MGLC - International Centre of Graphic Arts

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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Visitors, please be aware!

As of 25 June, wearing a mask in public enclosed spaces has again become obligatory.

We look forward to your visit and will adhere to all security measures to protect visitors and the MGLC team. We will ask you to follow the instructions for preventing the spread of infection in accordance with the instructions of the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) during visiting time, wear a protective mask during your visit, disinfect your hands when entering and keep the prescribed distance between yourself and others. 

We also ask you to visit only if you a free of any signs of illness.

SUMMER IN TIVOLI PROGRAMME

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. Archive: MGLC.

Tuesday Concerts
Every Tuesday, 7.–28. 7., 20.00, in front of Grad Tivoli

Thursday Concerts
Every Thursday, 2.–23. 7., 21.00, in front of Švicarija

Films in the Woods
Every Sunday, 26. 7.–16. 8., 21.00, in front of Švicarija

Touring the Exhibition Together
Every Tuesday, 7. 7.–11. 8., 18.00, Grad Tivoli & Švicarija

Spoon Prints
Every Thursday, 2. 7.–27. 8., 18.00, in front of MGLC

Summer in the Grass
Every Tuesday and Thursday, 2. 7.–27. 8., 15.00–20.00, in front of Švicarija

The Body in Movement
Every Wednesday, 1. 7.–26. 8., 19.00–20.00, starting point in front of MGLC

Drop-in Friday Workshops
Every Friday, 3. 7.–28. 8., 10.00–12.00, in front of Grad Tivoli and Švicarija

Puppet Night
Wednesday, 8. 7., 19.00–21.00, in front of Švicarija

PovezujeM/Tivoli Creative Circle
Monday–Friday, 24.–28. 8., 8.00–16.00, Grad Tivoli and Švicarija

Experimental Printmaking at the End of the Promenade
Monday–Friday, 17. –21. 8., 9.00–13.00, Grad Tivoli

SUMMER IN TIVOLI PRIZE-WINNING GAME

Join us and colour your summer 2020. Make it unforgettable! We invite you to post photos from the events and exhibitions Summer in Tivoli on Facebook and Instagram by adding @MGLC Ljubljana and the #poletjevtivoliju hashtag. The photos must be made public so that we can find them. Some of the participating photos will be chosen and awarded. The winners will be announced on 31 August 2020.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. Archive: MGLC.

BLACK MARKET

19. 5.–16. 8. 2020

Black Market by Andrej Škufca is a sculptural installation based on modular iterations. Its body represents a futuristic animal composed of our contemporary biotechnical debris – of oil pipelines, ocean fibre optic cables, eels, exoskeletons and the earliest forms of tubular multicellular micro-organisms. 
Curator: Àngels Miralda

Andrej Škufca: Zero Hedge (2019),

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.

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.

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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.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

Švicarija in Time and Space:
Theme-based Saturday public tours
Aleksander Bassin, Uncovering the Personal Memory of Švicarija

Saturday, 10 March, at 16.30
Švicarija Creative Centre,
admission fee: 2 eur

Aleksander Bassin takes us through his memories of Švicarija. He often listened to the Russian language of some strollers as he walked up to Rožnik Hill, while he began to visit even more frequently after the generations of sculptors moved into Švicarija. 

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Today's lecture is cancelled.
The lecture will take place on Tuesday May 8 at 6 pm.

Cycle of Lectures on Stojan Batič
Barbara Savenc, From the First Studio to Švicarija

Tuesday, 6 March, 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.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

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. Arhiv MGLC.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

Introductory lecture on the sculpture course

About Fantasy and the Fantastic

Tuesday, 13 March, 18.00, free of charge

Lecture by: Jakob J. Kenda, literary historian and translator
Open to the public. 

Sculpture-making Course
Myths and Fantasy Captured in Sculpture

March–May, once a week on Mondays, 17.00–20.00 (starting on 19 March)

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.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

Sunday guided tour of the exhibition Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature in English

Sunday, 25 February, at 3 pm

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.

Dragica Čadež: Story of a Tree, 2018.
Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

Švicarija in Time and Space
(Theme-based Saturday public tours)

Maruša Zorec, Transformation of Švicarija in Ljubljana

Saturday, 17 February, at 4.30 pm, admission fee: 2 eur

The former hotel on the outskirts of the city has undergone countless transformations in over a hundred years of existence. At the guided tour we will see the most exciting corners of the building and get to know the different images of its transformation over time.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

The Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature Project

Eyewitnesses series of talks:
Dušan Tršar

Thursday, 15 February, at 5 pm
The Memorial Studio of Stojan Batič, Švicarija Creative Centre

admission fee: 2 eur

We will be talking to renowned sculptor Dušan Tršar, whose activities and presence have been part of the local and international art scene since the mid-1960s. Tršar worked in Švicarija for a good part of his mature career, and he will present his life and work within this informal art community through his own personal spectrum.

The talk is led by Miha Colner.

Dušan Tršar (1937) received his Bachelor's and Master's degree in Sculpture from the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana. He became established at the end of the 1960s and in the 1970s with his typical light objects, which combined the traditional sculptural expression with more modern materials and seeming kinetic effects. Later he went on to use more solid materials, especially bronze, which is still his basic material. Tršar, who remained a pedagogue and independent artist throughout his career, lives and works in Ljubljana.

*The Eyewitnesses series of talks invites you to join the public talks with the former Švicarija residents and users, who will conjure up the former atmosphere of this iconic building in Tivoli, as based on their own experiences and perspectives. The co-speakers are visual artists who have left a mark on the local art scene in various ways.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. Arhiv MGLC.

FROM THE ŠVICARIJA STUDIOS

Marija Mojca Pungerčar: A transitional period is foreseen

guided tour of the exhibition with Maria Mojca Pungerčar
Thursday, 15 February, at 6 pm, Švicarija Creative Centre (1st floor)

A transitional period is foreseen is a project in which artist Marija Mojca Pungerčar stems from a selection of photographs documenting private events that represent or indicate important turning points in life over a prolonged period of time.

Marija Mojca Pungerčar: A transitional period is foreseen.

Watch out! Wet print! #12

Ivian Kan Mujezinović
Interference 3/1

6. 2.–5. 3. 2018

Opening: Tuesday, 6 February, at 5 pm
TAM-TAM Street Gallery at Vegova ulica (opposite Glasbena matica)

Ivian Kan Mujezinović, designer, photographer, member of the Ee Grupa design group, bass player and vocalist of the Čao Portorož music group. He is the recipient of many prizes and awards for providing integral design solutions,

Ivian Kan Mujezinović:
Interference 3/1.

Slovenian Day of Culture at MGLC

Thursday, 8 February, 10.00–18.00, free of charge

10.00–18.00 Free admission to view the exhibition Boris Jesih, Connections
11.00 Guided tour for families with printmaking workshop, conducted by museum counsellor Lili Šturm, Katja Kovše and Petja Kolenko.
15.00 Public guided tour with the author of the exhibition, mag. Breda Škrjanec and artist Boris Jesih

A warm welcome!

Photo: Katja Kovše. MGLC Archive.

ŠVICARIJA: COMMUNITY, ART AND NATURE

8. 2. 2018–6. 1. 2019

Opening, 8 February, at 12 noon

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.

