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RUTA festival
updated 60 minutes in the future
The RUTA regional theatre festival, founded in 2019, connects six theatres from six countries of former Yugoslavia: Slovenia, Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, and Croatia. Its mission is to strengthen cultural ties across national borders and to create a space for artistic collaboration. In order to achieve this goal, the festival takes place in all six cities during the year, bringing to the public the plays from all the theatres involved. In Slovenia, the festival traditionally takes place in January and February and is organized by the Ljubljana City Theatre. The plays are accompanied by discussions with their creators. In addition, the festival also organizes the meetings of actors and production teams with the audience.
Moving Balkans Contemporary Dance Platform
updated 15 minutes in the future
Moving Balkans Contemporary Dance Platform, established in 2024, is a collaborative platform of dance professionals from across the Balkans. Its mission is to elevate contemporary dance in the Balkans region, to empower dance professionals and raise awareness of the vibrant and diverse Balkans dance scene. The platform organizes the annual Moving Balkans Showcase Festival. In the framework of the festival, it also organizes the Moving Balkans Dance Scape, a platform which enables choreographers and dance artists to pitch their current or future projects to an international audience of producers, presenters, and potential collaborators.
Ljubljana UNESCO City of Literature
updated 6 minutes in the future
In 2015, Ljubljana received the permanent title of UNESCO City of Literature. As such, the city is committed to promoting the sustainable development of literature and reading culture. Each year, Ljubljana hosts a diverse range of literary activities, including an open-air book fair in the city center and a great number of literary readings and discussions. In addition, Ljubljana City of Literature maintains a bilingual website offering information on events, literary spaces and numerous creators of its literary scene. Ljubljana is also part of the UNESCO City of Literature Writer in the Park residency program and invites international writers every year for a month-long creative residency. The city also organizes an annual comic artists’ residency in collaboration with Angoulême – a UNESCO City of Literature as well – and the French Institute. Ljubljana UNESCO City of Literature programmes are coordinated by Divja misel Institute in conjunction with the City of Ljubljana’s Department for Culture.
Celje UNESCO City of Literature
updated 26 minutes ago
In 2025, Celje received the permanent title of UNESCO City of Literature, being the second Slovenian city after Ljubljana to be included in the UNESCO’s City of Literature programme. With this title, Celje was recognized for its commitment to the promotion of literature and reading culture. Among the more important literary aspects of Celje, one can mention the annual Veronika Award for the best poetry collection, as well as the publishing house Mohor's Society that is based in the city. Celje was also the home of the famous traveller and writer Alma Karlin.
MENT Ljubljana
updated 3 hours ago
Established in 2015, MENT Ljubljana is an international music showcase festival taking place at various Ljubljana venues in February. It is comprised of a series of music acts (fresh artists joined by established head-liners), a conference programme dealing with the intricacies of music businesses, and additional events such as exhibitions or workshops on new art and media technologies. Moreover, MENT is a year-long project intended to help Slovene musicians and music professionals with promotion and networking. To this end, MENT enlists and accompanies them to other showcase festivals.
Typologies of Arts Residencies
updated 2 days ago
International artist-in-residence (AiR) programmes share many common features (we outlined the basic characteristics in the second article in this series), yet they can differ greatly from one another. Because they foreground different spheres of an artist's practice through a variety of approaches, they can be classified in several ways. For example, typologies may be based on the activities artists carry out during their residency, on the characteristics of the programmes or on the expectations of AiR organisers. Let us take a look at the types of AiR programmes that exist and the categories into which they can be placed, illustrated by a few examples from the Slovenian AiR landscape.
Mountain Film Festival
updated 2 days ago
Dedicated to exploring and presenting various facets of mountain culture, the Mountain Film Festival was established in 2007. Since then, it has been running a strong international programme that encompasses various films about mountain sports (mountaineering, mountain running, B.A.S.E jumping, etc.), different types of climbing (from bouldering to ice climbing), mountain wildlife, and the lives of Indigenous mountain dwellers, among other topics. Since its inception, the festival has been led by its founder, the legendary mountaineer Silvo Karo.
Over the years, the festival has grown to be comparable with the biggest and most relevant mountain film festivals worldwide. In 2010, the Mountain Film Festival became a member of the International Alliance for Mountain Film.
Greening Practices in Culture: Artist-in-Residence (AiR) Programmes in Slovenia
updated 3 days ago
Many artists and organisations from the cultural and creative sectors (CCS) have been reflecting on urgent environmental challenges with a particular sensitivity, confronting them in their artworks and activities or integrating greening practices into their day-to-day operations. You can read more about green festivals and other projects of Slovenian cultural organisations in our related Culture.si article. Perhaps you’ve discovered Slovenia as a potential destination for your artist-in-residence endeavours. Then you’ll be pleased to explore some of the green AiR programmes from which you can choose. Let’s have a look at a few!