noon–7 p.m.
Studio Open Day at MGLC Švicarija
The MGLC Švicarija creative and residential centre is home to 13 artists. Visit their studios, where the artists will present their work and projects.
The Open Day will start at 12.00 with a lecture by Milan Mohar on exhibition set-ups. From 13.00 to 18.00, the artists will open their studios for exhibitions, presentations, lectures and talks.
At 16.00, you are invited to join a public guided tour.
The Open Day will conclude at 18.00 with a concert by Hamlet Express.
The event is also part of the ICOM celebration of International Museum Day and the national FREE-FOR-FAMILIES initiative.
PROGRAMME:
Miran Mohar: Exhibition Set-ups
Lecture, 12.00–13.00, MGLC Švicarija, Large Hall
A lecture on setting up exhibitions of contemporary art as well as exhibitions from other fields. The focus will be on the interlacement of curatorial and design work, supported by extensive visual material. The presentation will include references to the set-ups created independently and in collaboration or co-authorship with New Collectivism, the Irwin Group and Mima Suhadolc.
Exhibitions from the following museums and galleries will be presented: Moderna galerija Ljubljana, Ljubljana City Museum, National Museum of Slovenia, Slovene Ethnographic Museum, National Gallery of Kosovo, PS1 MoMA and the Pera Museum in Istanbul.
Miran Mohar is a painter, graphic designer and set designer. He is a member of the Irwin Group (1983) and co-founder and member of Neue Slowenische Kunst (1984), which was renamed NSK State in Time in 1991. Between 1983 and 1986, he co-created the Scipion Nasice Sisters Theatre (co-author and set designer of the performance Baptism under Triglav, 1986). In 1984, he co-founded the design group Neue Slowenische Kunst – New Collectivism (co-author of the Youth Day poster, 1987). He is Associate Professor and Vice-Dean at AVA, Academy of Visual Arts, Ljubljana, as well as a co-founder of the Maja Farol Movement for Open Architecture and a member of the European Cultural Parliament. He was also a long-time tutor on the two-year course World of Art, School for Curatorial Practice and Critical Writing at SCCA-Ljubljana.
EARTH – VISION
Exhibition with presentation, 13.00–13.30
Artists: Anja Jerčič Jakob, Mateja Kavčič, Katarina Grabnar Apostolides, Zala Simčič, Matija Franzutti, Greta Trošt, Jerca Šuštar, Brina Jenko, Vita Čepič
The exhibition entitled Earth – Vision is part of the project Natural Materials in Fine Art and Art Pedagogy in the Forest and is closely connected, both in terms of material and content, to the Tivoli, Rožnik and Šiška Hill Landscape Park. It presents an artistic approach to mapping and/or archiving a specific, selected environment.
The art research project Natural Materials in Fine Art and Art Pedagogy in the Forest is related to the art practice of the project leader Anja Jerčič Jakob, who often explores the motif of nature in her work. The essential impetus for the conception and implementation of the project was precisely the wish to pass on the knowledge she has acquired in the course of her practice, which can be tied to nature. In light of the sustainable reformulation of the education system, and the introduction of sustainable content in various fields of art and pedagogy, the art research project aims to explore the possibilities of introducing forest pedagogy and the use of natural materials to art and art-pedagogical practice. They are particularly interested in the integration of contemporary and innovative approaches to both artmaking and teaching, such as artmaking and teaching in nature and experiential learning in the fine art field, as these areas have great potential for achieving the goals of education for sustainable development. The project group also includes artist Mateja Kavčič, who is a prominent representative of environmental art in Slovenia; Katarina Grabnar Apostolides and the field of mycology, with the aim of integrating mycological content into creative processes and raising awareness of the possibility of cross-curricular integration of art and science. The exhibition and the project have been made possible by the Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, MGLC, Mycological Museum of Slovenia and PAPlab.
Anja Jerčič Jakob (Slovenj Gradec, 1975) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana, where, after graduating, she went on to complete a Master's degree in Printmaking and a Master's degree in Painting. Since 2000, she has been actively present in the Slovenian and international cultural arena as an artist working in the fields of painting, printmaking and book illustration. Her works are included in many collections of national importance.