Slovenian Cultural Holiday and Švicarija Creative Centre Day

Thursday, 8 February, 12.00–20.00
12.00 Opening of the Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature project
Musical-visual backdrop: VJ Ticho Pixel.
13.00 Viewing of the exhibition Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature with studio open day and socialising with the artists – studio users in the Švicarija Creative Centre.

The exhibition and studios will be open until 8 pm on that day.
Free of charge.

Photo: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Archive.

MGLC AT THE YOUTH ARENA

Friday and Saturday, 26 and 27 January, 9.00–18.00,
Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Centre

Morning: prize game
Afternoon: workshop of screen printing on bags and T-shirts (bring your T-shirt with you!)
We will be making free-of-charge prints with the special motif of Švicarija: Community, Art and Nature.

Last year, MGLC received the Švicarija Creative Centre into its care, which now forms a new educational, social, cultural and artistic hub in Tivoli Park. The newly established centre is primarily a residential space for artists. With its diverse history, it also offers excellent starting points for organizing exhibitions, workshops, concerts, films, lectures and presentations – especially for young people!

The spirit of the refurbished Švicarija lives with the slogan Community, Art, Nature. A particularly rich programme on the subject will be run in 2018, which we are also sharing in the Arena! 

BOBRI – 10th Ljubljana Festival of Culture and Art Education

20. 1.–8. 2. 2018

LANDSCAPE – MISTSCAPE
How do we see the landscape?

Viewing of the exhibition and workshop at the Connections exhibition by Boris Jesih for organized groups of children from kindergarten and the first three-year age range of primary school. Conducted by Nika Rupnik. Organised by prior arrangement during the course of the festival. (some places are still available).

Connections / Animation workshop at the exhibition of Boris Jesih
Sunday, 28 January, 11.00–15.00

The workshop is intended for children over the age of 9; parents can also join in getting creative. In collaboration with the SLON Society.
(the workshop is already full)

Guided tour of the exhibition Connections by Boris Jesih

TODAY

Thursday, 18 January, at 5 pm.
conducted by Nevenka Šivavec, Director of the International Centre of Graphic Arts

The tour will be an attempt to gain an insight into the understanding of the connection of the artist's work with the concurrent state of society, which is latently (rather than directly) present in Jesih's creative process.

In his vision, contemporary man is losing his original connection to nature, since the development of civilization has alienated his understanding of its secret powers, their connection as well as possession. This experience has been replaced by the artificial, culturally conditioned perception of the natural environment. Jesih visually separates nature from the viewer, doing so by placing signs – obstacles in front of the illusion of the landscape and in front of the viewer. These are the artist's internal reactions to social events, to everything that disturbs him when he gazes through the window of his studio, where nature awakens into quiet mornings, whereas the reality of people in other places on Earth is completely different. His works are witnesses and a document of today's understanding of the world and man's role in it.

Boris Jesih: Waves (1995, acrylic, egg tempera)

From the Švicarija studios

Marija Mojca Pungerčar: A transitional period is foreseen

opening:
Thursday, 14 December, at 7 pm, Švicarija Creative Centre (1st floor)
at 18.00, guided tour of the exhibition with Maria Mojca Pungerčar and curator Nina Jeza

A transitional period is foreseen is a project in which artist Marija Mojca Pungerčar stems from a selection of photographs documenting private events that represent or indicate important turning points in life over a prolonged period of time.

Marija Mojca Pungerčar: A transitional period is foreseen.

Watch out! Wet print! #11

LAST WEEKEND

Katja Felle:
Update Gobelin

9. 1. –5. 2. 2018

Opening: Tuesday, 9 January, at 5 pm
TAM-TAM Street Gallery at Vegova ulica (opposite Glasbena matica)

Katja Felle is interested in the glitches in communication that arise during the transmission of information through various media agents. The project entitled Update Gobelin is based on a glitch in the perception of a poster, as the artist has updated images of old and found gobelin tapestries with contemporary computer icons and other well-known signs and symbols from the electronic environment.

Katja Felle: Update Gobelin (detail).
Photo: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Archive.

Festive Opening Times

MGLC is open until 2 pm on Sunday, 24 December and Sunday,
31 December.
Closed: Monday, 25 December 2017 and Monday, 1 January 2018.

The Švicarija Creative Centre is closed from Thursday, 21 December 2017 until Wednesday, 3 January 2018.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

THE MGLC MUSEUM SHOP IN DECEMBER

The shop with the unique ideas

You are kindly invited to drop in at 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.
A 30% discount awaits you.

The shop is open until 2 pm on Sunday, 24 December and Sunday,
31 December.
Closed: Monday, 25 December 2017 and Monday, 1 January 2018.

Festive workshop and performance

Friday, 29 October, 11.00–13.00

Festive workshop and performance
Art workshop at the exhibition of Boris Jesih, Connections
Conducted by Nika Rupnik, academy-trained painter and art historian Tina Boc. (60 min)

Kamišibaj gledališče: The Boy on the Cloud and Other Stories
The stories in images and words are told by Irena Rajh. (40 min)

MGLC presents  the festive workshop and performance to children and everyone they love as a gift, therefore anyone from the age of 2 till 90 is warmly invited!

Kamišibaj gledališče: The Boy on the Cloud and Other Stories, told by Irena Rajh

A boy called Darko lived in a tall house with a rooftop terrace. One day, he was walking to and fro deep in thought, when a small white cloud floated by. Darko had a string with him and caught the cloud just like a kid goat, pulling it to himself. He climbed onto it and they sailed over the city...

Darko and the cloud will be joined by other stories tied to Ljubljana, Tivoli Park and the castle. Kamishibai Theatre is a Japanese form of storytelling with pictures on a small wooden stage.

Copying

14. 12. 2017–7. 1. 2018

opening:
Thursday, 14 December, at 5 pm., Švicarija Creative Center (ground floor)

The Copying project in the form of an artists' book, presents 11 artists, who have each developed and created their own view of copying and the copy.

Artists: Kate Bingaman-Burt, Tate Foley, JULM (Jason Urban & Leslie Mutchler), Leah Mackin, Test Print (Amze Emmons), Garret Orr, Nez Pez, Nika Rupnik, Grace Synder, RL Tillman, Breanne Trammell

Curator: Printeresting

Photo: Printeresting.

From the Švicarija studios

Marija Mojca Pungerčar: A transitional period is foreseen

opening:
Thursday, 14 December, at 7 pm, Švicarija Creative Centre (1st floor)
at 18.00, guided tour of the exhibition with Maria Mojca Pungerčar and curator Nina Jeza

A transitional period is foreseen is a project in which artist Marija Mojca Pungerčar stems from a selection of photographs documenting private events that represent or indicate important turning points in life over a prolonged period of time.

Marija Mojca Pungerčar: A transitional period is foreseen.

Watch out! Wet print! #10

LAST WEEKEND

Tanja Radež: HAPPY NEW YEAR 2018

5. 12. 2017–8. 1. 2018

TAM-TAM Street Gallery at Vegova ulica (opposite Glasbena matica)

Tanja Radež often finds herself in a quandary over the sense of creating national symbols. The symbolic emblems of national identity are often only adornments and no longer support the construction of a bright future. However, the symbols and colours persist through a changing history, since man must quite clearly lay the boundaries of his existence and mark the sovereignty of the group to which he belongs. 

Tanja Radež: HAPPY NEW YEAR 2018.

