Studio Open Day at MGLC Švicarija

Twice a year, MGLC Švicarija opens its doors to visitors interested in the work that goes on in the art studios. Damijan Kracina, Silvan Omerzu, Tanja Pak, Ana Sluga, Zora Stančič and Miha Štrukelj will present what they are working on at the moment. Several pop-up exhibitions will also be on view: Anja Jerčič Jakob, Heliotropism, Marija Mojca Pungerčar, interactive installation Singer , Tanja Lažetić, Untitled, Silvester Plotajs Sicoe, Polyphemus Diptych and Miran Mohar in collaboration with Kara Marušič.

Artists Klara Debeljak and Tisa Neža Herlec, currently on a two-year residency for young artists, will set up Radio Švicarija in cooperation with Radio Študent.

 

PROGRAMME  

13.00–18.00

RADIO ŠVICARIJA

Large Hall

Resident artists Klara Debeljak and Tisa Neža Herlec will host conversations with Švicarija users and other guests. The focus will be on questions about the importance of spaces for artistic production at the intersection between officially established frameworks and DIY community practices. The conversations will be broadcast live on Radio Študent.

The resident artists and players on the Ljubljana scene will discuss topics such as the interdependence of space and the creative process, the precariousness and accessibility of spaces for artistic production, and the memory of spaces erased by the process of gentrification. Between occasional musical interludes, the conversation will also address the ongoing need for space and new initiatives for production spaces where community is built and art engages with the public. 

13.00–14.00

MEMORY, OBJECT, RITUAL

A brief history of Švicarija and the communities that have inhabited it in the past. Conversations with current resident artists about the memories, objects and rituals that lie at the core of their creative processes.

Invitation to the Studio Open Day and presentation of the programme in the studios of Anja Jerčič Jakob, Tanja Lazetić, Miran Mohar and Marija Mojca Pungerčar.

14.00–16.00

CONTEXT, SUPPORT, INFRASTRUCTURE

On the artistic practices of Tisa Neža Herlec and Klara Debeljak, the Young Artists Residency at MGLC Švicarija and other spaces for creative production.

Conversation with Adrijan Praznik, a former user of the Young Artists Residency.

Contribution by Saša Ogrizek from the Municipality of Ljubljana, Department of Culture, on current and future municipal policies concerning spatial infrastructure for artistic creation.

16.00–17.00

AUDIO INSPIRATION, FULNESS, EXPERIENCE

Contextualising radio as a medium, a platform and a production space. Listening to tracks that inspire and accompany the resident artists of MGLC Švicarija in their work, along with the City Events Bulletin from Radio Študent.

17.00–18.00

PRODUCTION, SPACE, CITY

Round table discussion with Ljubljana collectives facing spatial and production challenges, including: Uroš Veber (osmo/za), Tatiana Kocmur (Cirkulacija2) and Maša Pungartnik (1912).

 

14.00–16.00

OPEN STUDIOS

Damijan Kracina, Silvan Omerzu, Tanja Pak, Ana Sluga, Zora Stančič, Miha Štrukelj

 

14.00–16.00

POP-UP EXHIBITIONS

 

Tanja Lažetić: Untitled

“When I acquired the use of a studio at MGLC Švicarija three years ago, I envisioned it as a photography studio. Today, I create paintings here. The transformation happened because the house in the park is special and also because of the artists who work in the studios next to mine. In my thirty-year career in the visual arts, I have engaged with various mediums, from photography, video, ceramics, books, performance, to online projects. I work conceptually, meaning that each piece begins with a specific subject in mind, and this is also how I work within the field of painting. On Studio Open Day, I will present a brand new series of paintings entitled Untitled.”

Tanja Lažetić lives and works in Ljubljana. After completing her studies in Architecture (in 1994 at the University of Ljubljana), she turned to art, focusing on photography, video, performance and ceramics, and creating hybrid works that primarily explore representations of women in society. Her work has been widely exhibited in Slovenia and across Europe, including in France, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom and Austria. She has received several awards for her practice, among them a Bronze Award at the Nanjing Festival in China, Third Prize at the Unicum International Ceramics Triennial in Ljubljana, and the Jakopič Recognition. Over the past ten years, Tanja Lažetić has published more than twenty artist's books. Her photobooks are held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the Tate in London and the Bibliothèque Kandinsky at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

 

 

Marija Mojca Pungerčar: Singer

Marija Mojca Pungerčar presented her project Singer at the City of Women festival in October this year. In her studio at MGLC Švicarija, she will present an expanded version of the original interactive installation Singer, along with new additions to her archive of memories of the Slovenian textile tradition, in an "after" pop-up exhibition. The project, which addresses the decline of Slovenia's textile industry during the period of transition, was created by the artist between 2002 and 2003, and continues to evolve. It was first presented at the Ante Trstenjak Gallery in Ljutomer and later shown twice at the City of Women festival and in the exhibition The Schengen Women at the Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana. Project website: www.3via.org/singer

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, as a Fulbright scholar, obtained a master's degree in New Genres at the San Francisco Art Institute in California. In the 1980s, she was a member of the alternative art group Lines of Force, for which she also designed the costumes for the cult performance Baptism Under Triglav. Her work has been exhibited in Slovenia and hosted in numerous countries across Europe and the United States. She has created several participatory projects, such as Socialdress, Books, are you cold?, Personal Dress Code and Real Runo Wool, and has received several awards, including the Ivana Kobilca Award, the Kranj Festival of Fine Arts Award and the Jakopič Recognition. She also manages and edits Novičnik, a newsletter for self-employed cultural workers.

