Plenum
"Informal NGO network Plenum connects organizations, informal groups and individuals that wants to form agreement with the governemnt regarding selfinitiated spaces in Slovenia - about their conditions and further development. We cover fields of culture, youth, informal education, health, ecology and support marginal social groups, development of science in the social field and it's influence on the conscience of people. We are convinced that journalism, public and the governmental structure is not aware of these autonomous and self-initiated spaces which are 'atmosphere ionizators', doors into the future in the dehumanizing processes taking place on Planet Earth"
Written in a hurry, Marko Brecelj, 16th October 2006
For more info about Plenumu check www.dodogovor.org
KUD Mreža
KUD Mreža and EVS volunteers came to Art center to film supporting materials for documentary video about Metelkova Mesto.
Več o KUD Mreži in si lahko preberete tu.
Biketour 06
Bike Tour came to Art center on it's way from Litva to Croatia, promoting sustainable living possibilities.
We presented Art center and filmed interviews for their anual video production.
More about Bike tour on their web page.
Students from Faculty of social sciences
Students from Faculty for social sciences came to Art center to research the Roma population living in Prekmurje. Most of their time in Art center they spent filming various materials in near-by Roma villages, writing scripts and editing a short documentary film.
Ceramics and pottery workshop
Have you ever tried turning clay? Tanja Svetanič and Ivo Kurnjek would certainly show you how!
A gropu of 30 young people from Germany, Czech and Slovenia took the challenge of pottery making... from a clay ball, centering, rising and decoration of the final product.
Summer school - YOUTH AGAINST SEX DISCRIMINATION
Art Center offered space and equipment for summer school of "Youth against sex discrimination". The organizers of the event tried to present different views on questions about gender and gender discrimination which are still relevant in our daily lives. The summer school lasted for 6 days (5 nights).
The whole programme of the school was divided into 3 sections that were going on for 4 days - lectures in the mornings, interactive workshops in the afternoon and artistic workshops in the evenings.
About male and female prostitution, Majda Hrženjak
The aim of the lecture was to stress the base for understanding certain aspects of prostitution and indification of possible structural places that enable prostitution. General rules of the organization of human sexuality that at the same time serve in establishing and maintaining culture and social order, are taboos of incest, obligatory heterosexuality and asymetric division of sexual roles. These rules lead to unavoidable 'coupling combinatorics' that allow structural base for prostitution. Positioning of prostitution as an equal economic practice, which was an argument of recent decriminilization of prostitution in Slovenia, can also be understood as a forced answer to the enigma of female desire. The image of prostitution as selfunderstood is lacking male prostitution and womens request of sexual services.
Majda Hrženjak attained her doctorate degree in sociology at the Faculty for Social Sciences in Ljubljana in 2001. She is the author of the book Symbolic. Selected Chapters from French Structuralism and the editor of the book Making Her Up. Women's Magazines in Slovenia. She has worked as a researcher at the Peace Institute since 2002, mainly in the field of gender studies and cultural policy.
Eva D. Bahovec is a doctor of philosophical sciences and is a docent of epistemology and structuralism. She is a researcher and lecturer at the centre for womens studies at the Pedagogical Institute, ISH - Faculty for postgraduate humanistic studies in the Philosophic faculty in Ljubljana. She is author of Kopernik, Darwin, Freud and co-author of other publications, published in Slovenia and abroad. Since 1995 she is the editor of magazine for women studies and feminist theory Delta (1995-) that in 1997 won the award 'Zlata ptica'.
Conflict(s) in contemporary citizenship, Mojca Sušnik
The aim of the lecture was to show that there is a conflict in contemporary citizenship itself, which causes many problems, inclusions and exclusions. Citizenship as a politics of exclusion, conflict between the identity and citizenship, also citizenship and sex/gender, crucial differencies on the basis of exclusion in republican and liberal concept of citizenship. The base of the conflict as reconciliation of interests, cause of producing conflict in absence of communication, and also in absence of conditions or posibilities for communication, talking and listening.
Mojca Sušnik was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on 9 March 1977. By passing the national graduation examination in 1995, she successfully completed her secondary education and began her studies of theoretical sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences in Ljubljana. She has been a regular contributor to the faculty newsletter Temica and has even co-edited one of its issues. Furthermore, she has published some articles in the student newspaper Zofa, and co-edited its Social Issues section for two years. Since 1996 she has been engaged in various projects launched by the Peace Institute, Institute for Contemporary Social and Political Studies. They include: Conflict Resolution in Communities, Workers'-Punks' University, Intolerance Monitor and Contemporary citizenship: the politics of exclusion and inclusion. In the year 2001, she successfully completed her undergraduate studies by submitting a B.A. thesis on the politics of feminism and feminist movement in Slovenia. In the school year 2001-2002 she continued her studies on the postgraduate level. Her primary area of interest remains sociology, citizenship with special emphasis on feminist theory.
