Fashion scouts are cracking containers with clothes discarded and donated to the hillbillies. In line (together) with the homeless, they’re waiting for the Red Cross handout bringing heaps (containers) of clothes into the ateliers of the renowned designers of the fashion metropolises. As the gap between rich and poor widens, the urban-versus-rural barrier breaks. Country boys are turning into adventure undertakers. Suntanned studio-types are casting themselves in front of beauty salons. They’re all wearing camouflage suits in the city or the country, and now and then it protects them from their own species. Perfect!

It’s not just their weekday, but the weekday of the most westerly men and women, which (the weekday) undergoes a discreet decentralized Balkanization. Ships and boats, ships and people, noble boatpeople, cruise the Danube in search of friendship and restitution. They return with rakia, brass and… an artist, and his friends. As video performer the artist is integrated into the national clubbing-costume. The lady next door likes it and consequently introduces him as a curator at the next Street Stringtanga Awards. That’s why a fashion designer purchased a villa full of puke in the 18th or 19th district of Vienna for € 1.8 million – as an expression of his delightful presence.
Versace, Gucci, Helmut Lang… only the finest in clothing, what all the friends keep in their trunks. Surprisingly enough somebody turns the friends in. Now everyone points at the Fashionistas and everyone pretends to know about chic. Tapping on their wallets everyone feigns elegant homelessness. As the villa gets progressively dirtier, mundane clochards attend a lingerie show or take part in a porno charity at a exquisite location. “More Helmut Lang is what this country needs”, the lady curators scream after the barriers fall. Since then the everlasting fight for the world’s most expensive bra takes its turn. While trunks and rooms worldwide are opening a question pops up: Which top models will wear the 10 million dollar bra? Some claim not to give away the names of their world-known clients out of juridical concerns.
But we can. It’s the grandmother!

She brings with her a small dowry – a malnourished Styrian – to her marriage. With the help of Nanud and Kosud he forms the human wall. After leaving the circus he wears a blue apron on top of brown trousers. This combination is turned down three times by the fundamental lower-southeast-capital’s national costume lodge “Zur einfältigen Knopfampel” (”The Naive Stoplight of Buttons”), since it looks suspiciously Croatian. They also presume his e-mail address comes from somewhere in the South Pacific. But they let the Albanians wear their “Lederhosen” country-cross-wise and perform their own skiptarian weekday within (the Lederhosen) to keep up with (to the tune of) their time management.
The Used Look has become a highlight. Now the “The Legend”, “The Preworn”, “The Shitted-In Jean” are promoted since the Albanians did so well. You add your bought weekday and therefore live longer and in absolute safety. And now they have so much time to think about their previous lives. Paco, for his part, used to be a courtesan. In his prophecy “The fire of the sky” he announced the end of the world on August 11, 1999. He claimed that the space station Mir would crash over Paris due to the solar eclipse.

At the same time we were having our first meeting with a Tyrolean glasscutter. As the valley darkens the meeting comes to an end, proportionally to and to such an extent that, as the snatches of conversation fall increasingly silent, the visitors and PR-ladies climb the roof of the factory in something of a trance. Sparkling wine is being served as the ideal completion to this natural phenomenon. Some of the participants are wearing rustic tailcoats, although this is considered inappropriate during the meetings. On top of the glittering world they realized they were nothing without the sun and thus started praying. Shortly after a PR-lady might be asked to come into China’s “Forbidden City” in order to hand over a cut-glass water lily to the crown prince. It is as easy as that.

And so it happens. The master ceremonies performs with a layering of tweeds, diamonds and other classical ingredients, a twist of punk and freshness. A list of objects, styles and agreements is made and from them, newly promoted objects, styles and agreements, because they hadn’t appeared for a long time and were therefore seen as lucrative. While wading through piles of clothes the HundM-customers utterly lose their innocence. Destinies are created out of luck, castings and revelations. The “Designers of the Minute” are being replaced by internationalized “Heavenly Hosts of the Second”. Meagre scouts carry on roaming the hinterland in search of rare sorts, spots and words.
We back the only right horse: We do not move at all.
Author: Joseph Berger
Photos: Wolfgang Zajec
re: Susanne Bisovsky
[lives and works in Vienna
her work refers to the national costume]
www.bisovsky.com

Greta Godnič is a scenographer. By training she’s an architect, but at heart she’s a television scenographer. “The most beautiful thing to happen in my life is for me to be able to do scenography”. There aren’t many opportunities for this kind of work in Slovenia so she feels privileged. Perseverance, extensive knowledge, and the love of her work find expression in convincing results, when an empty television studio is transformed into a sparkling new fairy tale.