ON THIS HAPPY DAY OF CULTURE AT MGLC

3 December 2017, at 12 noon – open day of Slovenian culture,

About noon: The first – opening – stroll through the exhibition and talk between the author of the exhibition mag. Breda Škrjanec and the artist Boris Jesih.

Free viewing of the exhibition Boris Jesih, Connections.

The gallery is open from 10.00 to 18.00.

Boris Jesih: Connections

30. 11. 2017–11. 3. 2018

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. 

Boris Jesih: A Doors (1983, color lithography).

Watch out! Wet print! #9

Pri Zlatem stegnu (Nataša and Katja Skušek): Unicorns Come and Unicorns Go

7. 11.–4. 12. 2017

opening event:
Tuesday, 7 November, at 5 pm
the TAM-TAM Street Gallery at Vegova (opposite Glasbena matica)

Pri Zlatem stegnu, they play about with taste. In fact, they play about with the taste for food and the taste for art.
Pri Zlatem stegnu is an art project by Nataša and Katja Skušek, which has been ongoing since 2004 in various forms, from spatial installations, to video works, objects, photo-collages, fine art graphic prints, drawings and performances. The project brings the questions related to food preparation and eating as the basic human need to the forefront in a humorous and light manner. 

Pri Zlatem stegnu: Unicorns Come and Unicorns Go.

The 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion

LAST WEEKEND

The Biennial is open until Sunday,
5 November.

The main exhibition of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion in MGLC and the Švicarija Creative Centre are open (10.00–18.00).

Until Sunday, 5 November is open exhibition Maria Bonomi: Printmaking Forever in Jakopič Gallery (10.00–18.00).

Wellcome!

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. Arhiv MGLC.

Welcome to the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts during the holidays

MGLC and the Švicarija Creative Centre are open (10.00–18.00) on 31 October (Day of the Reformation) and on 1 November (Day of the Remembrance of the Dead).

You are invited to view the main exhibition of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. Arhiv MGLC.

The 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion

THE PRIZES OF THE 32ND BIENNIAL OF GRAPHIC ARTS HAVE BEEN AWARDED

The Grand Prize winner of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts is Alejandro Paz, for the work Hypodermic (2017, intervention), the work was made for the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts.

The recipient of the Research Residency Award is Carlos Monroy, for the work Baphomet. One single birth made incarnate. (2017, performance and video installation), the work was made for the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts.

The jury of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts:
Anne Barlow, Mike Cooter, Bige Örer in Maruša Sagadin.

The recipient of the Audience Award of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts is american artist Christopher Myers, for the work Detritus of Dreams (2016).

Alejandro Paz: Hypodermic (2017).
Photo: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Archive.

The 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion

The Biennial is open until 5 November.

This Week at the Biennial

FULL BLAST
Tuesday, 24 October, 15.00–18.00, Švicarija Creative Centre 
Guided tour with interventions of movement for KUL abonma subscribers, lead by Anja Guid.

Meta Grgurevič: Silenzio, eternal loopholes and braided lines
Saturday, 28 October,
2 pm–5 pm, Švicarija Creative Centre, free of charge
performance

Final guided tour of the main exhibition of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts
Saturday, 28 October, 3 pm, 
MGLC and Švicarija Creative Centre, free of charge
Public guided tour of the main exhibition of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion is conducted by the members of Biennial collective

Public guided tours of the exhibition Maria Bonomi: Printmaking Forever (Jakopič Gallery)
Saturday, 28 October, at 16.30,
in the English language
Sunday, 29 October, at 16.30,
in the Slovenian language

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Arhiv.

The 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion

The 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion has run its course.

APPOINTING THE MGLC DIRECTOR TO THE IBA BOARD

MGLC Director Mrs. Nevenka Šivavec is a new member of the Board of the International Biennial Association (IBA), which met at the 4th General Assembly between 25 and 28 September at the Yokohama Triennial in Japan.

Detailed presentation 

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS FOR THE BEGINNERS COURSE IN PRINTMAKING TECHNIQUES AND THE COURSE IN INTAGLIO PRINTING TECHNIQUES

The beginners 50-hour course that runs from November to March gives you a practical know-how of the printmaking techniques of screen-printing, woodcut, lithography and drypoint, under the guidance of renowned mentor artists.

Advance bookings taken up till the available quota at MGLC, Pod turnom 3, Ljubljana, or via e-mail to: lili.sturm@mglc-lj.si.

Members of the Friends of the Biennial Club are eligible for a special discount.

The advanced 50-hour course that runs from November to March gives you an introduction to the techniques of intaglio printing, as well as the techniques of aquatint, etching, vernis-mou, mezzotinta, under the guidance of renowned mentor artists.

Advance bookings taken up till the available quota at MGLC, Pod turnom 3, Ljubljana, or via e-mail to: lili.sturm@mglc-lj.si.

Members of the Friends of the Biennial Club are eligible for a special discount.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

The 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion

The Biennial is open until 5 November.

This week at the Biennial

TRAPPED IN PERCEPTION?
Tuesday, 17 October, 5 pm, 
MGLC and Švicarija Creative Centre
Public guided tour of the main exhibition of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion is conducted by art historian Tina Boc
The guided tour will also be given in Slovenian Sign Language, interpreted by Tanja Giuliatti Davinić.

Awaken your senses with urban yoga: artwork, space and yoga
two-day workshop for all generations, admission with a ticket
of the Ljubljana 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts,
Švicarija Creative Centre
Friday, 20 October, 16.00–20.00
Saturday, 21 October, 14.00–18.00
Advance booking to lili.sturm@mglc-lj.si

Public guided tours of the exhibition Maria Bonomi: Printmaking Forever (Jakopič Gallery)
Saturday, 21 October, at 16.30,
in the English language
Sunday, 22 October, at 16.30,
in the Slovenian language

Biennial artist Nora Turato during her performance at the opening of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts
(16 June 2017).
Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

The 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion

TODAY

TRAPPED IN PERCEPTION?
Tuesday, 17 October, 5 pm, MGLC and Švicarija Creative Centre
Public guided tour of the main exhibition of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion is conducted by art historian Tina Boc
The guided tour will also be given in Slovenian Sign Language, interpreted by Tanja Giuliatti Davinić.

The main Biennial exhibition Birth as Criterion is the core of this year's 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts. It is on view at MGLC – the International Centre of Graphic Arts and the renovated Švicarija Creative Centre in Tivoli Park. The exhibition presents the works of 27 international artists inspired in their work by the poem Birth as Criterion by Slovenian Modernist poet Jure Detela.

The Little Biennial Dwarf Children's Corner – a place for animation, child care and workshop activities for children – will be open during the course of the guided tour. Free of charge.

Biennial artist Nora Turato during her performance at the opening of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts
(16 June 2017).
Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

The 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion

TODAY

Was it a puddle or chewing gum?
Public guided tour of the main exhibition of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion
Conducted by Irena Borić, member of the Biennial collective, in company with the biennial artist Riley Harmon.
Tuesday, 10 October, at 5 pm, guided tour starts at the Švicarija Creative Centre

The guided tour is conducted in the English language.
The guided tour is included in the admission fee of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts.

