International Festival of Computer Arts (Mednarodni festival računalniških umetnosti – MFRU)
Ever since it’s foundation in 1994 MFRU has been of crucial importance in the field of computer art in Maribor and the wider region. With its rich tradition and constant activity, it represents one of the central institutions of this branch of art. Up to the present day MFRU is the only festival of it’s kind in the “Pure energy” region, and has conducted pioneering work in it’s 15 years in the field of the presentation of the theory and practice of computer art and new media. The festival has hosted acknowledged foreign artists through a colourful and diverse program; it has represented young local artists with educational as well as artistic content.
According to Marko Ornik, the festival leader, this festival has gained its strength on the basis of continued reorganisation of the program and organisational structure, as well as a professionally profiled program committee with selectors from Slovenia and abroad. Through connections at a local level we have created a widespread platform of creativity and institutions in the field of modern inter-medial art. In the “Pure energy” region EPK 2012 the festival will be represented through mobile presentations, and at the same time, it connects with international partnerships on European level.
MFRU promotes and establishes modern computer artistic practice and fills a program niche in the cultural field. The festival theme for 2012 is Robotics and new techniques on how to think human; it will be covered through various program packages. These include audio-visual live performances (Experimental lab – Eksperimentalni laboratorij, Optofonica Showcase, 8bit, Kinozvočenja, AV Odprti poziv), FF/PLAY/REW, symposium (expert lectures linked to the festival theme), A-E/19 (a creative multimedia production by high school students), Archive – Arhiv 21 (resident artists’ involvement with the festival archives), mobile festival presentations, interventions in public spaces (installations) and many other festival events.
More on http://www.mfru.si
The main goal of the World Book Day on April 23rd is the promotion of reading, publishing and the protection of intellectual property through copyright. To honour this day, the 15th literary festival Slovenian Book Days in Maribor will take place from 20th to 26th of April. The central theme of this year’s festival Slovenian Book Days in Maribor is the metaphor in the wider context of the word. In 2012 the Slovenian Book Days in Maribor will cooperate with organisations in partner towns of ECOC through the project “Poetry on the city streets” (Poezija na mestnih ulicah).
More on http://www.mkc.si/sdk
Festival Performa
The content of Performa shows hybrid, multimedia and experimental artistic projects, that test the boundaries of genres and search new expressiveness and communicativeness according to tendencies of formation of the modern world, whether they may be technologic, ecologic, scientific, social, aesthetic, ethic, philosophic, ideological or economic.
The 17th Performa festival will deal with the boundaries between inside and outside, between in and out, between acceptable and unacceptable or with that invisible line that divides and / or connects both entities. In the context of Performa the mini festival Video:performa will take place for the fourth time along with a series of performance lectures by artists from various fields of artistic creation. We would like to highlight the project Intellectual whores (Intelektualne kurbe) by Zoran Srdić Janežič, the performative exhibition of Jože Šubic in the Media Nox gallery entitled House of the Rising Sun / Hiša vzhajajočega sonca and the performance by Miša Gams My flesh is your flesh / Moje meso je tvoje meso.
More on http://www.mkc.si/performa
Sociable Social Sciences 2010 – Družabno družboslovje 2012
Sociable Social Sciences (Družabno družboslovje) is a project, which establishes the actual content in a very deficit urban field: in the field of creation of intellectual culture, one which is based on different humanistic-social scientific insights, establishes a specific self reflexive humanistic-social scientific reflexion and self-positioning of the town and this part of Slovenia in synchronous national and transnational intellectual currents. This is a traditional cycle of lectures and discussion evenings, prepared by Dr. Vesna V. Godina and Dr. Andrej Fištravec in cooperation with our institute. Each year a spring and autumn cycle is held in Club KGB in Maribor. We prepare discussions on actual social issues with eminent guests. The cycle is designed primarily for students, yet other intellectuals are glad to attend to it too.
More on http://www.druzabnodruzboslovje.org
The Maribor Milky Way – Mariborska mlečna cesta
Some things have more lives. This may also be the case with the chewing gums, lying glued to the pavements, streets and markets, in short everywhere, where people spit them out. The number of expectorations reveals the density of people, for it is known that at least one third enjoys the sweet gum. US-originated Miroslav Cukovic, a graphic artist, who has lived in Maribor for four years and has regular exhibitions in Slovenia and abroad, saw material for his art in the used chewing gum. He will use those small, often annoying pieces of waste, in outer gallery site-specific work. He will paint the stepped-on discarded chewing gum with a special white paint that is also used for road markings and contains crystals, so the painted chewing gum will glow in the night. On chosen locations of Maribor city centre the shiny dots will start to glow. And a poetic eye may see imaginative and random star galaxies.
Nanoart – Nanoumetnost
The project represents “nanoart”, art on nano-level: interventions in the microscopically visible field, the statues and areas, biological interventions, pictures, taken with various electronic microscopes, with later artistic treatment. We try to encourage the flow of ideas between the scientists and artists through this project, to create new artistic productions. We would also like to encourage a broader discussion and reflections on introduction of new technologies that can be fatal in marking the present and the future.
NanoArt – nano art – is a new artistic branch, connected to micro- and nanostructures, created by the artist or the scientist through a chemical or physical process. The visualisation takes place through research equipment such as scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. The scientific images of these structures are transformed in works of art through various artistic techniques. Nanoart is about the interdisciplinary merger of science and art. Its goal is (among others) to make scientific work available to broader circle of people. It is also about art in the most modern sense, for it was made possible by the latest, state-of-the-art technology, through which a new world opens in front of us. A world, so small, it requires a magnification of one billion to see it.