MP: In the era of information and communication technologies, we’re surrounded by virtual worlds; is scenography losing something of its own sense?
GG: Not at all, on the contrary; as I work I’m coming to realize the number of people aware of the importance of scenography is growing. Virtual scenography is not my way of expression. It can only represent the phase between, but in the end it should become material. Television is sound and image. Sound without image is radio. People need space on the monitor – we want to feel it and play our role in it.

How is the scenography a TV born, how does the process develop?
Work is best when the process is long enough and a team is formed that works together all the time: scenario writer, director, scenographer and costume designer. We all translate the summary into the space. The director has to know precisely the points from which he’ll show something, from which the scenographer designs the entire scene, from an overall view to the closest shot.
With one time shows I have a lot of manoeuvring space. Otherwise scenes go in and out of the studios daily, sometimes through the night. So they have to be designed to satisfy the mobility requirements. The solutions lie in specially designed constructions, height limits, wheels and more. There’s always too little time so assembly and dismantling should be simple. When designing a scene I have to know an actor’s ways, where people are placed, who’s exposed, where the cameras are.

MP: How do you design a scene such that viewers enjoy a full show-experience at home on their TV?
GG: First of all I’m often working on the whole space using optical illusions. When the space gets a form I start to raster it, plot it on a grid. My approach to each new scenography is unique. I have to divide the skin into smaller, tightly-spaced grids, otherwise the close-up plans will be empty. There should be something to see at all camera angles. That’s why I’m reducing rasters regarding the cadres. I like using three-dimensional rasters to achieve a sense of depth, and a playground for shadows. Finally I add colours to balance the existing space. It’s very important that a scenographer understand the translation of real images to the picture on a monitor.
Scenes are made in our workshops. This is an indispensable part of the process, it’s a special craft. The dimensions, materials and details applied in scenography are not those from the real world. When a new scene is coming on to the set, the assembly room is usually completely full of huge elements. Once the show is over, pieces of the scene are falling apart. Initially this was very painful to me – even now it’s a shame to see these creations broken down.

MP: Your scenography is extravagant, fanciful, colourful, and varied in range. How do you manage to succeed in keeping things new, innovative, interesting?
GG: If I had to decide on my profession all over again I’d still choose scenography. I live for it and it gives me what I need. I tried doing scenography for the theatre, where there are no cameras, and in film, where the environment has to be highly realistic. But the biggest challenge for me is television stenography, as it allows me to create my own abstract fairy tale. It also has the special charm of the translation from real space onto a monitor. Working with new materials, with which I have little experience of can predict how they’ll come out on the monitor is, for me, a real adrenalin bomb.
Author: Mattea Panterr, with TV scenographer Greta Godnič
Photos: courtesy RTV Slovenija

The voice of functional design sobriety and classic innovation in the face of voracious investors and ever-shifting standards.

MK Post-socialist and post-conflict transformation in Serbian society take place in parallel. How do these schizophrenic political atmospheres reflect on architectural practice, the built environment and new visual identity?
DM&JM The problem of the architecture practice here is the short historical memory which results in the impossibility of learning from our own experiences and mistakes. The long process of transition has created an environment that sends very different and, more often than not, contradictory signals.
The effect of attacking the façade (with extensions) and public surfaces (with kiosks and makeshift structures) gained impetus during the 90s. Flat rooftops, attics, parks and squares became fertile ground for occupation by aesthetically unacceptable structures built with or without a license – but definitely outside the boundaries of appropriate standards and regulations.
A special and complex phenomenon is the explosion of the urban fabric, the uncontrolled and uncoordinated “spilling over” of the city without an appropriate infrastructural base, which is consequentially reflected in an inadequate traffic network, underdeveloped public transport, lack of connection between some parts of the city due to a lack of bridges and a non-harmonized system of buildings.

In the architectural development of this region, the discontinuity of ideas, trends and movements play a crucial role. What is the outcome of such an up-and-down situation?
Our architecture practice lags behind contemporary global events thanks to the rigidity of the bureaucratic system. It’s exactly this discontinuity of construction and design habits that make us engage in projects that are inappropriate, megalomaniac, out of any space and time context.
Our view of the transformation, which has new modernism as its aesthetic output, is the realization of unpretentious and fine architecture – even with modest means.

