View source for KUD Mreža Arts and Culture Association

{{Article
| status       = PHOTO 
| maintainer   = Anže Zorman
}}

{{Infobox
| name                = KUD Mreža Arts and Culture Association
| localname           = Kulturno umetniško društvo Mreža
| street              = Masarykova 24
| town                = SI-1000 Ljubljana
| telephone           = 386 (0) 1 434 0345
| fax                 = 386 (0) 1 432 3378
| website             = http://www.kudmreza.org/
| email               = 
| contacts = {{Contact
| name                = Nataša Serec
| role                = Head of the association
| email               = natasa.serec@gmail.com
}}
{{Contact
| name                = Jadranka Plut
| role                = Artistic Director of Alkatraz Gallery
| email               = jadranka.plut@gmail.com
}}
| accounts = 
http://www.facebook.com/kud.mreza
http://vimeo.com/kudmreza/videos/
https://twitter.com/kud_mreza
}}
 
{{Teaser|
Established in [[established::1997]] at [[Metelkova mesto Autonomous Cultural Zone|Metelkova mesto Autonomous Cultural Centre]], [[KUD Mreža Arts and Culture Association|KUD Mreža]] (''mreža'' meaning "network") carries out a rather wide range of cultural programmes, from running art galleries and promoting concerts, to mediating information on funding opportunities and managing an archive of press clippings and other materials regarding Metelkova mesto.

{{image|Alkatraz Gallery 2010 Exterior Photo Jasmina Klancar.jpg}}

}}

==Background==

Initially, KUD Mreža was primarily engaged in visual arts projects at Metelkova, yet it also functioned as a formal vehicle for various other initiatives that were active there. Its predecessor was, in a way, Mreža za Metelkovo (The Network for Metelkova), the collective that worked to establish this autonomous cultural centre. As such, KUD Mreža has been carrying out certain communal Metelkova functions since its founding.

In 2000, together with the [[Society for the Protection of Atheistic Feelings (DZAČ)]], KUD Mreža founded [[Klub Menza pri koritu|Menza pri koritu]], a very active Metelkova venue that hosts concerts, poetry evenings, theatre shows, workshops and many other events. As of 2015, the association ceased being actively involved there.

==Core projects==

KUD Mreža runs a couple of programmes for educating children and youth about the Metelkova cultural centre. In collaboration with schools from Ljubljana as well as from elsewhere, Mreža (sometimes in collaboration with other institutions, such as [[Bunker Institute]]) organises guided tours and visits to the many artist studios, clubs, galleries, urban art projects and even concerts at Metelkova. Various children's workshops regularly happen under its auspices. 

KUD Mreža also operates the [[Alkatraz Gallery]], where contemporary art exhibitions, performances and installations take place, and the adjacent [[Asylum Studio]], which hosts artists of different creative orientations (street art, dance, sculpturing, music, etc.) in its artist-in-residence project. Another KUD Mreža-run gallery is the unique [[Night Window Display Gallery Pešak]], which displays its artworks behind the windows of one of the Metelkova buildings. Consequently, the artworks can only be seen by way of a telescope set on a nearby tower.

Since 2000, KUD Mreža organises the [[International Feminist and Queer Festival Red Dawns]], bringing concerts, exhibitions, urban interventions, video projections and lectures to a number of Ljubljana venues. For a time, it organised the similarly diverse [[Personal&ndash;Collective Festival]], primarily oriented towards mingling improvised music, dance and visual arts. 

Numerous educational programmes were also organised by KUD Mreža, amongst them a very ambitious and extensive, EU-funded sound and lighting training programme.

===Music series FriForma and Metabonma===

The jazz and improvised music cycle Džez pri koritu, for many years held at [[Klub Menza pri koritu]], was in 2016 recast as the FriForma series. Still focusing on improvised music, FriForma takes place at many different venues, among them, the [[Vodnik Homestead]], the [[Pocket Teater Studio]], [[Kapelica Gallery]], the [[Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova (MSUM)]], [[Klub Gromka]] and even various churches. 