Since 2016, she has been teaching at the Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, where she currently holds the position of Associate Professor of Painting. In her teaching, mentoring and project work, she is concerned with expanding the applied aspects of art and exploring the possibilities of cross-curricular integration of art with other subject areas. She lives in Ljubljana and has been working at the MGLC Švicarija residency and creative centre since 2016.
Silvester Plotajs Sicoe: An In-Depth Look at Paintings II
Lecture, 13.30–14.00
Today's fast-paced world, instantaneous experiences and superficiality are not conducive to the in-depth engagement the viewer can experience with an artwork, a painting. How can one view contemporary painting, approach it and understand it?
Through his years of experience as a painter, the artist has come to the realisation that the viewer may need some pointers or points of reference to begin to experience contemporary painting in full blood.
Looking can be a form of meditation, but it does not necessarily have to be only superficially oriented. An in-depth look at a painting penetrates its layers to the deeper structure that carries the message and is the key to the deeper meaning of the painting. To discern, to decipher the interaction between the elements of a painting – colour, drawing, structure, composition, outline sketch – is the path to the essence of conscious looking at a painting. It is here, at the periphery of the painting, that the subtle insight that gazes into the depths of the artwork begins.
Silvester Plotajs Sicoe graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in 1988 in the class of Professor Emerik Bernard. In 1990, he continued his studies with Professor Martin Tissing at the Minerva Academy in Groningen, the Netherlands. He received the Rihard Jakopič Recognition in 2013 and the Rihard Jakopič Award for Painting in 2021. Since 1992, he has worked as a freelance painter and has been self-employed in culture. He is currently preparing a solo exhibition at the Generali Gallery in Ljubljana, which will open on 17 June.
Tanja Lažetić: Orange Cloud and Plates/Eye
Exhibition
Lecture, 14.00–14.30
This is what the artist says:
"I have never limited myself to a single medium in my work. Since my studio in Švicarija allows me to create larger and more complex artworks, I ventured into a completely new field for me a year ago. Orange Cloud is a painting installation. It represents an explosion and reflects on the end of the world, crises, war, ecological disasters, uncertainty, discomfort and the helplessness of our time. These are themes I have discussed in my previous work, but why a painting? Why oil on canvas? Why all these colours and how can a contemporary approach be found here?"
Visitors will have the opportunity to observe the creative process in the studio, and during a half-hour lecture, the artist will discuss how she arrived at this point, the challenges and obstacles she encountered in painting, and how it all connects to her small ceramic plates with the engraved eye.
Tanja Lažetić lives and works in Ljubljana. After graduating in Architecture from the University of Ljubljana in 1994, she turned to art. She works in the fields of photography, video, performance and ceramics to create hybrid works that primarily deal with the representation of women in society. Her work has been exhibited in Slovenia and across Europe, including France, Germany, Spain, the UK and Austria. She has received many prizes and accolades, including the Bronze Award at the Nanjing International Art Festival in China, Third Prize at the UNICUM International Ceramics Triennial in Ljubljana and the Rihard Jakopič Recognition. In the last ten years, Tanja Lažetić has published more than twenty artist’s books. Her photo books can be found in important collections, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, Tate Gallery in London and Bibliothèque Kandinsky at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
Ana Sluga: Points of Contact between Painting and Printmaking
Print portfolio presentation, 14.30–15.00
In her studio, Ana Sluga will present her recently produced print portfolio Day after Day, created on the occasion of her solo exhibition Forgotten Conversations at the Hiša kulture v Pivki gallery.
The artist will address the question of where the points of contact between painting and screenprinting lie, in which areas the two mediums complement each other, and where painting and printmaking diverge.