Your residential project at Dedinje (Belgrade) represents something of a new way of collective housing. How do the users interact with these sophisticated concepts? And what are the new standards today?
Designing and building this house was something of a pioneering project. The structure is comprised of five units, three of them typical, together with a rooftop terrace unit and one a penthouse. The luxury of this space was achieved in volume, with quality lighting and very contemporary technical solutions. The structure was built without expensive and unnecessary materials, almost in the manner of classic building practices. The users here are largely foreigners, who bring to it their own standards and lend a new quality to living in this space.

The reconstruction of the JDP (The Yugoslav Drama Theatre) demonstrates the increasing role of new media both in the anatomy of a building and its presentation. How did you manage to strike a balance between the monumental character of the previous building and the needs of new technologies?
The Drama Theatre project was developed together with the architect Zoran Radojčić. We placed special emphasis on the façade and technological and functional modernization. Conservation of the historical aspect by interpreting the wall as something constant and unchangeable confronts the contemporary aspect through applications that announce theatre performances and which are also part of the façade, but a changeable, mobile, temporary part.
The main starting point in designing the theatre auditorium was an emphasis on good visibility and acoustics. In the interior of the object the expression is reduced, with no decoration; instead the technical and technological components were stressed. Such an approach invokes the view that the entire complex mechanism of the theatre is an intricacy of complex technologies.

The transformation of professional organizations illustrates the efforts of architects and urban planners in the decision-making process. How we can defend the profession from the over-scaled appetites of investors and create a safe and professional environment?
We see a special role in the promotion of new spatial values by a branch organization such as urban ecology. A strategy of activism should come to the fore, instead of a passive protectionism through documents, and not through a method of limitation, but via the stimulation of good projects.
Author: Miodrag Kuč, with architects Dejan Miljković & Jovan Mitrović, Belgrade
Photos: Miljković Mitrović Architects

Dekleva Gregorič architects: bringing an innovative, human approach to urbanism, industry and product design – and introducing a little physical poetry in the process.

HS You have a number of projects on the table these days, each quite different from the next. What is your office particularly focused on at the moment? And what are some of the issues at work in these projects?
DGA We’re just finishing with an industrial facility in Slovenia, which consists of an immense production plateau and two small buildings on the edge of it. In contrast to the very rough production that goes on at the site – the company collects and recycles waste metals – we’ve embedded some abstract or one might say “poetic” content in the project. The two buildings are of the same volume, but materially very different: one is made entirely out of concrete, housing all services and a workshop. The other is all steel – from structure to cladding – containing offices which overlook the plant and materially establish a dialogue with the main materials employed. This way the two buildings and the plateau speak about the context of the industrial plant and, alongside the functional, also contain emotional value.
We’re also in the final stage of a house on Maui, which is fully integrated into the magnificent landscape there. And alongside urbanism and architecture, which constitute our main area of operations, we’ve recently branched out into product design: we’ve designed a door handle prototype for the renowned German manufacturer FSB.

HS Is there something in your thinking, approach, or execution you see as distinct or distinguishing you from other offices? Is it related in some way, more specifically, to your use of materials, sense of space or issues related to context?
DGA What might distinguish us is difficult to say. During our studies in Ljubljana and later, at the Architectural Association in London, we developed a particularly critical way of thinking in relation both to what we see around us and towards our own work as well. Our architecture always relates closely to its context, where context is understood as site, program, social structure, budget and other factors. A conceptual approach to the structuring of space, expressing some “nature” of the materials used and an all-round focus on users might best summarize what we’re about.

HS How do you keep or make projects seem strong, innovative, fresh, and in some way, beyond what we already know or are used to in the built environment around us?
DGA Questioning your own work is one way of moving towards new, interesting results, while at the same time retaining certain values or interests – like social relations, context, structuring space, use of materials – is important and necessary for coherent architectural production.
Another way of learning is through research of the architectural heritage: occasionally we’re involved in creating exhibitions about the modern period in Slovenian architecture, where the 60s and 70s represent one of the most architecturally coherent eras here.
Further, we often try to experiment on architectural concepts or on the use/treatment of different materials for our own use. This way we gain valuable feedback from these try-out solutions that may eventually end up in projects for our clients.

