Alternative Ljubljana presents Ljubljana Street Art Festival, the first international street art festival in Slovenia. Created out of the passion for street art, graffiti and interventions in public space, Ljubljana Street Art Festival brings together international and local artists, activists and academics..
The festival offers a variety of events – from round table discussions, exhibitions, screenings, workshops, walks and live-paintings all around Ljubljana. It invites the visitors to read the streets, participate in activities as well as it showcases young, budding generations of street artists in the attempt to ensure a bright future of the local street art environment.
The first edition of Ljubljana Street Art Festival is simultaneously a celebration of the fourth anniversary of delivering the regular free Ljubljana Graffiti Tour, a graffiti and street art urban safari in Ljubljana that uncovers colourful walls to foreign and local visitors.
Locations: Autonomous Cultural Zone Metelkova City, Autonomous Rog Factory, ŠKUC Gallery, Galley Vžigalica, streets of Ljubljana
Organized by: Alternative Ljubljana / Institure for Urban Questions
Information: info[att] alternativetoursljubljana.com,
Festival inauguration: Symposium Politics and the Political of Street Art
Tuesday, 2nd July at 5 PM, Gromka Club, Metelkova City
The symposium will reflect past and current theories and practices of street art and graffiti. It is deeply rooted in the academic study of street art and its concretization in the public space. The discussion of politics and political of street art will stretch from graffiti of late modern period, as in the resistance graffiti during the WWII, to the current battle for the right to the city and offering concrete solutions to hate speech. We will be asking ourselves what the streets are telling us and how we can grasp and comprehend them.
Program:
►17: 00-17:30
Helena Konda: Inscription Actions of The Liberation Front and Other Graffiti during WWII
►17:30-18:00
Eric Ušić: The Partisan Graffiti and Symbolic Battle – the Case of Istria
►18:00-18:30
Monika Kropej: Political Graffiti through Graffiti Battles and through the Eyes of the Public
►18:30-19:00
Nina Perger: Decontamination of Hate Speech in Slovenia
►19:00-19:30
dr. Mitja Velikonja: Methods of Researching Graffiti and Street Art
The symposium will be moderated by Sandi Abram.
The event is admission free. Please consider donating to support the Festival. The symposium will be held in Slovenian and Croatian.
Organized by: Alternative Ljubljana / Inštitut za urbana vprašanja in collaboration with klub Gromka.
Street arting: Štimac × Šmid × TAMAA × Prizmu
TUESDAY, July 2, from 5pm until SATURDAY, July 6, outside wall of Jalla Jalla Club, AKC Metelkova Mesto, Ljubljana
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Vedran Štimac “Cities for people”
?️ Since the greedy neoliberal jaws have reached the cities, great existential problem has been created for everyone living in them – decent housing. The exterior wall of Jalla Jalla will be painted over the span of four days portraying the issues of the prevalent political-economic dehumanizing practices on the map of contemporary society.
? Vedran Štimac was born in Pula, Croatia. He is an illustrator, street artist and PhD researcher, who is living and working in Ljubljana since 2017. His artistic expression connects historical figures and critical messages and creates dialogue with the current world and society through murals and illustrations.
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Denis Šmid “In memoriam permacultural mandala”
?️ No matter how permanent a mark on a surface is, it disappears with nature, spontaneous human interventions add to it and on the other hand it points to its own temporariness with fire extinction. We are surrounded with constant returning of mortality, where the nature represents a constant. Šmid’s mural will point to the human connection to nature with its hallucinogenic colourfulness and its time limited existence interwoven with flora and fauna, mythical and fairy-tale creature, worldly and otherworldly. It will also pay tribute to Jure’s flame that went out and his once painted and later burned permacultural mandala.
? Denis Šmid is a graphic designer, illustrator, painter, animator and a musician originally from Idrija, who is currently creating in Ljubljana. He is a music promoter in Swenak Club in Idrija, the force behind Kramp Fest in Godovič and a drummer in HakAttak band.
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?️ TAMAA “These boots are made for walking”
? TAMMA is a Varaždin based artist, who currently lives and is active in Zagreb, Croatia. She is a student of conservation and statue restauration in Zagreb Academy. She dedicated the last two years to mural creation in connection to her “blackened art” project, guerrilla actions done without permissions.
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?️ Prizmu “One pixel at a time”
? Prizmu is a multidisciplinary art collective, exploring themes through innovation: as designers, engravers, writers, film-makers Prizmu are conducting art, film and design projects. Prizmu’s headquarters are in Zagreb, Croatia..
Organized by: Alternative Ljubljana / Inštitut za urbana vprašanja in collaboration with klub Jalla Jalla
Street Art Workshop 25×25
Wednesday, 3rd July from 10 AM to 2 PM, the outdoor summer garden of Gala Hala Club, Metelkova City
The first ever Ljubljana Street Art Festival invites 25 young budding beginners (up to 25 years old) to be a part of a street art workshop that will introduce them to the practical details of making graffiti and stencils. The basic skills, tips and tricks that are key to developing one’s style and unwritten rules of the street will be passed on by experienced street artists.
We will start with a practical demonstration of writing graffiti and making stencils, using professional special spray cans and general introduction to graffiti scene. After the demonstration and presentation, the participants will be able to test their own abilities on the wall.
The workshop will take place in the outdoor venue of Gala Hala Club, Metelkova City. In case of a bad weather forecast, it will be moved inside of the club.
Want to join? Are you older than 9 and younger than 25?
Hurry and fill out the application form. Be one of just 25 people who can join.
All materials and safety equipment (masks, gloves) will be provided.