Ana Sluga (1981) studied Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana, where she received her BA in 2004 and her MA in 2018. She completed part of her MA studies at the Eesti Kunstiakadeemia (Estonian Academy of Arts) in Tallinn, Estonia. In 2015, she received the Award for Significant Artistic Achievements from the University of Ljubljana. She has presented her work in many solo exhibitions, including at Equrna Gallery(2021), Kresija Gallery(2021), Bažato Gallery(2024) in Ljubljana and Gallery Jochen Hempel in Leipzig (2024), as well as in numerous group presentations, most notably Crises and New Beginnings: Art in Slovenia 2005–2015 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova (2019), Time Without Innocence at Moderna galerija (2021) and The Figurative at Cukrarna (2023) in Ljubljana. She lives and works in Ljubljana.
Tanja Pak: Open Studio, exhibition
15.00–16.00, A talk with Dr Mateja Gaber: The Fragility of the Trace.
On the visual interpretations of our vulnerability, fragility and the transience of the moment. On the choice of medium as the bearer or mediator of these feelings and states.
Tanja Pak holds a Master of Arts from the Royal College of Art in London and a Bachelor of Arts in Industrial Design from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, University of Ljubljana. She is Full Professor at ALUO. Her art practice is concerned with sculpture, spatial art installations and the design of functional glass objects. Her work explores ways of expressing fragility, transience and extreme vulnerability, as a result often, but not always, turning to glass as the bearer or mediator of these feelings and states. She frequently highlights spaces of solitude and loneliness, the fragile nature of human connections and relationships, and the elusive sense of personal wholeness. In her multisensory spatial installations, developed in dialogue with architecture, she creates a space for inhalation and contemplation.
She has received several international awards for her work, including the Grand Prix at the Toyama International Glass Exhibition in 2024, a triennial exhibition in Japan, two Red Dot HMs, the title of Designer of the Year, the Arte Laguna Prize, as well as others. She has been awarded numerous international residencies including at the Corning Museum of Glass, Creative Glass Center of America and Pilchuck in the USA, International Glass Symposium, Northlands and Musée du Verre in France. She has participated in numerous curated international exhibitions. Her work has appeared in international publications and is part of public and private collections. She has collaborated with many internationally renowned artists and studios worldwide.
Marija Mojca Pungerčar: Message to the Lost Half: An Invitation to Participate in a Work in Progress
Participatory event, 13.00–18.00
Do you have any single gloves left over from the past winter, with no use for them? Bring them to Švicarija and the artist will add them to the ones she has collected over the winter from streets and forest paths. With these lone gloves, she seeks to open a dialogue about how we experience and process loss in the age of screens. Gloves of all kinds are welcome: women's, children's and men's, but only those with fingers (no mittens). Whether or not you donate them, you can contribute messages at the event, which will be picked up by the gloves in the second phase of the project. Come with a thought of someone you have lost touch with, ended or lost a friendship, partnership, or another kind of relationship. What would you like to say to them? What kind of "like" would you assign to your feelings?
Your participation will be anonymous.
Marija Mojca Pungerčar lives and works in Ljubljana. She is a visual artist, costume designer and editor. She graduated in Painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana and received her MFA in New Genres from the San Francisco Art Institute in California as a Fulbright scholar. In the 1980s, she was a member of the alternative art group Lines of Force, where she also created the costume design for the cult performance Baptism under Triglav. Her work has been exhibited in Slovenia as well as across Europe and the USA. She has also created numerous participatory projects such as Socialdress, Books, are you cold?, Personal Dress Code and Real Runo Wool. She has received many accolades, including the Ivana Kobilca Recognition, the Kranj International Festival of Art Award and the Rihard Jakopič Recognition. She also manages and edits Novičnik, a newsletter for the self-employed in culture.
Klara Debeljak: coding reality+
Installation, 13.00–18.00
Klara Debeljak and Jan Krmelj have found themselves in a collaborative symbiosis by chance and are working together on an audio-visual experience consisting of Klara's archival video material and Jan's sound interventions, based on archival footage and original materials.
The artists share a fascination with internet infrastructures and their practices explore the possibilities of intervening in the algorithmic structures of reality. coding reality+ will articulate the process of futuring, the practice of designing and building potential futures. The building blocks of futuring are the intertwined contingencies in the processes of sound research, live writing and parallel projections. Klara's studio becomes a space of encounter and converging coincidences that elude the predictable code of communication. This encounter is oriented towards the upcoming performance The State, which will be staged in September at Cankarjev dom.