The guided tour of the exhibition Birth as Criterion will this time begin with the presentation of the piece by Riley Harmon Was it a puddle or chewing gum? The artwork will be discussed by artist Riley Harmon and Irena Borić, member of the Biennial collective. The work reflects the current state in which an ordinary object, such as a backpack, can become "dangerous". After a short conversation, visitors will be invited to view the exhibition with an emphasis on the works that deal with language.

The Little Biennial Dwarf Children's Corner – a place for animation, child care and workshop activities for children – will be open free of charge during the course of the guided tour.

Photo: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Archive.

The 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion

The Biennial is open until 5 November.

This week at the Biennial

Was it a puddle or chewing gum?
Public guided tour of the main exhibition of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion
Conducted by Irena Borić, member of the Biennial collective, in company with the biennial artist Riley Harmon.
Tuesday, 10 October, at 5 pm, guided tour starts at the Švicarija Creative Centre
The guided tour is conducted in the English language.

Vlado Škafar: A Girl and a Tree
film projection
Friday, 13 October, at 7 pm,
The Slovenian Cinematheque
Free of charge with 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts tickets.
Holders of The Slovenian Cinematheque tickets for the films from the Birth as Criterion and Film cycle receive a 50% discount on the purchase of tickets for the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts.

Public guided tours of the exhibition Maria Bonomi: Printmaking Forever (Jakopič Gallery)
Saturday, 14 October, at 16.30,
in the English language
Sunday, 15 October, at 16.30,
in the Slovenian language

Photo: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Archive.

Watch out! Wet print! #8

LAST WEEKEND

Nejc Korenič: All My Heroes are Forgotten

5. 10.–6. 11. 2017

opening event:
Thursday, 5 October, at 5 pm
the TAM-TAM Street Gallery at Vegova (opposite Glasbena matica)

Nejc Korenič (1987), with his authentic creative style, dedicates his attention to exploring and discovering the cultural history of visual expression and reflection on art, which is intended for spiritual enjoyment, the perception of the world and personal pleasures. He is inspired by ancient cultures, folk tales, stories, legends, customs, preserved or forgotten folklore.

Nejc Korenič: All My Heroes are Forgotten.

The 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion

This week at the Biennial

Experimental animated film, workshop for young people 13+
Saturday, 7 October, 11.00–14.00,
MGLC, free of charge

Cycle of Guatemalan Film at The 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts

Sunday, 8 October, 16.00–20.00,
Švicarija Creative Centre, free of charge

The cycle of eight documentary, fiction and short films shows the turbulent history of Guatemala: The period of the Civil War, the postwar period and the experimental age of Guatemalan film. 

The main exhibition of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion (MGLC and Švicarija) is open until 8 pm on Sunday 8 October.

Public guided tours of the exhibition Maria Bonomi: Printmaking Forever (Jakopič Gallery)
Saturday, 7 October, at 16.30,
in the English language
Sunday, 8 October, at 16.30,
in the Slovenian language

Photo from the film Anatomically Correct. 

The 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion

This week at the Biennial

TRAPPED IN PERCEPTION?
Public guided tour of the main exhibition of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion, conducted by Hana Ostan Ožbolt.
Tuesday, 26 September, at 5 pm, guided tour starts at MGLC

Presentation The 32 Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion  at the Festival of the Third Age
Thursday, 28 September, Cankarjev dom

Švicarija–Ljubljana’s “Nest of Art”
On the European Cultural Heritage Days 2017, we invite you to join us in Tivoli Park at the Švicarija Creative Centre for a lecture on the history of this historic building and guided tour of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion (in the company of art historian Gregor Dražil). The history of the so-called Švicarija will be presented by Tatjana Adamič and Aleksandra Renčelj Škedelj. 
Saturday, 30 September, 11.00–13.00, Švicarija Creative Centre, admission free

Playful Prints
creative family workshop
Saturday, 30 September, 15.00–18.00, Jakopič Gallery, € 15 per family

Public guided tours of the exhibition Maria Bonomi: Printmaking Forever (Jakopič Gallery)
Saturday, 30 September, at 16.30,
in the English language
Sunday, 1 October, at 16.30,
in the Slovenian language

Photo: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Archive.

Švicarija–Ljubljana’s “nest of art”

On the European Cultural Heritage Days 2017, we invite you to join us in Tivoli Park at the Švicarija Creative Centre for a lecture on the history of this historic building and guided tour of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion.

Saturday, 30 September, 11.00–13.00, Švicarija Creative Centre, admission free

The history of the so-called Švicarija will be presented by Tatjana Adamič and Aleksandra Renčelj Škedelj, conservators of the Ljubljana Unit of the Slovenian Cultural Heritage Protection Institute (ZVKDS), which also actively participated in the renovation of the building.

The lecture will be followed by a guided tour of the main exhibition of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion in the company of art historian Gregor Dražil. 

The Little Biennial Dwarf Children's Corner is open during the guided tour. We provide creative art animation combined with day care, and are counting the days to the start of school. Children and accompanying adults are invited to join us free of charge.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

The 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion

Trapped in perception?
Public guided tour of the main exhibition of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion, conducted by Hana Ostan Ožbolt
Tuesday, 26 September, at 5 pm, guided tour starts at MGLC

Hana Ostan Ožbolt will present her view of this year's 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts through the guided tour, highlighting those art projects that have attracted her attention.

Hana Ostan Ožbolt graduated in Comparative Literature and German Studies, and is currently completing her master's degree in the Department of Art History. She was part of the 15th generation of the School for Curators and Critics of Contemporary Art. Based between Ljubljana and Berlin, she has held many positions and jobs within the field of contemporary art in the recent years. She also writes about the subject at times.

The Little Biennial Dwarf Children's Corner is open during the guided tour. We provide creative art animation combined with day care, and are counting the days to the start of school. Children and accompanying adults are invited to join us free of charge.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

The 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion

This week at the Biennial

Film projection
Kenji Mizoguchi: Ugetsu (Ugetsu monogatari, 1953),
Wednesday 20 September at 8 pm,
The Slovenian Cinematheque (Miklošičeva 28)

Workshop for young pepople 14+
Experimental animated film
Thursday, 21 September, 16.30–19.30,
Švicarija Creative Centre

Public guided tours of the exhibition Maria Bonomi: Printmaking Forever (Jakopič Gallery)
Saturday, 23 September, at 16.30,
in the English language
Sunday, 24 September, at 16.30,
in the Slovenian language

The 32 Biennial of Graphic Arts on a guest visit in Prague
Saturday, 23 September, Prague (Czech Republic)
We are being hosted at the Ljubljana presentation of the architect Jožef Plečnik in the Czech capital.

Kenji Mizoguchi: Ugetsu (Ugetsu monogatari, 1953),

The 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion

This week at the Biennial

Trapped in perception?
Tuesday, 12 September, at 5 pm
MGLC and Švicarija Creative Centre
The guided tour is included in the admission fee of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts.

Public guided tour of the main exhibition of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion. Conducted by Asta Vrečko, researcher at the Department of Art History, Faculty of Arts, and member of the Biennial collective.

The Little Biennial Dwarf Children's Corner is open during the guided tour. We provide creative art animation combined with day care, and are counting the days to the start of school. Children and accompanying adults are invited to join us free of charge.