Price: 25 EUR per person
Application form (mandatory sing-up) http://tiny.cc/0d617y
Location: Gala Hala Club, Metelkova City, Ljubljana
Address: Metelkova street 6, 1000 Ljubljana
Buss station: Friškovec on Masarykova Street
Language: Slovenian and English
Organized by: Alternative Ljubljana / Institute for Urban Questions in cooperation with Gala Hala Club
*(We ask you to choose appropriate clothes as the workshop can sometimes get very colourful.)
Street art pro-per discussion: PROjection of the documentary “Public Discourse” and PERformative discussion with Brad Downey
Wednesday, 3rd July, 7:00 PM, ŠKUC Gallery
Brad Downey is an artist and an artivist, born in Kentucky (USA), currently active in Berlin. He is making radical and awe-inspiring interventions in public space all around the world, including Slovenia, where he erected the statue of Melania Trump.
We will begin the event with the Downey’s documentary projection Public Discourse (45 minutes, in English w/ Slovenian subtitles) that shows the diversity of street art practices in New York. The documentary displays some of the most known and established street artists like Shepard Fairey (Obey), Caledonia Curry (Swoon), WK Interact, Revs, Space Invader, T-kid, Espo and Keith Harring.
The screening will be followed by a performative discussion with the director who will reflect and contextualize his present and past work.
Downey’s sculptures, performances, installations, films, drawings and activist projects are realised through everyday life and appearances in public space while using humour, sensitivity and insight to question the urban tissue, touches on the rural areas, sanctuaries and the forgotten outskirts and controversial borders. He established new patterns, introduces new narratives and unclear boundaries between art and everyday life.
The event is admission free. Please consider donating to support the Festival.
Both the projection and the debate will be held in English. Slovenian subtitles will be provided fort the documentary.
Organized by: Alternative Ljubljana / Institute for Urban Questions in cooperation with ŠKUC Gallery
Tabor Street Art Tour – free tour Ljubljana
THURSDAY, 5 July at 5 pm, the central courtyard of the Rog factory
Through streets of graffiti and street art, Ljubljana’s streets offer us various images, messages and slogans that bring everything from aesthetic to political records. A guided free Ljubljana tour through graffiti and street art will reveal, in an hour and a half, the colorful side of Ljubljana and its history through this specific medium. We will walk through the Tabor neighborhood, which is characterized by the specifics of urban interventions in public space, including graffiti and street art as well as other feats in public areas – from urban spinning, train tracks to overlooked wall paintings.
Organized by: Alternative Ljubljana / Inštitut za urbana vprašanja
Tabor Street Art Tour – free tour Ljubljana on Friday
FRIDAY, 5 July at 5 pm, the central courtyard of the Rog factory
Through streets of graffiti and street art, Ljubljana’s streets offer us various images, messages and slogans that bring everything from aesthetic to political records. A guided free Ljubljana tour through graffiti and street art will reveal, in an hour and a half, the colorful side of Ljubljana and its history through this specific medium. We will walk through the Tabor neighborhood, which is characterized by the specifics of urban interventions in public space, including graffiti and street art as well as other feats in public areas – from urban spinning, train tracks to overlooked wall paintings.
Organized by: Alternative Ljubljana / Inštitut za urbana vprašanja
Left Over Jam – a collective creation of a wall triptych
Saturday, 6th July from 9 AM to 9 PM, Hall of Fame (the walls between Celica Hostel and Community Health Center on Metelkova Street, Metelkova City)
A triptych of colourful walls in the Autonomous Cultural Zone Metelkova City between Celica Hostel and Community Health Center on Metelkova is known within the subculture as the Hall of Fame, that is, a place for the artistically and technically most advanced graffiti only. At the same time, it is the place where graffiti history was made, since this was the first legal wall in Ljubljana to offer a place for writers try to establish themselves on the scene.
This time will bend a bit the rules of the subculture – the Hall of Fame will be occupied by the new generation of up-and-coming writers who have never had the chance to create on those walls before. Left Over Jam will offer us a chance to empty the leftover spray cans and pass the walls onto new generations to add to the layers of paint and the subculture.
Organized by: Alternative Ljubljana / Institute for Urban Questions
Ljubljana Street Art Tour on Bike
Saturday, 6th July from 5 to 8 PM, starts in Rog Factory courtyard
We are going on a hunt for the best street art just out of the center of Ljubljana. We will start our expedition on the Rog Factory courtyard, continue our way to different districts of Ljubljana like Prule, Trnovo, Tivoli Park and Šiška and get to know the local street art scene. We will park our bikes in Autonomous Cultural Zone Metelkova City among the pieces in creation on the Left Over Jam.
There are limited spots available on the tour, so please reserve yours through this form: http://tiny.cc/0a717y
Price: 15 € per person
Meeting point: Rog Factory courtyard
Application form (mandatory) http://tiny.cc/0a717y
Language: Slovenian
Organized by: Alternative Ljubljana / Institute for Urban Questions
In case of bad weather the event will be cancelled.
Music finale: Ljubljana Street Art Festival in the trap house
Saturday, 6th July after 9 PM, Ambasada Rog (Trubarjeva 72, 1000 Ljubljana)
Snackboi ? aka DJ Molotov ? will take us on the dark roads of a decadent, politically incorrect counter-culture from the periphery of our society. Music of dirty 808 basses, gang mentality and autotune, boosting from the Paris suburbs, across the Balkans to the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Expect some hiccups that the money-machine pulled out from the ghetto and lunched to the top of the mainstreem charts.
? Music policy: (international) trap, drill, cloud rap.
The event is admission free. Please consider donating to support the Festival.
Organized by: Alternative Ljubljana / Institute for Urban Questions in cooperation with Ambasada Rog