Klara Debeljak is a researcher and artist working at the intersection of writing, design and video. Her work has been presented in group exhibitions across Europe and West Africa, including UNFAIR (Amsterdam) and the Dakar OFF Biennale. Her texts have been published in Designers Write, Nero Editions, Kajet and Disenz, and have been translated into Italian and French. Her writing has received awards from Designers Write and Stimuleringsfund. Since 2021, she has been working as a researcher at the Institute of Network Cultures in Amsterdam. In 2024, she began a two-year residency at Švicarija in Ljubljana, where she is developing a project on digital gentrification and speculative infrastructures.
Jan Krmelj is a theatre director and writer. His work is marked by interdisciplinary approaches and the exploration of devised performance methods. His play The Crack won the Borštnik Award for Directing (2024) and was also included in the competition programme of the 58th BITEF Festival. He received the Tantadruj Prize for his performance Fabrication (Affabulazione). His play For the Void: A Camera's Lament (2019) was shortlisted for the international programme of the Theatertreffen-Stückemarkt 2020.
Helena Tahir: Tracing Loops
Sound installation, 13.00–18.00
On the Open Day, Helena Tahir presents the latest derivative of her series The Last Sector, which is based on her personal experience of her first and most recent trip to Iraq, her father's homeland.
For this occasion, she is showcasing her sound installation Tracing Loops, a collage drawn from her personal archive of sounds recorded during her stay in Baghdad. The recordings include intimate confessions of family members and their conversations, fragments of Iraqi music and traffic noise captured while driving around the city, and various audio glimpses of everyday life – from distant calls from minarets and the hum of generators, to children's laughter and the fleeting voices of passers-by. These materials are transformed into an ambient soundscape outlining an unstable space of memory, deeply marked by the experience of diaspora.
The perceptual framework of the installation is further defined by the spatial illumination of the studio space in red, which blurs perceptual boundaries and refers to the atmosphere of a darkroom – an intimate space of safe light, re-appropriation of experience, transformation and revelation.
Helena Tahir belongs to the youngest generation of artists who are systematically exploring the formal and conceptual characteristics of printmaking techniques and are hence actively shaping contemporary printmaking in Slovenia. Her prints are characterised by a dense interweaving of various imaginative imagery that is rich in meaningful associations and historical references.
Zora Stančič: Unselected Works
Exhibition, 13.00–18.00
The idea of Zora Stančič for the set-up of her works in the studio for Švicarija Open Day is closely tied to the intensive preparations for her exhibition at the City Art Gallery Ljubljana. A selection of works created over the past twenty years is currently on view there, in the exhibition Fortunately, Glances Leave No Imprints, which closes on the same day as the Open Day. However, the works will not yet have been relocated. In the studio, the artist will present works that are not included in the exhibition, offering a complementary insight for visitors who may have already seen the show. These works were left out of the exhibition either because they did not fit within the gallery space or because they did not align with the other works.
Zora Stančič graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo in 1984 and completed her Master's degree in Printmaking at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana in 1990. She has been exhibiting solo since 1985, has participated in numerous group exhibitions, and her works are held in permanent collections in Slovenia and abroad. Her awards include the San Zanobi Prize at the 23rd International Biennial of Graphic Arts in Ljubljana and an Honourable Mention at the 5th International Biennial of Drawing and Graphic Arts in Györ, Hungary. She also received an Honorary Diploma at the 12th Tallinn Print Triennial in Tallinn, Estonia. In 2016, she was awarded the Župančič Prize for her work and in 2018 she received an award at the May Salon. She is the recipient of the Ivana Kobilca Award for Lifetime Achievement, presented by the Ljubljana Fine Artists Society. In 2012, she was nominated for the title of Assistant Professor of Printmaking at the University of Ljubljana, where she is currently employed as an Associate Professor in the field of fine art printmaking.