New fatherhood and care, Živa Humer
Relocation of the processes of care between private and public spheres and between sexes have been developing for the last few decades. Especially relocation of care from women to men has been developing gradually and in discordance if we compare women entering the public sphere, sphere of payed work and politics. Requestioning of sex roles, thinking about new masculinity, including and speaking in favour of active roles of men, fathers, partners in private sphere are just extensions or lacking parts of 'postponed revolution'
(Hochschild, 1997). Numerous empirical data show that men are involved in domestic work and care more than ever before but still in sex-based division of work in pleasant and desired care, and needed and obligatory care. Men, fathers and partners are, as shown in many different studies, positioned between the model as supporter of the family and the image of caring, emotional father that is present especially on levels of standpoint and value.
Živa Humer mastered in 2004 in the department of Gender studies in Central-European University in Budapest, Hungary. At the moment she is a doctorate student in the department of sociology in Faculty for social studies at the University of Ljubljana. In her degree work she is focused on problematics of relocation of care between private and public spheres in Slovenia.
Accompanying the lectures there were many different workshops going on through the day - about men and masculinity, feminism in capitalistic society, representation of the female image in media, visions of film science-fiction about the position of women, workshop of creative writing and artistic workshops of design and video.
RDA Mura
On Friday Art Center was visited by a group of representatives from Hungary, lead by Romeo Varga from Regional Development Agency MURA. Our guests - 27 members of a Hungarian microregion (2 cities and 55 villages) - were invited to see our facilities and we talked about how the idea of Art Center was realised through an EU project call. They will soon become partners with Slovenia in an employment project. We also explained our fragile situation.
The event was documented with a camera and an interview.
Borut Brumen Memorial Symposium
Borut Brumen was an original member of Association Onej, the founding association of Art Center. Lecturers from all over Europe visited Art Center, as part of a symposium dedicated to his memory. They were given prsentations of Art Center, the Linux computer system, bio-farming, and enjoyed a performance by local musician Tomaž Rauch.
Open Code Workshop
What is open code, what are the priorities, current situation and perspectives? This is what we discussed with our mentor doc. dr. Renato Lukač, who is working with open code now for more than ten years. We thought about the freedom that the open code offers - free distribution, development and active participation with solutions, why it is reliable and safe. We discussed about the situation in Slovenia - that we still lack didactical and commercial software and education on this field. But above all it is important to understand that the biggest obstacle still is the resistance to changes - the characteristic of problems that Art Center is facing now because of its functioning.
And some closing thoughts of our mentor: open code is one of possibilities that already acchieved positive experiences. If we want to be successful we have to think differently and be tolerant. And last but not least - we are not so rich and stupid not to accept the challenge of open code!
Annual Beekepers Meeting from Prosenjakovci/Partosfalva
On Sunday we hosted Association of Beekeepers from Prosenjakovci. Their second trip on honey ways in Goričko, a round tour from near villages of Ivanjševci to Središče and back lead beekeepers and friends also to Art Center. We showed the Art Center facilities, talked about activities in Art Center and tasted honey specialities.
Wood carving workshop
Art Center is hosting 3rd year students from Artistic high school Center form Celje. As a part of their school programme, 26 students are learning about traditional sculpting techniques - wood carving, under the mentorship of academic sculptor Franc Purg.
Workshop was concluded in a small exhibition of the works in the near-by firemens' house and video projection of the visti, prepared by the Art center team.
Ekožitje
Over the weekend, the Art Center was host to a meeting of the group Ekozitje. The group was formed to discuss the possibilites for building an ecological community in Slovenia. Art Center was visited by local ecological farmer Dejan Rengeo, for a lecture and seminar about bio-farming followed by a tour of his farm.
Adobe After Effects Workshop
Over two days a workshop was conducted on Adobe After Effects application. The workshop was well attended and covered skills and knowledge that would enable the students to include animated effects in their video work.
Linux Workshop
Lecture about bio-farming with Dejan Rengeo
At the Art Center, agriculture engineer Dejan Rengeo lead two seminars on innovative agriculture techniques for local farmers. "Kaj sejati, da bo kmetu kaj za ostati!" on 14th February and "Polikultura je v biokmetijstvu prva uvertura" on 30th March.
