 21.00.
Admission.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

Sunday guided tour of the exhibition Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature in English

Sunday, 29 April, at 3 pm,
admission: 2 eur

One-hour long guided tour with adaptations in the Slovenian language.
Conducted by art historian Matic Ferlan.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature project, by which the Švicarija Creative Centre is being introduced into the cultural life of the capital, derives from three basic elements that have marked the history of the building: community, art and nature. The project consists of an exhibition and supplementary exhibition programme inspired by the building that actualises the history of Švicarija, in such a way providing the guidelines for its activities in the future.

The multifaceted exhibition consists of four sections: History, The Stojan Batič Memorial Studio, Architecture and Art. The exhibition takes us through the history and social life of the building, it presents us with activities of the artists in it and highlights its recent renovation. These sections are connected by the artwork

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

8. 2. 2018–6. 1. 2019

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature project takes us through the prism of cultural history, architecture and visual art into the past of the building, revealing the recent renovations and presenting the activities of the artists working there. The multifaceted exhibition is complemented by a variety of educational activities for children, young people, adults and families with an inclusive, innovative and engaging approach to visitors. We are bringing Švicarija's heritage to the fore through lectures, guided tours, talks and other events, in such a way becoming a part of its new life.

Residency programme

Navid Navab: tangibleFlux φ plenumorphic ∴ chaosmosis

Thursday, April, 5, at 19.30
Švicarija Creative Center, free od charge

Navid Navab, interdisciplinary artist and researcher from Montreal, will showcase the first prototype of his recent work in process entitled tangibleFlux φ plenumorphic ∴ chaosmosis which is being developed during his “artist in residence” at Švicarija Creative Centre in Ljubljana. It will be the pre-premiere of (the prototype of) the piece which will be premiered this September in Linz.

tangibleFlux φ plenumorphic ∴ chaosmosis is a sensorial installation inhabited by the playful dance of entities that invite participants to intimately encounter the material ontogenesis of vital patterns—organic formation of patterns and objects out of continuous material-energy fields. In search for hidden mysteries of matter at the borders of experimental art, table-top astrophysics, and natural fiction, Navab’s audiovisual-haptic compositions orchestrate states of sensory access to the phenomenological emergence of order out of chaos. A series of dynamic microcosms compositionally investigate entanglements between pattern and uncertainty, percepts and the-stuff-of-forms, topological semblance and orbital resonance. The microcosms might resemble laser-esque hologram trying hard to defy a perception of depth; however, the spectators may recognize the kinetic event in all its messy realness: objects under flux, seeking a minimum-energy state… gasps of life, dissolving into upheavals at the edge of chaos. In recent years, complexity sciences have shown us that at certain thresholds, order can spontaneously arise out of chaos. 

Navid Navab is a media alchemist, multidisciplinary composer, audiovisual sculptor, phono-menologist, perSonifier, gestureBender, and interdisciplinary artist-researcher. Interested in the poetics of schizophonia, gesture, materiality, and embodiment, his work investigates the transmutation of matter and the enrichment of its inherent performative qualities. Navab currently directs the Topological Media Lab (TML), where he where he fuses phenomenological studies with a multitude of other disciplines and practices. He lives and works in Montreal, Canada.

Photo: Navid Navab.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

TODAY

Cycle of Lectures on Stojan Batič
History and Myth in the Sculptural Oeuvre of Stojan Batič

Delivered by Miklavž Komelj

Tuesday, April 3, at 6 pm

The Memorial Studio of Stojan Batič (ground floor), entrance fee: 2 EUR

Lecturer Miklavž Komelj will focus on how a vivid engagement in the social processes of the time and a fascination of the mythological intertwined in the oeuvre of Stojan Batič. Both of these aspects interlace in a particularly interesting way in his monuments dedicated to the National Liberation Struggle. He saw them as a tribute to the historical events in which he was actively involved as a soldier, while they were at the same time also a part of a visual definition of a new mythology. Batič was aware of just how important large-scale monuments were for creating social bonds, but was also one of the first in Yugoslavia to link the making of such monuments to the elements of modernist aesthetics. His oeuvre is profoundly tied to society and its goings-on during the entire second half of the twentieth century – even in those works that at first glance appear as most removed from any such events.

A warm welcome!