 

Anja Jerčič Jakob: Heliotropism

Premiere presentation of Anja Jerčič Jakob's latest paintings, completed in early 2025. Executed in ink, egg tempera and oil on canvas, these works represent a continuation and development of her practice within the painting medium.

Artist's book at BIEN 2025

Project presentation

Presentation of the project by students and alumni of the Department of Art Pedagogy at the Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, who worked in the medium of the artist's book under the mentorship of project leader, Assoc. Prof. Anja Jerčič Jakob. The project presentation includes an exhibition of works in which students, through the medium of the artist's book, interpret and actualise themes related to textiles, engaging with intangible cultural heritage, craftsmanship and skills that are inseparably linked to past, modern and contemporary clothing culture. The project was supported by the University of Ljubljana Fund for the Arts, Škofja Loka Museum and Carnica Institute.

Anja Jerčič Jakob (1975, Slovenj Gradec) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana, where she received her BA and went on to complete an MA in Printmaking and an MA in Painting. Since 2000, she has been actively present on both the Slovenian and international cultural scenes as a visual 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 employed at the Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, where she currently holds the position of Associate Professor of Painting. Through her teaching, mentoring and project work, she expands the applied aspect of art and explores the possibilities of interdisciplinary integration of art with other subject areas. She lives in Ljubljana and has been creating at the MGLC Švicarija residential and creative centre since 2016.

Miran Mohar in collaboration with Kara Marušič

"I have decided that, in addition to presenting my new work in my studio, I would also show an installation by Kara Marušič, an artist of the younger generation. As older artists, some of us have the privilege of having good studio spaces for longer periods. Young artists mostly do not have this possibility, as they often struggle to meet the demanding criteria required for the free use of quality workspaces. From personal experience, I know that you actually need more support as a young artist than you do later on. The conditions for obtaining workspaces should therefore be different for them, and studios should be more easily accessible. That is why I also see my open studio as an opportunity to draw attention to this issue and give younger artists greater visibility." Miran Mohar

In her site-specific installation, Kara Marušič uses curtains to mark the surface of her bedsit in Miran Mohar's studio. The installation is the latest iteration of a broader project in which Kara Marušič explores the conditions of making art at home, its symbolic connotations and material consequences. This time, she focuses on the size of her space and the size of the workspace within it, highlighting their limitations in relation to the residential studio at MGLC Švicarija. Through a schematic drawing of her space, she questions what kind of work can actually be done there.

Miran Mohar is a painter, graphic designer and scenographer. He is a member of the Irwin group (1983) and a co-founder and member of Neue Slowenische Kunst (1984), which was renamed the NSK State in Time in 1991. Between 1983 and 1986, he co-created the Scipion Nasice Sisters Theatre (co-author and scenographer of the performance Baptism Under Triglav, 1986), and in 1984, he co-created the design group New Collectivism (co-author of the Youth Day poster, 1987). He is also Associate Professor at the AVA – Academy of Visual Arts in Ljubljana, its Vice-Dean and a co-founder of the Maja Farol movement for open architecture. He is a member of the European Cultural Parliament and was a longstanding tutor on the two-year World of Art School for Curatorial Practices and Critical Writing at SCCA–Ljubljana.

Kara Marušič (1998) graduated in Fine Art from the Academie Minerva in Groningen, the Netherlands, in 2021, and is currently completing her postgraduate studies at the Academy of Visual Arts in Ljubljana. Since 2018, she has been working as a visual artist under the pseudonym Bad Artist. She is particularly interested in the symbolic meanings of artistic spaces and protocols, that is, how they shape and sustain the ideological framework through which we understand art. She has participated in several group exhibitions in Slovenia and the Netherlands, and has presented solo work at the DobraVaga gallery.

 

15.00–16.00

PUBLIC GUIDED TOUR

 

18.00–20.00

MUSIC PROGRAMME

Large hall

 

10.00–20.00

EXHIBITIONS 

 

The Stojan Batič Memorial Studio

On the ground floor of Švicarija is the Stojan Batič Memorial Studio, which is a reconstruction of the sculptor's studio in Svetčeva ulica in the Rožna dolina district of Ljubljana. The current spatial reconstruction revives the atmosphere and set-up of this very studio. It allows us to become acquainted with the sculptor's oeuvre, his drafts for famous monumental works and his small sculpture pieces.

 

Maria Nikiforaki: Rituals for New Futures. The Descent to the Underworld

Exhibition as part of the Sustainability is in the AiR (SAiR) project

Rituals for New Futures is an art project exploring the transformative power of ritual in shaping political and ecological realities. Featuring a fictional, sci-fi-inspired heroine, the project centres on the elements – air, fire and water – as active forces in envisioning sustainable futures. The final chapter, The Descent to the Underworld unfolds in Ljubljana, where the heroine descends into the underworld through subterranean waters, as she becomes a portal between worlds.

 

The Shadow Is Seen by My Eyes, the Light Is Seen Only by My Heart

Permanent exhibition on Švicarija's history

Švicarija has always known how to surprise, connect and boldly reshape its purpose. Many individuals have taken diligent care that the light in it has never been completely extinguished.

The Studio Open Day at MGLC Švicarija is organised in collaboration with the resident artists and Radio Študent. Thank you.