Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia Belgrade

The Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia Belgrade officially opened in 2001, although the diplomatic relations between the Republic of Slovenia and Republic of Serbia were established in 2000. Other representative offices of the Republic of Slovenia also include Consulate of the Republic of Slovenia Novi Sad.

The embassy provides consular services and promotes bilateral political, economic, and cultural ties between the two former states of the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia.

Cultural cooperation

Bilateral cultural cooperation is based on the "Agreement on Cooperation in the Fields of Culture and Education", signed in 2001. This legal basis enables a platform for regular cooperation and cultural exchange between cultural and educational institutions, which is usually annually renewed with programmes of cultural cooperation between the two Ministries of Culture.

Literature and language

In March 2013 the embassy co-organised a poetry evening with Slovene poet and author Meta Kušar, awarded with the Rožanc Award. Te event promoted Kušar's latest poetry collection Ljubljana, which is her third collection translated into Serbian.

In 2020, Goran Vojnović talked to Miloš Jocić, presenting his novel The Fig Tree, featured on the Kaleidoscope platform on the occasion of the Night of Literature.

9 evropskih autora @ Noć književnosti / Kaleidoskop kulture 2020 by Novi Sad 2022 on YouTube

Embassy regularly updates news on the Slovenian language courses for foreigners held in Slovenia, conducted by the Centre for Slovene as a Second/Foreign Language. Ties have also been established between with the Lectureship of Slovenian Language at Belgrade's Faculty of Philology. Some Slovenian courses have been organised also in Serbia, for instance in Kostolac with a community of around 250 Slovenes.

Performing arts

In 2014 the exhibition A Hundred Years of the Slovenian Puppetry Art curated by Agata Freyer and Edi Majaron toured to Belgrade, Subotica and Novi Sad. It presented a selection of more than two hundred puppets designed by the most eminent Slovenian visual artists, the oldest exhibits being puppets by Milan Klemenčić from 1910.

In January 2015 the performance ABC oder Krieg, Quasi una Phantasia directed by Barbara Novakovič Kolenc and coproduced by the Prešern Theatre Kranj was presented at the Madlenianum Opera and Teatar in Zemun, Belgrade. It was based on the new drama piece written by Ivo Svetina that features the well-known 19th Century characters (France Prešeren, Matija Čop, Jernej Kopitar and Vuk Karadžić (Ivan Bekjarev as a host actor)) who played an important role in the development of the young nations' language and its script.

In 2020 a performance Sonny by Nataša Živković, produced by City of Women International Festival of Contemporary Arts was invited by the BeFem Feminist Cultural Centre in the framework of their Bring The Noize event in Belgrade.

Film

During the Days of Slovenian Documentary Film at the Museum of Yugoslav Cinematheque in Belgrade in November 2012, a homage to Jurij Gustinčič, Slovene journalist legend and a long-time foreign correspondent for Radio-Television Slovenia (RTV Slovenia) and Mladina, concluded the projections with a debate on media in Slovenia with the editors of Delo and Serbian journal Press. The event was co-organised by the Centre for Slovene as a Second/Foreign Language.

Dani Slovenačkog Filma 2019 I Trailer by Dani Slovenačkog Filma on YouTube

The latest film production is presented at the Yugoslav Cinematheque as annual editions of the Days of Slovenian Film, curated by the Slovenian Film Centre.

Beldocs Festival 2020 featured a retrospective of 15 documentary films by a highly intriguing Slovenian film maker Mako Sajko that was well covered by media.

Retrospective: Mako Sajko | Trailer | BELDOCS 2020 by BELDOCS - International Documentary Film Festival Belgrade on YouTube

Visual arts

In cooperation with the Celje Museum of Recent History, a photograph exhibition by Josip Pelikan (1885–1977) was presented at the Archive of Serbia in Belgrade November 2012.

In July 2020, Fotogank project presented 22 Slovenian photographers via screenings on the Knez Mihailova promenade facades in the very city centre of Belgrade.

In December 2020 the Museum of Yugoslavia hosts Alan Ford’s Lap of Honour, a guest exhibition originally prepared by the National Gallery of Slovenia and the Institute of Culture and Education and Glavan Antiquariat in Ljubljana. It marks 50 years of the Italian comic book named Alan Ford that with its satirical undertones had a cult status in the former Yugoslavia in the 1960s and 70s. According to itw writer Bunker, Alan Ford draws on an old art form called commedia dell’arte set in a Cold War situation.

Alan Ford trči počasni krug: Slovenska izložba u Beogradu by Al Jazeera Balkans on YouTube

Slovenian community in Serbia

According to the national census from 2002, around 5,000 Slovene nationals were living in the Republic of Serbia at that time. Various cultural events have been organised by Slovene associations, e.g. the Sava Slovenian Society of Belgrade, the France Prešeren Slovenian Cultural Community of Niš, etc. See the link to the list of all Slovenian minority cultural societies active in Serbia below.

External links