Damijan Kracina: A Space of Hypnotic Rhythm and Silence
Open studio, 13.00–18.00
The studio is a place where sometimes something new, extraordinary and surprising happens. Sometimes it is a calm space where different technological processes take place in a hypnotic rhythm. Most of the time it is a chaotic environment, with things scattered everywhere. Sometimes you know exactly where something is but often it lies buried under layers of materials and tools.
Sometimes it is a place of silence, filled with doubt, uncertainty, and long moments of staring into space. On special occasions, the studio transforms into an exhibition space and may even be tidied up. What state it will be in over the coming days remains to be seen.
Damijan Kracina is a sculptor whose multi-media practice presents possible and utopian scenarios of life on Earth. His exhibitions are imaginary ambiences and fantasy worlds that with each time establish a new dialogue between the works, space and visitors. At MGLC Švicarija, he presents a charcoal drawing positioned into the vertical space of the former hotel. The drawing represents a navigation built of inorganic and organic forms, typographic signs and compasses that are meant to steer the ship we find ourselves on, leading us in an unknown, increasingly wrong direction.
Damijan Kracina (1970) is a contemporary artist working primarily in the field of sculpture, his creative practice is distinctly interdisciplinary. He graduated from the Department of Sculpture in 1996 and completed his postgraduate studies in sculpture and video at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana in 1999. He is a co-founder of the Society for Domestic Research art group. In 2015, he founded the Last Museum of Contemporary Art in Logje. In 2022, he received the Ivana Kobilca Recognition for his most recent production. He lives and works in Ljubljana, where he has a studio at MGLC Švicarija.
Miha Štrukelj: Open Studio
Open studio, 13.00–18.00
The studio of painter Miha Štrukelj is the space of his creative intimacy, which he will share with us for a day. He will talk about the geometric precision of his large-format canvases and where he creates images and motifs that give us a different view of the urban environment.
Miha Štrukelj is a painter who explores the process and limits of painting and is particularly concerned with urban environments and their perception. His work is currently on show in the group exhibition Svelaerivela (Gagliardi e Domke, Torino, Italy). In 2024, he participated in the group exhibition Experimentum Crucis (Ex Caserma Cassonello, Noto, Italy). In 2023, he exhibited in (Everything Is) Not What It Seems (Piran Coastal Galleries) and The Figurative. Selected Examples in Slovenian Art (Cukrarna). In 2022, he exhibited in Momental-mente. Vivid Paintings (Moderna galerija) and ARTIST – COLLECTOR – PUBLIC, The Hilger Collection (City Art Gallery Ljubljana). In 2021, his works were shown in The Wonderfulness of Memory (Cukrarna) and Living in Interesting Times (European Parliament, Brussels).
mihastrukelj.myportfolio.com/cv
Silvan Omerzu: Suspended Time
Open studio, 13.00–18.00
Silvan Omerzu's studio is a static dynamic. Here, sculptures and puppets wait in suspended time to come to life again with a word, gesture, gesture or movement.
Silvan Omerzu is a director, painter and puppet artist who – particularly in his performances – uniquely weaves materials and technologies together to create, again and again, a sculptural world imbued by a certain primal energy. He not only creates the puppets, selects the text and directs, but also designs the entire visual concept of the stage, combining all kinds of scenic, pictorial and theatrical elements.
CONCERT
Hamlet Express, koncert
MGLC Švicarija Courtyard, 18.00–19.00
Hamlet Express has been running at full steam for twenty years now, powered by the locomotive of poet and author Andraž Polič, performing contemporary chansons and creating an original live eros of music and poetry.
Line-up: Andraž Polič, guitar, vocals; Gregor Cvetko, bass, backing vocals; Blaž Celarec, percussion
Upcoming events
June 2025
7 p.m.–7:30 p.m.
Jakopič Promenade
7:30 p.m.–11 p.m.
Plečnik Auditorium
7 p.m.–7:30 p.m.
MGLC Švicarija
7:30 p.m.–11 p.m.
Plečnik Auditorium
7 p.m.–8 p.m.
MGLC Tivoli Mansion
8:30 p.m.–10 p.m.
Plečnik Auditorium
