Ljubljana, a City with Plečnik’s Signature
During this summer, the Jakopič Promenade, also known as the Plečnik Promenade, in Ljubljana's Tivoli Park will be the venue for one of the main exhibitions dedicated to architect Jože Plečnik. The photographic exhibition Ljubljana, a City with Plečnik’s Signature will be on view from 15 June to 3 September 2017.
The photographic exhibition Ljubljana, a City with Plečnik’s Signature is a collaboration between the Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana and Ljubljana Tourism, and highlights and connects two interesting perspectives. It demonstrates precious moments when Plečnik’s Ljubljana was being built through the archival black-and-white photos of Peter Naglič, taken in the 1920s and 1930s. Juxtaposed to the archival photos are photos taken by Matevž Paternoster, the photographer who illuminated and expanded today's view of Plečnik's architectural creations.
About the exhibition
Architect Jože Plečnik and his creative spirit left a deep impression on our capital. There are few world-renowned architects that can influence a city's image, its flair, as vitally as Plečnik did through his creations. Today, Ljubljana is almost impossible to imagine without his works.
Plečnik's iconic buildings and city features, filled with great and small details, are products of his goal to create a city that would suit its inhabitants. Many cities throughout Europe have ancient, medieval, Baroque, Secession or modernist architecture, yet Ljubljana is, due to Plečnik's creative force, a specific and unique story of one individual’s influence − an architect who disregarded the fashionable trends of the time and created his own special and perennial poetics.
To commemorate Plečnik Year, the Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana decided to invite photographer Matevž Paternoster to illuminate and expand our perspective of Plečnik's architectural creations. All of his photographs were taken this year as we wanted a contemporary auteurial view of Plečnik's Ljubljana oeuvre, so that we could update our perspective on his work.
A special view of the exhibition is the documentary photography of Peter Naglič. These photographs were taken during the construction of Plečnik's imposing projects in the 1920s and 1930s. Extraordinary black-and-white photographs demonstrate how large and yet filled with a sense of the life of the city his interventions were, manifesting in the phenomenon that we today call Plečnik's Ljubljana.
Plečnik's signature upon our city is extraordinary and perennial. It is our mission to protect it as an inspiration for the preservation of his heritage and as guidance as to the importance of understanding the space and life in which we create. Blaž Peršin director of Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana
—Blaž Peršin, director of Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana
Colophon
Ljubljana, a City with Plečnik's Signature, Jakopič Promenade in Tivoli park, Ljubljana, 15. 6.–3. 9. 2017
Produced by: Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana, represented by Blaž Peršin, Director; Ljubljana Tourism, represented by M. Sc. Petra Stušek, Managing director
Authors of photographs: Peter Naglič, Matevž Paternoster
Authors of texts: Blaž Peršin, Ana Porok, Marija Skočir
Project manager, text editing and promotion: Maja Kovač
Expert assistance: Matevž Paternoster, Bojan Lazarevič
Translations: Matic Šavli
Language editing: Katja Paladin (slo), Kelsey Glover (eng)
Design: Bojan Lazarevič, Agora Proars
Photographs printed by: Fotoformat
Special thanks to:
Matjaž Šporar, for making archival photos of Peter Naglič available to us, and
Miha Špiček, head of the documentation department at the Slovene Ethnographic Museum, for scanning the archival material
Location
T +386 1 280 16 04 (reception)
T +386 1 241 25 06
E plecnik@mgml.si
Opening hours
Monday–Sunday: 00:00–24:00
Tickets
Free entry.
Press kit
News
The photographic exhibition Ljubljana, a City with Plečnik's Signature, which is adorning the Jakopič Promenade at the Ljubljana's Tivoli Park will continue to entice its visitors until 7 November. The extended exhibition displays archival photographs of Plečnik's Ljubljana taken by Peter Naglič and a contemporary view of Plečnik's works through the lens of Matevž Paternoster's camera.
We are concluding the first half of Plečnik Year with a fresh new book on Plečnik's life and work, written by Dr. Noah Charney, and the photographic exhibition Ljubljana, a City with Plečnik's Signature at the Jakopič Promenade (designed by Plečnik!) in Tivoli Park, Ljubljana. Both events, the book presentation and exhibition opening, will take place on Thursday 15 June 2017.