HS What is it in your two most recent projects – the transformation of the Tobačna industrial complex in Ljubljana, and the University Campus Livade in Izola, on the Slovenian coast – that makes them somehow, special, stand out from the other proposals?
DGA Both of these competitions we’ve recently won were programmatically complex and had very distinctive contexts. We think we’ve managed to create seemingly simple urban schemes capable of logically regulating the programme throughout the site, and which create a dialogue with the existing structures both within and beyond the site limits.
We also paid a great deal of attention to the structuring of the outdoor space. In both proposals there’s a gradient of privacy of outdoor areas, ranging from open, public event-spaces over smaller, enclosed squares in Tobačna, and the semi-private gardens at the campus, to private rooftop gardens and enclosed faculty atriums. It was interesting – and important – to learn from Barcelona’s city structure, with its “Plazas-Paseos-Patios”.

HS Working to be noticed, to be outspoken, to fascinate, is characteristic of our post-modern era – sometimes, unfortunately, at the price of the architecture. Tina (Gregorič) has been quoted as saying it’s obvious the social aspect is one of the main forces driving your projects. Are you working on the premise that architecture is made primarily for the user?
DGA Certainly. Just as human existence in general is based primarily on social interaction, architecture wouldn’t have any sense without users relating to it. Even if we took into consideration only the artistic values inherent in architecture it’s impossible to avoid a certain existential dependency on social engagement: what’s the point of creating a piece of art if no one ever gets the message or forms any relation to it?

HS Your use of materials such as bent steel, concrete walls, fibre-cement plates, and terrazzo among others is immediately apparent and particularly effective. What are you trying to say or do with these materials and the way you employ them?
DGA Architecture, besides being visual, is also a highly tactile product, so we try to be true to the materials we use. The beauty of the material is in its natural properties and these properties play an important role in creating the space. For us, a wooden floor also means you can lie naked on the floor feel the structure and temperature of the wood on your skin – you should even be able to smell the oil the wood was treated with.
HS I assume this extends to the private house in Maui?
DGA The Maui clients will enjoy both an outstanding view and feeling – and smelling – the IPE wood, whether they’re lying on their roof or sitting in the living room.
HS And your design objects, the door handle and the table?
DG The steel dining table we’ve recently designed will probably have to be powder coated – but someone, maybe us, might even prefer it rusty. Materials and treatments are as individual and specific as the solutions they’re part of. We don’t change our approach to design when we shift from a building to a product. The stitching on the leather door handle and the fixtures on the façade of an apartment block are equally important – and compelling.
Author: Alexandra Parker, with Aljoša Dekleva and Tina Gregorič; Dekleva Gregorič arhitekti, Ljubljana
Project photos: Matevž Paternoster
Graphics & portrait: Dekleva Gregoric arhitekti

Nika Zupanc is a Slovenian communicative product designer with a special touch for emotional extravaganza. As an independent designer she’s a regular member of various product design projects throughout Europe. She works and dreams in Ljubljana.

MP: You’ve just returned from Milan’s celebrated Salone Satellite, incubator of young designers, the starting point of many now successful designs. You were there showing your latest design project, the Maid Chair. What did Milan do for you?
NZ: At Salone I introduced the Maid chair, the feather dusters and a beauty table, all as part of my new collection. This year my primary focus was getting exposure for the Maid chair, because the concept for it was actually first introduced at a Pecha Kucha night in Udine (Italy), and it was there it first caught the attention of Italian producers. Finally they saw a prototype of the chair in Milan, where it was well receive. I also made some important contacts which I hope will develop into something more serious. But there was huge interest in the entire collection, both from the press and – interestingly – the fashion industry.

MP: Other than Milan’s Fiera del mobile you have a lot of exhibitions behind you; which have proved of real value in your work?
NZ: Showing and sharing ideas and experiences, media coverage, new contacts and a deeper understanding of the workings of the design world are some of the things you can get out of the exhibitions. For me the most important exhibitions were 100%design London, Designersblock Ljubljana and Young Design Talent Show Hong Kong. Milan is the biggest centre for product design: I exhibited there at Salone Satellite last year and decided to do it again. It’s important to get positive confirmation of your work.

MP: In some way your designs have a very artistic quality; on the other hand, you’re a product designer who wants to bring design to consumers? Is it this that makes your designs somehow special; different?
NZ: There’s always a story in my designs. You could say my designs are very personal objects; then again they’re also very personal for a wider audience. But I working to go beyond the “form follows function” formula. I’ve extended the concept of “function” into “emotional ergonomics”. It’s about the reaction of a man to an object. It’s much more than pre-determined function – it’s about seduction. I’m convinced that good products from successful companies are the result of two things: emotional ergonomics and technology. And that’s where I see a place, a niche, for my design.

