You are Invited to the Cultural Meetings at the Plečnik House in 2023

The exhibitions at the Plečnik House in 2023 will focus on the works of his student Vlasto Kopač – the coming year commemorates the 110th anniversary of his birth. There will also be completely new approaches to how the architect is seen by contemporary artists, such as the renowned Austrian artist Dorit Magreiter and the Italian photographer Maurizio Barberis (his exhibition is a collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute of Ljubljana). The preserved extensive correspondence with Dr. France Stele will be presented in cooperation with the ZRC SAZU France Stele Institute of Art History, which will put the spotlight on the close professional relationship and the friendship between Plečnik and Stele, who was head of conservation and the Institute of Cultural Heritage at the time of Plečnik’s projects in Ljubljana.

With Plečnik’s Year 2022 ending, which will symbolically conclude on Plečnik’s 151st birthday, 23 January 2023, two temporary exhibitions are also ending. Both of them stirred great interest with the general public; the exhibition I am only the housekeeper, but I don’t know…, on view until 8 January, is a hitherto unseen intervention of contemporary art into Plečnik’s home. It established a dynamic dialogue between heritage and art. The last three public guided tours are scheduled in early January; 3 January at 5.30 pm, 6 January at 3.30 pm, and 8 January at 3.30 pm (mandatory applications for the tours at prijava@mgml.si). The temporary exhibition Nulla dies sine linea. Professor Plečnik and his school in Ljubljana will stay on display until late February. Through the rich archives of the Plečnik House and Plečnik’s cabinet at the Faculty of Architecture in Ljubljana, it offers a unique and, insofar, unexplored insight into the work, methods, and curricula of Plečnik’s school. Before the exhibition ends, there will be two more exciting events: on Wednesday, 25 January 2023, the exhibition’s authors Dr. Tomaž Jurca, and Katja Ogrin, and the house’s curator Ana Porok will present the exhibition’s catalog in the company of selected guests, while on the Prešeren Day, 8 February, we are all invited to the last two guided tours of the exhibition (at 11.00 am and 12.00 pm).

The Plečnik House also has several international projects planned for 2023. Already in December 2022, the European project Open Atelier will begin, which will also include partners from Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, and Italy. The 36-month-long project puts forward the concept of an atelier, the artist’s private workspace. Through the project, we will innovate the usage, understanding, and collaboration with this space that will open its doors to the public. Open Atelier will change the atelier space into a “laboratory of experiences”; an interactive, co-creative, dynamic, and participatory area in which cultural heritage is the starting point of new interactions and experiences between the museum (collections), the audience, and museum experts.

In 2023 the Plečnik House will also, as part of the MGML family, be a co-organiser of the international conference Iconic Houses, which be hosted by the Czech Republic in May, while the post-conference study trip will take place in Ljubljana in late May. There we will present Plečnik’s Ljubljana to experts from similar international institutions (iconic houses of architects from the 20th century from around the world). The emphasis will be on the architect’s works that have been inscribed on the UNESCO List of Cultural Heritage. The post-conference study trip will be organised in collaboration with Slovenian experts from the Plečnik House, the Museum of Architecture and Design, and renowned experts on Plečnik. It will offer an opportunity to create contacts with the international community of experts, and exchange good practices, as well as possibilities for further collaborations.

In 2023, the Plečnik House continues the strategy of establishing the house as a starting point for exploring Plečnik’s (UNESCO) Ljubljana, and establishing links between Plečnik’s works and contemporary times, with the view of bringing him closer to our visitors and opening new ways of seeing his heritage. The number of visitors in this post-COVID year was extraordinary as the house greeted 15,000 visitors, so we have high expectations for 2023.