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

David Lynch: Fire on Stage

13. 4.–29. 7. 2018

The first presentation of the American film director, scriptwriter, photographer, painter, musician and printmaker David Lynch in Slovenia. The Fire on Stage show offers a selection of seventy fine art graphic prints produced in the lithography technique. The presentation is rounded off by paintings from private collections, watercolours, as well as a selection of experimental and animated films. By interweaving the sombre and the mysterious, which overflow his entire spectrum of art, a Lynchian atmosphere is created, which will be followed in the installation by the multi-award-winning set designer Branko Hojnik.

David Lynch: A Parting Kiss, 2007, lithography.
Curtesy: Item Éditions.

KINODVOR FOR THE WEEKEND - FILM PROGRAMME TO ACCOMPANY THE EXHIBITION

Blue Velvet Revisited
Sunday, 15 April, 19.00, Kinodvor

Documentary on the filming of Lynch's cult thriller Blue Velvet.
Directed by: Peter Braatz, Germany/Slovenia, 2016, 85', sp

Admission payable

THE ŠVICARIJA: COMMUNITY, ART AND NATURE PROJECT

Sunday guided tour of the exhibition Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature in English

Sunday, 25 March, at 3 pm,
admission: 2 eur

One-hour long guided tour with adaptations in the Slovenian language.
Conducted by art historian Matic Ferlan.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature project, by which the Švicarija Creative Centre is being introduced into the cultural life of the capital, derives from three basic elements that have marked the history of the building: community, art and nature. The project consists of an exhibition and supplementary exhibition programme inspired by the building that actualises the history of Švicarija, in such a way providing the guidelines for its activities in the future.

The multifaceted exhibition consists of four sections: History, The Stojan Batič Memorial Studio, Architecture and Art. The exhibition takes us through the history and social life of the building, it presents us with activities of the artists in it and highlights its recent renovation. These sections are connected by the artwork.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

Tivoli Hotel between Memories and Dreams
A sensory approach to learning about cultural heritage

● Workshops take place from March to May.
● introductory sensorial workshop, Saturday 24 March,
10.00–14.00 15.00–19.00
Sunday, 25 March, 
10.00–14.00 15.00–19.00

● Summer Museum Night, 16 June, first public guided tour by the participants of the project
● Advance bookings to: lili.sturm@mglc-lj.si or senzorium@gmail.com
● The closin date for application is 15 March

The art education programme includes a sensorial workshop with a final presentation for the public. In the first stage, participants are introduced into the sensory tools of communication and staging. In the second stage, we connect with the cultural heritage of Tivoli Hotel, the so-called Švicarija, which was the gathering place of the Ljubljana bourgeoisie at the beginning of the 20th century. Workshop participants explore and listen to the history of the building through various perspectives of sensory perception. In the final stage of research, visitors are taken through the originally staged snippets of its history.

Concept and implementation: Barbara Pia Jenič, founder of the Senzorium Theatre, author and director.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Worskhop for children
The White Chrysanthemum or the Artist in Motion 

● Workshops are held on Saturdays in two parts, from March to May and from September to December.
● The final performance of The White Chrysanthemum is a synthesis of the workshops, Friday, 28 December.

The White Chrysanthemum is a work written by Ivan Cankar during his residence at Švicarija. The controversial essay is still surprisingly topical today. And what message does the author convey to the young people of today? 

The White Chrysanthemum or the Artist in Motion project consists of workshops for the production of movable sculptures (mobiles) lasting several months long, two guided tours of the workshop participants around the Švicarija Creative Centre and the concluding New Year's performance. The workshops connect several artistic disciplines and are based on various dimensions of creating.

●Concept and implementation: Barbara Bulatović, director and puppeteer.
●For children from 8 years of age and over.
●Free of charge.
●Advance bookings to alenka.mikuz@mglc-lj.si

Spring part: From Image to Form
● Saturdays: 10 and 24 March, 7 and 21 April, 5 May, 10.00–14.00; concluding guided tour, Saturday, 12 May.

Through the creative process, children conceive a character of their own choice from the passages of The White Chrysanthemum. They approach their chosen character in various creative ways (visual, technological, dramaturgical and handcrafted) and produce moving figures that are similar to puppets, yet different.

Autumn part: Storyline in the Space
● Saturdays: 29 September, 13 and 27 October, 10 and 24 November, 10.00–14.00; concluding guided tour, Sunday, 2 December.