MP: What are some of the stories behind your objects?
NZ: I always offer objects packaged with intriguing stories. I work closely with Igor Medjugorac –he’s guilty for the excellent texts which usually accompany my work. My design journey began with the simple idea of reinterpreting a doll that belonged to my grandmother. That’s how I ended up with a collection of identical plastic dolls which are both high-tech and high-touch in terms of what they have to say and what they express. I tried to put the statement “meaning determines use” into three dimensions. This work, however, was not just about reinterpretation; my work began as a critique on the current state of furniture design. With the collection of dolls, I felt I was questioning the emotive ergonomics behind all functional objects and furniture.
I was asking myself if we buy something because it’s functional, or simply because we like it on some emotional level? By changing the material (the cradles and footstools are made of laser-cut acrylic plates) and adding the various statements and expressions that come from the works themselves, I transformed a traditional, conservative object – which functions as an icon with its encoded interpretation – into something that exists in the contemporary sphere.
The doll, the cradle and the footstool now embody symbolic properties that are quite contrary to the established ones. The name for the whole collection – including this year’s Maid chair, Unfaithful table and Feather Duster – is in French, as I was aiming to bring some sex and intrigue to ordinary and marginal objects. Since French is the cliché language of love and seduction I see it as a kind of frivolous, tender background, against which I can provocatively juxtapose metaphors and meanings, and introduce another dimension to the collection.

MP: Plastic is hardly a new material on the design/manufacturing market, yet industry in Slovenia is not particularly developed in this area. How do you manage to realize your ideas?
NZ: Plastic is my favourite material. All of my designs are fashioned out of this fascinating material. I’m both intrigued with and inspired by the different technologies and uses this special material offers. At this point, acrylic is the only material I can work with to create the prototypes, due to certain technological obstacles and costs. It can be cut with laser and glued together. The dolls and feather dusters, however, are made from polycarbonate, and could not have been realized without the generous support of the Gorenje company, where it was necessary to make a mould and which is always difficult and expensive.

MP: So where are you now, this moment, in terms of the production and distribution of your designs? Where and when can people get hold your designs?
NZ: Some of the objects from my collection can be bought directly through me, as part of a limited edition collection; the others exist only as a prototypes, looking for a producer. It takes a lot of investment to give birth to a new object. And designs need tests, publicity, sales networks. But what I really want to do is design – I don’t want to pour too much energy into doing my own production and distribution. Right now I’m in the process of making an agreement with a top-end Italian furniture company for production of the Maid chair. The Maid Chair requires very expensive technology, so the producer wants to be sure it will sell. But good companies usually work with names, and it’s very hard to get close. It’s a game of power in which they decide whether to invite you in. But it’s not enough to be good, I think a bit of luck can help tip the scales.
Good press helps too. It’s easier now that industry has heard about me, maybe met me, and seen my designs – that way they start to get a picture of me. As in all fields, this world has its own rules. And my designs lend themselves well to media, where they like to give them tags like “punk elegance” and “techno chic”. Which works for me.

Author: Mattea Panterr, with designer Nika Zupanc
Photo portrait: Tomaž Gregorič
Stroller image: Desdemona Varon
Maid Chair, Beauty Table, Feather Duster: Jernej Prelac
Maid chair in the garden: Tomaz Gregorič
Other photos: courtesy Nika Zupanc
more: www.nika-zupanc.net

Designer Silvio Vujičić, exploring and creating luciously, sublimely subversive clothing for discerning eyes – and bodies.