Ištvan Išt Huzjan: Measures,
until September 17,
last week for the exhibition

The last public guided tour of the exhibition of winner of the 31st Biennial of Graphic Arts. Conducted by Alenka Gregorič, curator of the exhibition.
Thursday, 14 September, 5 pm, City Art Gallery Ljubljana, free of charge

PUBLIC GUIDED TOUR OF THE EXHIBITION
MARIA BONOMI: PRINTMAKING FOREVER (JAKOPIČ GALLERY)
Sunday, 17 September, at 5 pm
conducted by Breda Škrjanec, curator of the exhibition

The guided tour is included in the admission fee of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts.

Ištvan Išt Huzjan: Measures.
Photo: Andrej Peunik. City Art Gallery Ljubljana Archive.

EXPERIMENTAL ANIMATED FILM, WORKSHOP FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 14+

Thursday, 21 September,
16.30–19.30, Švicarija Creative Centre

Socializing, playful creativity and training of the Slovenian language! All this and more is expected at the socially-integrative and creative workshop connecting young people from the asylum home with other young people. The viewing of the Biennial exhibition is followed by a workshop on the stop motion animation technique using a wide variety of materials.
The workshop is suitable for participants of 14 years of age and over.
In collaboration with the SLON society.

The workshop is free of charge.
Advance booking to lili.sturm@mglc-lj.si

Watch out! Wet print! #7

LAST WEEKEND

Borut Krajnc: Truth and Lies: the Refugee Case

6. 9.–2. 10. 2017

opening event:
Wednesday, 9 August,
at 5 pm
the TAM-TAM Street Gallery at Vegova (opposite Glasbena matica)

The International Centre of Graphic Arts and TAM-TAM invite you and your friends to attend the opening of the seventh exhibition in the cycle Watch out! Wet print! #7, Borut Krajnc: Truth and Lies: the Refugee Case, which will be held on Wednesday, 6 September, at 5 pm.

Borut Krajnc (1964, Ljubljana) is a documentary photographer and photojournalist who used to work for various Slovenian newspapers, such as Tribuna and Demokracija, and Mladina where he has been working since 1991. Krajnc has developed exceptional sensibility for local and global sociopolitical phenomena. His in-depth treatment of the relationship between politics and the economy is based on conceptual as well as documentary photography approaches. In 2015, he was following closely the refugee and migrant wave that crossed Slovenia as well.

Borut Krajnc: The child and the Horse: Rigonce, 27 October 2015.

The 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion

This week at the Biennial

Literature that Changes the World That Changes Literature
Wednesday, 6 September, 19.00–21.00,
Švicarija Creative Centre

The main event of the 32nd Vilenica International Literary Festival.

The Šum Study Seminar: Birth as Criterion

Saturday, 9 September, 11.00–17.00, Švicarija Creative Centre

The Šum Study Seminar at MGLC is this year taking place in the context of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts. The set of lectures will therefore be devoted to reflecting upon certain notions, concepts and contexts tied to the specific structure introduced by this edition of the Biennial exhibition "without curator".

The contributions will explore and expand – from philosophical, literary, (culturally) political, economic, curatorial and other perspectives – on the issues of making selections in rhizomatic, self-organized, collective, self-generated, automated, decentralized and other similar ways.

Prepared by: the research collective of ŠUM magazine (Tanja Pogačar on its behalf) in cooperation with MGLC.
Participating: Izidor Barši, Marko Bauer, Jernej Kaluža, Kaja Kraner, Primož Krašovec, Domen Ograjenšek and Andrej Tomažin.

FAMILY WORKSHOP: All the Biennial animals
Sunday, 10 September, 11.00–14.00,
MGLC and Švicarija Creative Centre
The day will be devoted to viewing the works and a workshop, followed by a thematic viewing and stroking of selected animals. 

Advance booking to
lili.sturm@mglc-lj.si

Public guided tours of the exhibition Maria Bonomi: Printmaking Forever (Jakopič Gallery)
Saturday, 9 September, at 16.30,
in the English language
Sunday, 10 September, at 16.30,
in the Slovenian language

The 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion

FAMILY WORKSHOP: All the Biennial animals
Sunday, 10 September, 11.00–14.00, MGLC and Švicarija Creative Centre
Even though the weather forecast for Sunday is rainy, the programme will still be run in adapted form from 11 am to 2 pm: viewing of the exhibition and printing workshop on T-shirts (bring them with you!).

Animals are lead players in this year's Biennial. They make appearances in the artworks, the secessionist ornamentation of Švicarija, whereas Jure Detela also bestows the most noble and loving attitude towards them in his poetry. The day will be devoted to viewing the works and a workshop, followed by a thematic viewing and stroking of selected animals at Ljubljana Zoo. And during the course of all this, also a vegan picnic on the grass!

Advance booking to
lili.sturm@mglc-lj.si

Experimental Animated Film, workshop for young people 14+

Thursday, 21 September,
16.30–19.30, MGLC and Švicarija Creative Centre
Socializing, playful creativity and training of the Slovenian language! All this and more is expected at the socially-integrative and creative workshop connecting young people from the asylum home with other young people. The viewing of the Biennial exhibition is followed by a workshop on the stop motion animation technique using a wide variety of materials.
The workshop is suitable for participants of 14 years of age and over.
In collaboration with the SLON society.

The workshop is free of charge.
Advance booking to lili.sturm@mglc-lj.si

NEW RHAPSODY

TODAY

Due to the unfavourable weather conditions, the concert today will be held in the main hall of the Švicarija Creative Centre.

An Afternoon of Music in Tivoli Park

NOVA Philharmonic

Friday, 1 September, at 5 pm, Plečnik Auditorium, Tivoli Park, the concert is free of charge
Four-legged friends are welcome. Bring a blanket to make yourself comfortable while listening.

Programme
Andrej Misson: Meditation on the theme Smoke on the Water
Richard Strauss: Concert for Horn and Orchestra no. 1 in E flat major, op. 11, Allegro – Andante – Allegro
Modest P. Musorgski (orchestration Leo Funtek): Pictures at an Exhibition
Franz Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2, S. 359/2(4)

As the most complex form of art, music has the wonderful capacity of being able to add sound to a range of different ideas, which is exactly what is outlined by tonight's programme. Ideas can, among other things, also migrate between genres (classical-rock-classical: Misson; and folk-classical: Liszt), composition techniques (classicism-romance: Strauss), or mediums (painting-music: Musorgski). 

FAIRY TALES OVER THE CITY

31 August at 6 pm, courtyard of Tivoli Mansion, free of charge

The fairy tales over the city represent a new type of fairy tale expedition, an adventure to discover one’s own city and find new ways of seeing it. The aim of the project is to get to know Ljubljana from different perspectives. We will take pleasure in the views of the Slovene capital from above and discover other hidden nooks and crannies: Ljubljana Castle, the garden of the Plečnik House, the National and University Library (NUK) ... We will even clamber up on the terrace of Tivoli Mansion. But all this will not be just simple storytelling. We will take the wooden stages of the kamishibai theatre with us to overlook the city and stage all the stories in words and pictures. Seeing the kamishibai show exactly where the story is actually taking place will be a special experience for both children and adults. The event is being prepared by the House of Children and Art

Fairy tale programme
Poems for Children by Župančič, told by Breda and Darko Kočevar
My Umbrella can Turn into a Balloon, told by Irena Rajh
Cow, told by Breda Kočevar
The Devil Driving the Dormice to Pasture, told by Simona Kavčič
The Eyes on the Tree, told by Irena Rajh

The 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion

This week at the Biennial

The Little Biennial Dwarf Children's Corner is active in front of the Švicarija Creative Centre. It is open every day from 10.00 to 13.00, until the start of school. We provide creative art animation combined with day care, and are counting the days to the start of school. Children and accompanying adults are invited to join us free of charge.

