The first study visit to Ljubljana of the European TestArt project has ended, an opportunity to meet and exchange good practices with local artists and cultural operators for the 15 partners of the European project coordinated by Consorzio Marche Spettacolo.

The program, developed by the Slovenian partner Bunker, was held during the Mladi Levi Festival 2024, one of the most important events for the performing arts in Slovenia, which has been operating in the capital for 20 years and hosts numerous events and international premieres in different locations in the center of the capital, including the redeveloped space Stara Elektrarna – Elektro Ljubljana (Old Power Station), an old power station now transformed into a cultural center and managed by Bunker.

From 29th to 31st August 2024, the participants had the opportunity to get to know numerous realities in the Slovenian territory, involved in different areas of the Slovenian and international cultural scene, including:

• Mesto žensk – City of Women

Association that promotes and supports the inclusion of women in culture. The Association for the Promotion of “Women in Culture – City of Women” was founded in 1996, one year after the first edition of the City of Women festival, with the aim of preparing and managing the festival annually. Today, the association is a multifaceted organization that focuses on artistic, activist and theoretical presentations and productions by women* throughout the year, while expanding its activities to arts education, managing projects for youth and teachers; to community building, initiating temporary communities that engage in the co-creation of art; and the connection of art and culture with other sectors, such as social, educational and entrepreneurial.

*The term women and other words written in the feminine grammatical gender are used inclusively and address anyone who identifies with the feminine gender, as well as non-binary, trans- and intergender people.

• Gledališče Glej

Glej Theater is the oldest non-institutional theater in Slovenia (and one of the first theaters of this kind in the former Yugoslavia), boasting bold performances, (re)thinking interesting production models, non-hierarchical forms of work in theater and is based on collective and socially engaged work. Active in the area for 50 years, they explore the possibilities of contemporary theater in relation to collective theatrical creation, community and the various forms that the concepts of collective and community can encompass.

• Ustvarjalni center Krušče – Krušče Creative Center

Krušče Creative Center is a small cultural center run by Tomi Janežič, theater director and psychodrama psychotherapist, and Katja Legin, dancer/performer and choreographer. It offers an intimate and peaceful space for inspiration and creation, a place where art has its value, purpose and meaning. It creates conditions in which avant-garde art meets other contents, from live entertainment to psychodrama, from education to group work.

• Pogon – Zagrebački centar za nezavisnu kulturu i mlade

Pogon is an independent house of cultures based in Zagreb (Croatia), which makes its premises and equipment available free of charge to associations, artistic organizations and informal groups. Since 2009, Pogon, under the direction of Emina Višnić and the entire team, has gradually become an important place of production and presentation of culture and art, not only for the independent cultural scene but also for the entire cultural panorama of the city .⠀
As partners of the Stronger Peripheries: A Southern Coalition project, Sonja Soldo and Anja Pletikosa illustrated to the TestArt partners the virtues and difficulties in realizing transnational artistic residencies and productions, providing important examples of collaborations and useful feedback that can be used for the carrying out TestArt activities.
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Furthermore, in the days dedicated to the studio visit, the partners – grouped according to their expressed artistic needs – began to explore ideas of transnational productions, planning future collaborations in periods of residency, as foreseen by the objectives of the project.

The next in-person event will be held in Dresden, Germany, guests of the German partner Zentralwerk e.V..

More information on TestArt is available on this website, at the ABOUT section.

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