It’s been a couple of years now since Silvio Vujičić (b. 1978), then a young student at Zagreb’s Faculty of Textile Technology and the Academy of Fine Arts, was touted in the media as one of the most promising Croatian fashion designers. Models cut out of auxiliary, marginal tailoring materials like non-woven interlining or tailoring paper, seriously explored the national ethnic heritage; and, bizarrely enough, in a shift of perception, ended up achieving something of a Japanese-like character. He publicly scorned fashion shows and the fashion industry: in a 2002 show for the opening of the ‘Here Tomorrow’ exhibition, clothes tailored from coloured crepe paper literally fell apart after being on the models a mere 20 minutes.
The exhibition that brought him the Rector’s Prize in 2003 was held in the white void of a gallery, and its inaccessibility was painful for every honest consumer there: irresistible clothes perforated with threatening pins chained to the stands in the bleak white of a fictitious store. Later, the project “Exposed to virus and fashion”, among the laureates of last year’s Zagreb Salon, consisted of a collection cut from material that had deliberately been infected by a virus in the production process. The items – with woven barcode motifs and left to the destructive impulses of the machine – were worn by porn actors who, as objects of lust, are more or less constantly exposed to the threat of the near-fashionable AIDS virus.
In spite of the wide range of subversive and ambivalent strategies that are Silvio’s fashion activism – interwoven with a strong sense of artistic autonomy – his clothes surprise with their friendly relationship with your body. Forget terms like ‘comfortable’, ‘wearable’ or ‘practical’; but it is important that Silvio’s clothes, rich with near-anarchistic humour, are conceived and produced in a highly responsible and intelligent way. You won’t go unnoticed in these clothes, but nor will they steal any of your precious time.

JJ It seems your fashion expeditions, leading to a testing of the limits of various materials – threads, fabrics, prints, embroidery materials – are an excuse to explore the interaction between material and the human environment. What materials are you exploring at the moment?
SV At the moment researching new prints, silicones and crystals (on the market), working to invent new materials and later, the forms. I’m very much into chemistry lately, waiting for some new chemical reaction to take place.

JJ When we think of the project “Exposed to virus and fashion” you cooperated with ex-giants of the garment and footwear industry, such as TZK and Borovo. Having had that experience, will you continue cooperating with garment and footwear factories in your explorations?
SV I honestly don’t know. I’m not sure those Croatian ‘giants’ are really willing to explore. What they produce are established products that have been on the market for the last 50 years. Innovations appear interesting for most of them, but they rarely decide to produce them. Even if they do, the market remains too small because they don’t want to invest in the marketing. (I could also mention the general lack of taste – based on ignorance – which seems to prevail in this country.) Because of my experiences, I started my own production. At least I’m no longer a freak for people in industry, and I’m not setting impossible tasks for them either. I just do all the ‘impossible’ things by myself or with the help of collaborators.

JJ Even if it is hard to categorise or label you professionally, your work is unquestionably attractive and very accepted (and thus somehow slotted) by the media. But might you not become fed up with that label?
SV People tend to label others, then they think they know how to position you and it’s easier for them to use your name. It’s like computers: you open the folders and you put those documents in you find similar. Then the problem appears: how to put the same documents in more folders? Usually people chose one folder, the one which appears the most in the media.
It’s the fashion that’s highly attractive for people who don’t know better. I assume it’s because people like to examine other people, especially if those people are beautiful and half-naked – and that idea of fashion is created precisely by the media.
For those with brains, fashion is more than fun.

JJ You have a well-respected costume design opus, you’ve worked with big national theatres and independent groups. What type of collaboration feels good at the moment?
SV It’s easier to work with independent groups, you don’t have to make so many compromises. Working in national theatres can be interesting at the outset, but soon you have to fight to bring your ideas to realisation. I’ve never been satisfied with costume designs made for national theatres – they were all compromises. It probably has something to do with the directors, and the difficulty of materialising ideas. I think, however, their biggest problem is production, which is, unfortunately, lost somewhere in the Middle Ages – not unlike a lot of other things here.
Author: Jasna Jaksic, with designer Silvio Vujičić
Photos: Špela Kasal

Advertising’s Avanta-Lowe CEO Maja Hawlina on her impassioned – and passionate – work with the socially-engaged Poper studio; and the importance of being creatively earnest.

I walk on slippery ground. Advertising is my starting point; at the same time, I’m interested in topics which speak – as Andrej Blatnik once nicely put it – of live wounds and life nectar. These range from the nonsense and banality of everyday life to the problems of marginalised groups and endangered species; from ignorance and empty knowledge to social inequality and omnipresent violence. Yet I’m equally intrigued by the other face of this world, with all of its outbursts of imagination, beauty, humour and happiness. In my work I try to give an account of things I personally find important, which I believe to be important for society; of those who have touched me, insulted me or made me happy.

At the Poper studio, co-founded together with Oliver Vodeb (founder of Memefest), we try to attract and sensitize various groups to reflect anew – and perhaps enhance our understanding of what’s happening to us or what we cause to happen around us – by presenting communication stories in a fresh, emotional, ironic or humorous, yet conceptually-sound and contemporary manner. In a flood of noise and stimuli and, most of all, high-budget advertising messages in both the media and the ever more capital-driven public space, it’s important to know where and how to talk to the people we wish to reach.