At the beginning of the second part, the children prepare a storyline together for The White Chrysanthemum New Year's performance. In the process of working on the interpretation of the character placed in the space, we use the manipulation, animation, dramaturgy and scenographic approach defined in the storyline.

The final performance of The White Chrysanthemum, which represents the synthesis of the year-round workshops, will be put on during the festive time, on Friday, 28 December.

The workshops are part of the Saturday Workshops programme run by RogLab, Stripburger magazine, Trajekt Institute, MGLC and the Švicarija Creative Centre.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

Sculpture-making Course
Myths and Fantasy Captured in Sculpture

starting on 19 March
March–May, once a week on Mondays, 17.00–20.00 

The fantastic creatures of Damijan Kracina cruise between art, science and imagination. The notion of the fantastic is also the starting subject of the course. Participants learn about the basic principles of working with clay and produce their own original sculpture, inspired by mythology and fantasy. The course starts with a public lecture.

Conducted by: Damijan Kracina, sculptor and Švicarija Creative Centre studio user.
We accept a maximum of 8 participants.
Participation fee: 180 EUR.
Advance bookings to alenka.mikuz@mglc-lj.si

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Searching for Beauty

LAST WEEKEND

1. –18. 3. 2018

Opening on Thursday,
1 March, at 1 pm.

Using animation, the artists Michaela Čopíková and Veronika Obertová (working under the name of Ové Pictures have created several interactive installations that focus on the central motif of searching for beauty in new contexts. They make use of historical optical toys such as the zoetrope, flip book and diorama in their projects, transforming them into a more current interactive variation. The exhibition expresses the authors’ understanding of “new beauty”.

Curator: Mária Rišková, Design Centre in Bratislava

The exhibition is being held on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Independence of the Slovak Republic and the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Slovak Republic and the Republic of Slovenia.

The exhibition is organised in cooperation with Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic and Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

The Secret Life of Books, literary panel discussions
About the World Here and Now

Wednesday, 14 March, at 6 pm

Švicarija Creative Centre, free of charge

The cycle of literary panel discussions consists of monthly meetings and talks. Current topics, which are tied to the Švicarija Creative Centre in one way or another, are touched upon through the selected books.

Ali Žerdin (editor of Sobotna priloga of Delo newspaper) and activist Simon Maljevac are taking part in the talk, which is led by Nika Kovač (Mladinska knjiga).

The books selected for discussion are:
Carolin Emcke, Against Hate, Jan-Werner Müller, What is Populism?, Naomi Klein, No Is Not Enough.

We will try to answer questions like:
What kind of a world do we live in? How do the contemporary times differ from the golden period of Švicarija? What parallels can be drawn and what are the fundamental differences? What is the role of the individual?

Foto: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Boris Jesih: Connections

LAST WEEKEND

Concluding guided tour

Sunday, 11 March, at noon

Conducted by the curator of exhibition Breda Škrjanec.

Boris Jesih (1943) established himself as an artist at the end of the 1960s as part of the expressive figuration circle of painters. Under the influence of pop art, he responded to the characteristics of the spirit of the time with his geometric transformation of everyday objects, later also turning predominantly to landscape. As a printmaker, he excels in the techniques of relief printing and flat printing, with superior results in colour lithography. As a prize winner of the 13th International Biennial of Graphic Arts in 1979 (special prize for a young artist), he attracted attention with his series of lithographs, a set of which is part of the MGLC collection. Beside the lithographs, the retrospective exhibition also presents drawings, paintings and photographs, which highlight the connections between his creative process and his works. 

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Searching for Beauty

1. –18. 3. 2018

Opening on Thursday,
1 March, at 1 pm.

Using animation, the artists Michaela Čopíková and Veronika Obertová (working under the name of Ové Pictures have created several interactive installations that focus on the central motif of searching for beauty in new contexts. They make use of historical optical toys such as the zoetrope, flip book and diorama in their projects, transforming them into a more current interactive variation. The exhibition expresses the authors’ understanding of “new beauty”.

Curator: Mária Rišková, Design Centre in Bratislava

The exhibition is being held on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Independence of the Slovak Republic and the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Slovak Republic and the Republic of Slovenia.

The exhibition is organised in cooperation with Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic and Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic.