Forum Ljubljana

Rooted in the alternative culture of the 1980s and a successor to the ŠKD Forum (active at the end of the 60s), Forum Ljubljana formally became a non-governmental cultural institution for artistic and cultural production in 1994.

The production company covers various forms of contemporary art, multimedia and new media and consists of several sections, including the multimedia art group Strip Core, known best as the publisher of Stripburger comic magazine (and, of recently, as the organiser of the Lighting Guerrilla Festival). Forum Ljubljana has produced several new media projects, among them being the Nebo Puppet Theatre, which links comics producers, puppeteers and new technologies. Its film production unit that initially produced art video films, has produced a line of awarded long-feature films.

Comics and multimedia projects

The foremost focus of the multimedia art group Strip Core lies in comic arts. It runs a twofold publishing programme, the main part of it being the multilingual Stripburger magazine that runs an eclectic, international selection of shorter comic works, showcased alongside interviews and articles. The other part are singular works from both Slovenian as well as foreign comic book authors.

Strip Core is also very active in organising workshops, lectures, and exhibitions as a means of promoting and holistically treating comic culture. Since 2008, their focus on visual arts is annually expanded by the Lighting Guerrilla Festival, a festival that navigates around the relations between light, the public and the gallery space.

Film production

Along the publishing of comics, another thriving aspect of Forum Ljubljana is its film production section. After producing several videos and multimedia installations (primarily by the multimedia artist Ema Kugler) and some animation (Let'ssss Go, 2002, directed by Kolja Saksida), Forum Ljubljana produced the full-length feature film The Suburbs [Predmestje] (2003) by Vinko Möderndorfer, a social drama about the rise of xenophobia and nationalism. The film was funded by the Slovene Film Fund and Viba Film Studio and co-produced by Vertigo/Emotionfilm, Radio-Television Slovenia (RTV Slovenia) and Video Production Kregar Studio (VPK Studio).

In 2007 Forum Ljubljana produced a new feature-length film, Landscape no. 2 [Pokrajina št. 2], again directed by Möderndorfer. The film about the haunting relics of World War II was funded by the Slovene Film Fund and Serbian Film Centre and co-produced by VPK Studio, RTV Slovenia and Delirium Film (RS). The film was the Slovene candidate for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and was shown at film festivals throughout the world (Pula Film Festival, Brooklyn International Film Festival, Copenhagen International Film Festival, Philadelphia Film Festival, and many others).

Together with Mainframe Production (HR) and Delirium films, in 2011 Forum Ljubljana co-produced Parada, a comedy-drama by Serbian director Srdjan Dragojević. Another international venture followed in 2014 with Kosac (The Reaper), directed by Zvonimir Jurić. Both films were widely circulated and awarded.

External links

Gallery

Anchovies over Ljubljanica river by French collective Aerosculpture, Lighting Guerrilla Festival, 2008

The Laboratory of Water Glass and Light by Aleksandra Stratimirović Daggfeldt, Lighting Guerrilla Festival, 2008

Symbionts by French visual artist Bernard Murigneux at Metelkova mesto Autonomous Cultural Zone, Lighting Guerrilla Festival, 2010

Trap for readers by Marko Crnobrnja, Lighting Guerrilla Festival, 2010

Garland of 9 cars by French space designer Benedetto Bufalino, Lighting Guerrilla Festival, 2011

A Place under the Sun by students of the Chair of Textile and Fashion Design at the Department of Textiles of the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering, Lighting Guerrilla Festival, 2011