Cycle of Guatemalan Film at The 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts

Tuesday, 29 August, 17.00–21.00,
Švicarija Creative Centre, free of charge

The cycle of eight documentary, fiction and short films shows the turbulent history of Guatemala: The period of the Civil War, the postwar period and the experimental age of Guatemalan film. 

The main exhibition of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion (MGLC and Švicarija) is open until 9 pm on Tuesday 29 in August.

Leja Jurišić: The most beautiful moments are the shortest
Performative installation about the self-conception of negating the subject 
Ministry of Culture Republic of Slovenia,
until 31 August

Public guided tours of the exhibition Maria Bonomi: Printmaking Forever (Jakopič Gallery)
Saturday, 2 September, at 16.30, in the English language
Sunday, 3 September, at 16.30, in the Slovenian language

Leja Jurišić: The most beautiful moments are the shortest.
Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

The 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion

CYCLE OF GUATEMALAN FILM AT THE 32ND BIENNIAL OF GRAPHIC ARTS

Sunday, 8 October, 16.00–20.00
(repeat screening), Švicarija Creative Centre, free of charge.

The cycle of eight documentary, fiction and short films shows three views of the turbulent history of Guatemala: The period of the Civil War, the postwar period and the experimental age of Guatemalan film. The selector of the cycle is Alberto Rodríguez Collía, a participating artist in the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts.

Film evening programme
Mary Ellen Davis: The Devil's Dream 
Luis Argeta: Guatemalan Christmas 
Diego Sagastume: My Mom Rules
Evelyn Price in Loco González: Anatomically Correct
Julio Hernández Cordón: Dust 
Teatro de los Vagos: The Intertidal Zone 
Juan Brenner in Byron Mármol: Joy Vincio
Carlos Amorales: Orellana's Fantasy

There is one break with refreshments during the cycle.
The main exhibition of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion (MGLC and Švicarija) is open until 8 pm on Sunday 8 October.

The Little Biennial Dwarf Children's Corner is openig during the film evening. The Corner is place for animation, babysitting and workshop active. Free of charge.

Photo from the film The Devil's Dream. 

PUBLIC GUIDED TOUR
Was it a puddle or chewing gum?

Public guided tour of the main exhibition of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion
Conducted by Irena Borić, member of the Biennial collective
Tuesday, 10 October, at 5 pm, guided tour starts at the Švicarija Creative Centre

The guided tour is conducted in the English language.
The guided tour is included in the admission fee of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts.

The guided tour of the exhibition Birth as Criterion will this time begin with the presentation of the piece by Riley Harmon Was it a puddle or chewing gum? The artwork will be discussed by artist Riley Harmon and Irena Borić, member of the Biennial collective. The work reflects the current state in which an ordinary object, such as a backpack, can become "dangerous". After a short conversation, visitors will be invited to view the exhibition with an emphasis on the works that deal with language.

The Little Biennial Dwarf Children's Corner – a place for animation, child care and workshop activities for children – will be open free of charge during the course of the guided tour.

Photo: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Archive.

The 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion

This week at the Biennial

Tuesday, 22 August
17.00–18.00: Biennial TOP 10: guided tour in the Slovenian language (conducted by Tina Boc), and in the English language (conducted by Gregor Dražil), MGLC
18.00–20.00: Stories in the Grass: stories and printing workshop. (Bring the T-shirts with you!) Topic: water. Švicarija Creative Centre, free of charge

The main exhibition of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion (MGLC and Švicarija) is open until 8 pm on every Tuesday in August.

Public guided tours of the exhibition Ištvan Išt Huzjan: Measures (City Art Gallery Ljubljana)
Grand prize of the 31st Biennial of Graphic Arts
Thursday, 24 August, at 17.00, conducted by Alenka Gregorič, curator of the exhibition

Public guided tours of the exhibition Maria Bonomi: Printmaking Forever (Jakopič Gallery)
Saturday, 26 August, at 16.30, in the English language
Sunday, 27 August, at 16.30, in the Slovenian language

The Little Biennial Dwarf Children's Corner will start its work on Monday, 28 August, in front of the Švicarija Creative Centre. It is open every day from 10.00 to 13.00, until the start of school. We provide creative art animation combined with day care, and are counting the days to the start of school. Children and accompanying adults are invited to join us free of charge.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

The 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion

This week at the Biennial

Tuesday, 15 August
17.00–18.00: Biennial TOP 10: guided tour in the Slovenian language (conducted by Gregor Dražil), MGLC
18.00–20.00: Stories in the Grass: stories and printing workshop. (Bring the T-shirts with you!) Topic: water. Švicarija Creative Centre, free of charge

The main exhibition of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion (MGLC and Švicarija) is open until 8 pm on every Tuesday in August.

Hot off the press!
Biennial map Birth as Criterion for Children and Families
Children, families, you may arrive at the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts exactly when there is no guided tour or workshop. You may well like to "have a chat" with the artworks, but you don’t know where to start?! We suggest that you use the map, which will direct your steps around the main Biennial exhibition Birth as Criterion at MGLC and at the Švicarija Creative Centre, in an interactive and brain-twisting way, through the witty illustrations by Anja Jerčič Jakob, who has portrayed the artworks as "little art potatoes".
Available as a free publication at the exhibition venues of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts and at certain info points across Ljubljana.
Authors: Anja Jerčič Jakob (drawings) & Lili Šturm (text)

Public guided tours of the exhibition Mario Bonomi: Printmaking Forever 
Saturday, 19 August, at 16.30, in the English language
Sunday, 20 August, at 16.30, in the Slovenian language

WATCH OUT! WET PRINT! #6 Jaka Babnik

LAST WEEKEND

Jaka Babnik: Top Location

9. 8.–4. 9. 2017

opening event: Wednesday, 9 August,
at 5 pm
the TAM-TAM Street Gallery at Vegova (opposite Glasbena matica)

As signs of development and local progress, roundabouts have become the subject of public debates on effective traffic regulation, modernization and the economic progress of a particular town, immediately also accompanied by discussions on their aesthetic and urban potential. With the construction of roundabouts, a new type of space has appeared as a target for the gaze in the Slovenian traffic and cultural landscape – a top location. This has been recognised by the local authorities as an excellent opportunity to express the identity of their town and its surroundings. They have embarked upon designing and arranging roundabouts quite seriously, perhaps even overzealously at times, in many cases making the top location a space presenting the stereotypical image of the town and expression of the homelike mindset, which is hard to grasp by those driving by. The series of photographs entitled Top Location is a photo-documentary contribution to the discussion on the aesthetic values that we shape collaboratively by using the public space.

Jaka Babnik. Top Location.

The 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion

This week at the Biennial

Tuesday, 8 August

17.00–18.00: Biennial TOP 10: guided tour in the Slovenian language (conducted by Tina Boc) and in the English language (conductec by Katarina Šavora), MGLC
18.00–20.00: Stories in the Grass: stories and printing workshop. (Bring the T-shirts with you!) Topic: water. Švicarija Creative Centre, free of charge

The main exhibition of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion (MGLC and Švicarija) is open until 8 pm on every Tuesday in August.

