CULTURE
In modern times the earliest
signs of the Slovene spirit have surfaced in the field of culture.
Ever since the poetry of France Preseren, culture has formed the
heart of our national being.
Urban culture has developed
in Slovenia over the last two centuries, which has also seen the
gradual evolvement of fundamental institutions such as National
Museum, and the Slovene Philharmonics.
Nowadays Slovenia has a myriad
of theatres, cinemas, libraries and educational facilities and
is well known abroad by its current cultural export.
The band Laibach is absolutely
pivotal in the field of music. Their early industrial sound from
the 1980s still has a cult following around the world. Young composer
Mitja Vrhovnik Smrekar is establishing himself as a very reputable
writer of theatre music.
Slovene literature and poetry
is mostly very traditional, but international translations of
the literary works of Drago Jancar, Tomaz Salamun and Ales Debeljak
prove that even the smallest cultures can create work of high
quality and also contribute to the most current global literary
tendencies.
The history of our country's
visual arts is rich with important artists. Recently the painters
of the group Irwin have gained an international reputation. Their
work is presented in all relevant overviews of world-wide contemporary
art.
The Slovenian architect and
sculptor Marjetica Potrc has succeeded in making a break- through
into international artistic circles. As a winner of the significant
Hugo Boss Prize 2000, she recently opened a solo exhibition in
the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
The emerging field of digital
media arts has its own eco-system and the development of this
particular field of art on a global scale was partly enabled through
the work of Marko Peljhan and Vuk Cosic.
Dance theatre has a disproportionately
active centre in Ljubljana and its most notable representative
in Slovenia is Iztok Kovac whose performances are constantly admired
on international festivals.
Video art has been around
in our country for thirty years, its most notable practitioners
in the last two decades are Marina Grzinic & Aina Smid.
[Source:
Virtual
Slovenia]
