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Living (with) Theatre
UGM Kabinet, Strossmayerjeva ulica 6
14 September − 1 December 2019
opening: Saturday, 14 September 2019, 11:00

The present selection of works from the UGM Collection demonstrates the kinship between theatre and the visual arts in Maribor. Two centennial celebrations will take place this season—100 years of the Slovene National Theatre Maribor (SNG Maribor) and 100 years of formal art organisations in Maribor. During this century these two worlds often crossed paths. The selection reveals how theatre was perceived by visual artists from the outside, in what ways visual artists worked in theatre and how artists included theatre performers into their own work. The selected works span from early acquisitions in the UGM Collection, like Maks Kavčič’s painting Ballet Practice (1953), to Ema Kugler’s video Homo Erectus (2000) from our video art collection. Theatre is a motif in painting, printmaking, and sculpture. Visual artists design theatre sets, costumes, posters. Theatre actors are represented in portraits and perform in video works.

Our town lives with theatre. SNG Maribor is the largest public cultural institution in the country. The very best in Slovene annual theatre production is shown during the Maribor Theatre Festival, now 54 years running. The Maribor Puppet Theatre has been educating and captivating young theatre audiences for over 45 years. Organisations like Moment and GT22 with its Intimate Stage as well as festivals like Performa & Platforma and Drugajanje produce and showcase fresh independent theatre performances. Secondary school stages regularly mould the nation’s best future actors, directors, and playwrights.

Among them are also Nina Rajić Kranjac and Petja Labović. They live theatre as theatre professionals and as companions. Nina is a director, Petja an actor. We invited them to explore the works from our collection that are related to the world of theatre. Together with curator Jure Kirbiš they composed the present selection of the most interesting artworks, sketches, and documents. Additionally, we also challenged them to tackle a different role and write a short text about an artwork which interested, astonished, or inspired them.

KINDLY INVITED!