We don’t try to substitute facts or blur reality through imaginative, creative approaches. On the contrary, we work to implement and emphasize reality, yet communicate in a multi-layered fashion, addressing people’s needs, desires, dreams, fears, experience, prejudice or indifference.
Communication can only be stimulating and encouraging if instead of answers we offer questions and allow room for others to seek and formulate answers for themselves. At the Poper studio we like to support and work on cultural, social and contemporary marketing projects which enable us to pursue the principles of active research and learning; of openness, participation, inclusiveness, dialogue, generosity, and good will. More and more frequently these types of projects are finding their way to us; if, however, we recognise an existing need in society we’ll go out and challenge it on our own initiative.

Gypsy Boy
Here we looking to raise awareness on the Roma issue, in response to the Slovenian government’s unfortunate decision – giving way to intolerant locals – to separate Roma children from the other schoolchildren at a primary school in Bršljin (Slovenia). This is far from a simple issue; and dealing with a growing general intolerance is not, from a theoretical perspective, simple either.
In an attempt to approach the issue as both concerned citizens and communication professionals, we examined the history of our national-collective and personal attitudes towards them, and decided to play on an old Slovenian saying. The expression “If you don’t behave, we’ll give you to the Gypsies” expresses our deeply-rooted anxiety and antagonism toward the Roma. By turning it around – “If you don’t behave, we’ll give you to the Slovenians”, we revealed an internal racist, discriminatory logic of which we’re no longer even aware.
This intolerance was, unfortunately, confirmed in the public’s reaction to the billboards posted around Slovenia. Some expressed support for the emotionally-charged approach, while others (particularly the Slovene National Party, which even took civil action against the authors for offending national sensibilities and instigating intolerance towards the Slovenes) felt offended and under attack.

Anti-Terminal Silly Cup Collection
Silly is an ironic derivative of the Illy coffee brand. It’s a conceptually focussed social campaign which was used to expose an environmentally controversial and potentially dangerous project for the construction of a gas terminal in the Bay of Trieste, and to expose the involvement of Ricardo Illy, one of the principal leaders of the project. Ricardo Illy is a member of the board of directors of the renowned Illy Café Corporation, which cultivates as part of its corporate culture the public image of an environmentally sound commercial entity.
This seemed a classic example of a gross mismatch of public corporate image and the actual facts, and calls into question both their expertise and their ethics. This is becoming increasingly pervasive in the corporate world and we decided not to leave it unnoticed nor unpunished. Poper designed a concept and invited six Slovenian artists to join the project, who were happy to contribute their symbolic coffee cup motifs (coffee cups are a commonly used design-communication medium at Illy). The cup collection is part of a wider campaign which circles the virtual globe in the form of a web blog and generates interactive debate. The integral concept of this initiative, together with the cups, was shown at the City Museum of Ljubljana, and the cups are on sale at the museum shop. All profits go toward similar socially-responsible campaigns.

Street Poetry
Street poetry sets a model of communication within a culture which doesn’t operate within the narrow, profit-making market logic, but rather functions in accordance with the principles of a “gift economy” – the idea of enrichment, generosity, exchange, designer cooperation and dissemination. Thoughtful quotes on pedestrian crossings turn streets into temporary stages – they become urban areas centred on inscriptions. The quotes offer personal, poetic and socially-relevant messages – an experience of potential enrichment, awakening and amusement.
Lines were borrowed from well-known authors and conceptually sited in physical and spiritual space; powerful, universal thoughts referring to the historical place and mission of the City Museum of Ljubljana. In front of the Railway Station we read Marx’s “Revolutions are the locomotives of history”, while in front of the courts we find Shakespeare’s “Time is an old magistrate”. Such notions are no longer ‘closed away’ in books, but have begun to circulate in a different space. Though they function as complete wholes, they remain open for further autonomous interventions and encourage participation: anyone is free to change them or write a response without “destroying” the work of art. This is a contemporary approach to art which functions as an “open-ended” and “communal”, public artistic product, one that encourages cooperation and reflection, and arouses a curiosity to discover art and culture.