Hot off the press!
Biennial map Birth as Criterion for Children and Families
Children, families, you may arrive at the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts exactly when there is no guided tour or workshop. You may well like to "have a chat" with the artworks, but you don’t know where to start?! We suggest that you use the map, which will direct your steps around the main Biennial exhibition Birth as Criterion at MGLC and at the Švicarija Creative Centre, in an interactive and brain-twisting way, through the witty illustrations by Anja Jerčič Jakob, who has portrayed the artworks as "little art potatoes".
Available as a free publication at the exhibition venues of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts and at certain info points across Ljubljana.
Authors: Anja Jerčič Jakob (drawings) & Lili Šturm (text)

Public guided tours of the exhibition Mario Bonomi: Printmaking Forever 

Saturday, 12 August, at 16.30, in the English language
Sunday, 13 August, at 16.30, in the Slovenian language

This week at the Biennial

Tuesday, 1 August

10.00: opening of the Švicarija Cafe.

17.00–18.00: Biennial TOP 10: guided tour in the Slovenian language (conducted by Tina Boc) and in the English language (by art historian Gregor Dražil), MGLC
18.00–20.00: Stories in the Grass: stories and printing workshop. (Bring the T-shirts with you!) Topic: water. Švicarija Creative Centre, free of charge

The main exhibition of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion (MGLC and Švicarija) is open until 8 pm on every Tuesday in August.

Public guided tours of the exhibition Mario Bonomi: Printmaking Forever 
Saturday, 5 August, at 16.30, in the English language
Sunday, 6 August, at 16.30, in the Slovenian language

32ND BIENNIAL OF GRAPHIC ARTS: BIRTH AS CRITERION

This week at the Biennial

Poetry Point of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts
Konzorcij Book and Stationery Store, July–August

The book island, dedicated to the poet Jure Detela, presents books that correspond to his thought and view of art. The selection was prepared by Miklavž Komelj.

Tuesday, 25 July

19.00–20.00: Biennial TOP 10: guided tour in the Slovenian language (conducted by art historian Gregor Dražil) and in the German language (by student of art from Vienna and volunteer of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts, Katarina Šavora), Švicarija Creative Centre
20.00–21.00: Summer at MGLC: concert: The TAH and Le Baron, pop, MGLC

Maria Bonomi: Printmaking Forever

Public guided tours of the exhibition
Saturday, 29 July, at 16.30, in the English language
Sunday, 30 July, at 16.30, in the Slovenian language

32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion: Guided tours

Guided tours for the main exhibition of the32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion

TODAY

Tuesday, 22 August
17.00–18.00: Biennial TOP 10 in the Slovenian and English language, MGLC
18.00–20.00: Stories in the Grass: stories and printing workshop. Topic: water. Švicarija Creative Centre 

The main exhibition of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion (MGLC and Švicarija) is today open until 8 pm. 

Biennial TOP 10

Guided tours of selected Biennial works and printing workshops.
One-hour-long guided tours of selected works of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion.
Free admission with a Biennial ticket or the Urbana tourist card.

Printing workshops are free of charge.

Tuesday, 1 August
17.00–18.00: Biennial TOP 10 in the Slovenian and English language, MGLC
18.00–20.00: Stories in the Grass: stories and printing workshop. Topic: water. Švicarija Creative Centre

Tuesday, 8 August
17.00–18.00: Biennial TOP 10 in the Slovenian and German language, MGLC
18.00–20.00: Stories in the Grass: recounting stories and poetry with printing workshop for small prints, prints on t-shirts, bags and stickers. Topic: water. Švicarija Creative Centre

Tuesday, 15 August
17.00–18.00: Biennial TOP 10 in the Slovenian language, MGLC
18.00–20.00: Stories in the Grass: stories and printing workshop. Topic: water. Švicarija Creative Centre 

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion

This week at the Biennial

Tuesday: 11 July
19.00–20.00: Biennial TOP 10: guided tour in Slovene ( conducted by Lili Šturm, Museum Counsellor) and English (by Gregor Dražil)
20.00: concert: The Erič Brothers (Wacky Blues Professors), blues, rock, country 

THIS IS NOT A NAME
closing: Sunday, 16 July, Škuc Gallery (13.00–21.00)
THIS IS NOT A NAME is an exhibition that raises questions on how to think about art outside the protocols of contemporary art. It seeks to provide a fresh perspective on the experimental format of this year's Biennial, while at the same time insisting on works that can not be fully captured by any context.
Artists: Anonimus Artist, 1st century AD, Viktor Bernik, Dragica Čadež, Karel Destovnik - Kajuh, Jure Detela, Athanasius Kircher, Marko Pogačnik, Marko Ristić & Koča Popović, Tomaž Šalamun
Curators: Miklavž Komelj, Yasmín Martín Vodopivec, Nevenka Šivavec and Vladimir Vidmar
Venue: Škuc Gallery

Maria Bonomi: Printmaking Forever
Public guided tours of the exhibition
Saturday, 15 July, at 16.30, in the English language
Sunday, 16 July, at 16.30, in the Slovenian language

THIS IS NOT A NAME.
Photo: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Archive.

The 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion

This week at the Biennial

The Void, 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts Print Portfolio of Artists
closing, Thursday, 6 July, Kresija Gallery (10.00–18.00)
Artists: Jarrett Key, Moon Kyungwon, Ebecho Muslimova, Alberto Rodríguez Collía and Jennifer Schmidt
Curator: Tevž Logar

Ištvan Išt Huzjan: Measures
Exhibition of the winner of the 31st Biennial of Graphic Arts
Guided tour of the exhibition
Thursday, 6 July, at 17.00, City Art Gallery Ljubljana
The guided tour of the exhibition is conducted by Alenka Gregorič.

The birth of Birth as Criterion – On the genesis and protocols of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts
Discussion to accompany the exhibition THIS IS NOT A NAME
Thursday, 6 July, at 18.30, Škuc Gallery
The curators of the exhibition and members of the Biennial Collective are taking part: Miklavž Komelj, Yasmín Martín Vodopivec, Vladimir Vidmar and Nevenka Šivavec. The discussion will be moderated by Miha Colnar.

Maria Bonomi: Printmaking Forever
Public guided tours of the exhibition
Saturday, 8 July, at 16.30, in the English language
Sunday, 9 July, at 16.30, in the Slovenian language

Maria Bonomi: Printmaking Forever.
Photo: Urška Boljkovac. Arhiv MGLC.

Watch out! Wet print! #5 freštreš

LAST WEEKEND

freštreš: ČŠŽ

4. 7.–8. 8. 2017

opening event: Tuesday, 4 July,
at 5 pm
the TAM-TAM Street Gallery at Vegova (opposite Glasbena matica)

The freštreš art collective has prepared three posters, which are interlinked by the concept of the generational evolution of the style of video games over the last four decades. Each of the posters explores one of the three typical periods of the formation of the "covers" and "screenshots" of the games during this time interval. The first poster covers the period of pixel art of the 1980s and 1990s. The second poster passes into the awkward phase of the "low poly" models of the 1990s and is especially inspired by the "anime" art of the time. The third poster explores and caricatures the hyper-realistic three-dimensional renders of modern consoles.  