Some of its guests have been Seymour Wright, Daichi Yoshikawa, Rie Nakajima, CRAM records, Jean-Luc Guionnet and Lucio Capece. Before that, Džez pri koritu hosted artists in the vein of Marc Ribot, Tristan Honsinger, Martin Küchen, Keith Rowe, Seijiro Murayama, Kazutoki Umezu Kiki Band, Linda Sharrock, Good for Cows, Gutbucket, etc. 

This cycle is complemented by the Metabonma, a series for staging contemporary composed music and classical music. Featuring the likes of Bruce Hamilton, [[Mak Grgić]], [[Oskar Laznik]], [[Marko Hatlak]] and [[Drumartica]], the series takes place exclusively at Metelkova, where such music is only rarely heard.  

===Urban art projects===

Since 2003, KUD MReža has been leading a programme called Urban Art Projects (Urbani likovni projekti), alternatively also called Gesamtkunstwerk Metelkova mesto. Devoted to renovations and artistic augmentations of public spaces at Metelkova, this programme is responsible for more than a hundred projects, from smaller interventions with semi-permanent installations to bigger ones, such as parks and the aforementioned [[Night Window Display Gallery Pešak]].

==Other international projects==

In 2013, KUD Mreža became part of the international research project called "The Future of Work" and led the consortium (featuring Projekthaus Potsdam-Babelsberg and Zaaigrond filmproductions) that secured financing by the European Cultural Fund (ECF). [[The Future of Work]] is a 4-episode web-documentary by Abel Heijkamp (NL) and Julij Borštnik (SI), who documented their research into contemporary labour conditions in the Netherlands, Slovenia, Germany and Europe in general. 

KUD Mreža also participated in Trans Europe Halles (TEH), a European Network of Independent Cultural Centres, with Metelkova hosting the TEH meeting in 2006. 

===Improcon Festival===

Coordinated by the Croatian association Gokul, two Austrian partners and the [[Klub Metulj]], Improcon was founded as a "congress of free improvised music, arts and thoughts" in 2014. Mostly taking place in the Croatian border town Kumrovec, this 4-day festival hosts dozens of artistic persuasions, and in 2016, KUD Mreža also entered into this endeavour.  
 
== See also ==

*[[Alkatraz Gallery]] 
*[[Asylum Studio]]
*[[Night Window Display Gallery Pešak]]
*[[International Feminist and Queer Festival Red Dawns]] 
*[[Vodnik Homestead]]
*[[Klub Menza pri koritu]] 
*[[Art Center Prosenjakovci]]
*[[Metelkova mesto Autonomous Cultural Zone]]

== External links ==

*[http://www.kudmreza.org/ KUD Mreža website] 
*[https://pesakpesak.wordpress.com/ The Gallery Pešak website]
*[http://thefutureofwork.eu/ The Future of Work website]
*[https://vimeo.com/friforma/ Video recordings of FriForma concerts]
*[http://improcongress.org/ ImproCon website]
*[https://www.facebook.com/improcon/ ImproCon on Facebook]

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[[Category:Exhibition organisers]]
[[Category:Festival organisers]]
[[Category:Event organisers]]
[[Category:Workshop organisers]]
[[Category:Residencies]]

[[Category:Visual arts residencies]]
[[Category:Visual arts]]

[[Category:Archives]]
[[Category:Specialised archives]]

[[Category:Visual arts exhibition organisers]]
[[Category:Music event organisers]]
[[Category:Music]]

[[Category:Theatre festival organisers]]

[[Category:Film event organisers]]
[[Category:Support services]]
[[Category:EU funding of Slovene organisations (Culture and MEDIA Programmes)]] 
[[Category:EU Culture funding recipient]]

[[Category:Updated 2017]]
[[Category:Updated 2020]]
[[Category:Archives & Libraries]]
[[Category:Jazz]]
[[Category:Film_festival_and_event_organisers]]
[[Category:Music_festival_and_event_organisers]]
[[Category:Funding,_professional_and_support_services]]
[[Category:Theatre_festival_and_event_organisers]]