Author: Maja Hawlina
Photos: courtesy Poper Studio

43° 15′ N 17° 54′ E
The footprints lead only to the waterline,
But after entering the sea there are no traces, no impressions. [Rumi]

Maybe it’s all just a matter of scale. You can sense more God in the scarcely-lit rooms of Luis Baragan’s house than in the five separate naves of Mexico city’s Cathedral combined. Such places, however, you will certainly not find listed in the current nominations for the New 7 Wonders of the World.

Blagaj is a small town just 20 km from Mostar, Bosnia. Just as in a fairytale, at the end of the road you will reach a river spring under a huge rock. Which reveals a beautiful dervish tekke.
The Tekija (Tekke) was built in the 16th century during the reign of Mostar Mufti Ziyauddin-Ahmed ibni Mustafa. Over the past centuries, many stones have fallen from the 200m cliff (incredibly, hurting no one) and many conquerors have passed through, leaving it, on its sacred site, essentially untouched. Thinking of the day when the founder of the Tekke first saw this place, I wonder if he was thrilled the same way we are today, with the silent power of tons of rock rising above a never-ending, timeless flow of green, ice-cold water? The ancient dervish may have known the road ends there, but in fact the way merely begins.
At the entrance to the complex is a tiny kitchen. Tea and coffee are served, nobody complains. The setting is perfect: colourful, low-pixeled patterns of Bosnian kilims remind me of 80’s arcade computer games like Space Invaders and Scramble. Shedding your shoes you’re free to explore the entire house. Upstairs are rooms where the former occupants held meetings, as well as spaces for various religious rites. The Dervish order of this particular Tekke is called Halveti(s) (halvet arab.– to be isolated, to live in solitary).

The most impressive part of the Tekke is a room with a star-like perforated dome. Here a dervish is expected to stay for 40 days in total isolation from the outside world, devoted exclusively to prayer and contemplation. The dervish concept of living religion is inaccurately described as a form of mysticism. Somehow it seems natural they’re not a loud people drawing attention to themselves; and it’s difficult to meet real dervish. “Oh, yes, there are dervishes, but you have to find them” smiles the young, short-bearded guy secretly while pouring me tea.

Except for a very few visitors, the entire building is – perhaps predictably – empty. And in that moment of my own isolation – which lasts for but a minute or two, I let the atmosphere simply wash over me; I looked at the shadows cast by the wooden window grids, I listen to the distant gurgle of the river, took in the familiar musk scent of the incense; and I imagine Halvetis swaying easily in some kind of trance, whispering monotonously “Hu, Hu, Hu…”.
And I realise – again – one needn’t be religious for such a place to evoke in us a very primal sense of self-awareness; a place far from the shamelessly packaged spiritualism of contemporary life – at the end of the road, by a river.
Author: Emir Jelkič
Photos: Simon Plestenjak

From the end of June an exhibition of the nominees for Month of Design awards »Zvezde« (»Stars«) is being held on Migetalkar (urban architectural display unit) in the centre of Ljubljana (near Figovec restaurant). The nominees are competing in 3 categories for the titles of Designer of the Year, Interior of the Year and Fashion Contrast of the Year. The visitors are invited to vote for their favorites and help choose the winners. The exhibition will be on display until 4th September, when the voting concludes. Voting is also possible on website www.monthofdesign.com
Check Migetalkar location on google map here.
Photo: Matevž Paternoster (more…)

The taste of pršut and cheese is further complemented by Zelén wine. Back in 1844, Matija Vertovec wrote in the Viticulture for Slovenes that Zelén had an “exceptional vintage spirit.” Vertovec also wrote, “We are not sure if it is known elsewhere…” We know today that this aromatic wine, straw yellow in colour with shades of green is an authentic wine of the Vipava Valley, and thus an authentic – and compelling – Slovene wine. (more…)

One of the greatest curiosities among the tastes of Slovenia’s Vipava Valley is the dried ham known as vipavski pršut, which is quite different from the one we fi nd in the neighbouring Slovene Karst region.
Here they use only meat produced in Slovenia. Another of its particularities is a longer period of maturation; Vipavski pršut is dried by the bora wind, leaving the meat softer and sweeter.
Producer: MIP Nova Gorica
Author: dr. Janez Bogataj
Illustration: Vasja Lebarič

Put all syrup ingredients into a pot, add pears and boil it up. Cook for 5 minutes and then leave it to cool down.
Grate Nanos cheese, add cream and almonds, and mix it all together.
Cut pears into thin slices. Sprinkle the fi lling over a slice, cover it with another slice, and repeat the procedure twice more. Then cover them and store in a cool place.

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