The project entitled ČŠŽ explores the aesthetic values of the mentioned periods and plays with the social context of design and illustration through a recognizable humorous and critical freštreš approach.

freštreš: Beyond, we go.

The 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion

TODAY

BIRTH AS CRITERION: DISCURSIVE PROGRAMME

The birth of Birth as Criterion – on the genesis and protocols of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts

Thursday, 6 July, at 18.30, Škuc Gallery, free entrance

Discussion on the basic ideas, rhizomatic structure, process of work, development of the exhibition, as well as all the dilemmas and decisions taken during the organisation of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts at the exhibition THIS IS NOT A NAME at the ŠKUC Gallery. The exhibition offers a condensed insight into the making of this year's experimental format of the Biennial and, along with the presented works, attempts to awaken thinking and pondering, doubts and concerns, and to provide a different view of the Biennial's main exhibition and its emergence in the light of the central endeavour of this year's Biennial edition: searching for new ways of conceiving exhibitions.
The debate will involve Miklavž Komelj, Yasmín Martín Vodopivec, Vladimir Vidmar and Nevenka Šivavec, the members of the Biennial Committee and the curators of the exhibition THIS IS NOT A NAME.
The discussion will be moderated by Miha Colner.

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

The 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion

THE BIENNIAL FOR CHILDREN ... be lively, green and creative in July

During the holidays, daily BIENNIAL WORKSHOPS for primary school children are organised in Tivoli Park in front of the renovated Švicarija Creative Centre and Tivoli Mansion (MGLC). These take place every weekday in July, from Monday to Friday, from 10 am to 2 pm. Applications can be made to the City Association of Friends of Youth ZPM Ljubljana, tel. +386 (0)1 434 03 24, info@mzpm-ljubljana.si.

The workshops interconnect historical myths, the plant and animal kingdom and the nature of Tivoli, movement and play, as well as artistic expression into a whole. The workshops are conducted by academy trained painter Nika Rupnik.

Children can also join the PovezujeM/Tivoli Creative Circle, which is organized by the International Centre of Graphic Arts (MGLC), the National Museum of Slovenia (NMS), the Museum of Modern Art (MG), the National Gallery of Slovenia (NG) and the National Museum of Contemporary History (MNZS). Through play, creative pursuits and socialization, children learn about museums, history and art in a slightly different way. Workshops take place from 10 to 14 July, from 8 am to 4 pm (lunch included). Applications to: natasa.robeznik@muzej-nz.si.

The 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion

THE BIENNIAL OPENING DAYS

16 June – 18 June 2017

Join us at the numerous events of the Biennial opening weekend from Friday to Sunday.

programme

32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion

Carlos Monroy: Baphomet. One single birth made incarnat.

Friday 16 June, 7 pm–midnight,
Tivoli Park, courtyard of MGLC
Saturday 17 June, 7 pm–midnight,
Tivoli Park, courtyard of MGLC

We are announcing a special performance by Carlos Monroy on Friday and Saturday. The performance will begin at 7 pm in Tivoli Park and continue at 8 pm in the courtyard of MGLC. The artist, in the role of the Kurent, will take over the base in the courtyard of Tivoli Mansion until 10.30 pm, at which time it will be replaced by other figures. The performance will finish at midnight.

The Museum Summer Night

Saturday 17 June, from 6 pm to midnight

17.00–18.20
Cultural Neighbourhood event:
Stories in the Grass, literary reading in Slovenian and English. Lidija Dimkovska, essayist and translator, will read in the Slovenian language, and Asuka Ohsawa, participating artist of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts, will read in the English language, courtyard of the Švicarija Creative Centre.

18.00–22.00
Print on paper, bag and T-shirt workshop: Mobile Printmaking Studio, Kresija Gallery

19.00
Opening performance:
Ištvan Išt Huzjan: From Here to Here, exhibition by the prize winner of the 31st Biennial of Graphic Arts, City Art Gallery Ljubljana

19.00–24.00
Performance:
Carlos Monroy: Baphomet. One single birth made incarnat.
Tivoli Park, courtyard of MGLC

21.30
Lecture-performance: Slavs and Tatars: The Tranny Tease, Švicarija Creative Centre

You are kindly invited to join the biennially tinted Summer Museum Night!

The 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts: Birth as Criterion

16 June – 29 October 2017

Opening: Friday, 16 June, 6 pm,
Švicarija Creative Centre

Friday, 16 June

18.00
Opening of the venues of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts 

18.00–19.00
Introductory performances by the artists of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts

Nora Turato: Show Personality not Personal Items,
International Centre of Graphic Arts
Jarrett Key: Hair Painting,
Švicarija Creative Centre
Mario Santizo: 33,
Švicarija Creative Centre

19.00–24.00
Performance:
Carlos Monroy: Baphomet. One single birth made incarnat.
Tivoli Park, courtyard of MGLC

19.00
Opening of the 32nd Biennial of Graphic Arts, courtyard of the Švicarija Creative Centre

20.30
Performance, installation: Meta Grgurevič: Silenzio, eternal loopholes and braided lines,
Švicarija Creative Centre

22.00–24.00
Projection of Erica Ferrari on the façade of Tivoli Mansion: To whom does this architecture belong?, International Centre of Graphic Arts

The Biennial exhibition venues will be open from 18.00 to 22.00 on the night of 16 June 2017.
International Centre of Graphic Arts, Švicarija Creative Centre, City Art Gallery Ljubljana, Jakopič Gallery, Kresija Gallery, Škuc Gallery

THE BIENNIAL OPENING DAYS

Join us at the numerous events of the Biennial opening weekend from Friday to Sunday.

16 June – 18 June 2017

programme

Watch out! Wet print! #4

LAST WEEKEND

LEALUDVIK: In the waters on Leviathan; I would go poof!

6. 6.–3. 7. 2017

opening event: Tuesday, 6 June,
at 5 pm

In the waters on Leviathan is an alternative version of the project I would go poof! – it only replaces the forest for the sea, and bites harder into occult symbolism. "I would go poof" came the smiling response from Charles Manson to the question posed by the judge about his plans in the event of parole. The assumption of man as a free being is a delusion. We live in fear, endless routine, helplessness. We are trapped in an "open" prison. Freedom is an illusion. Due to all the effort, man's desire for freedom, "parole", exit or at least passage to another state, is becoming all the more common. As a result, most people seek a magic solution—> to disappear without a trace: Poof!

LEALUDVIK: Ceremonies.

ZINES! Contemporary Zine Production

Last week of exhibition
24. 2.–28. 5. 2017

The exhibition of zines Zines!, Contemporary Zine Production continues the series of shows focusing on the various phenomena of contemporary print production. Printed zines have remained present despite modern information technology. Nowadays they appear with new and original contents, providing artists with a greater degree of independence and speed in creating their works, while retaining a feel for the ephemeral and the personal. The exhibition is conceived as a current presentation of zine art production, its differentiation and networking among artists.

Artists: Beli sladoled, freštreš, LEALUDVIK, Leon Zuodar, Marko K. Gavez, Matjaž Wenzel & Rene Maurin, Mina Fina, Nejc Korenič, Nevena Aleksovski, Nez Pez, Simon Kocjančič, Tadej Vaukman, Zoran Pungerčar