ABOUT
International artist-in-residency program GuestRoomMaribor was established in 2011 by Pekarna Magdalenske mreže (PMM) – Organisation for support of civil initiatives and intercultural collaboration in Maribor, Slovenia. PMM is established as a creative and emancipatory physical and mental space used for production, promotion, and informal education in the fields of art, culture, youth work, civil society and active citizenship.
The organization’s activity is defined by the conceptual field of informal culture, subculture, deinstitutionalized culture, counter-culture, independent culture, and urban culture, as well as social movements. In the context of contemporary art practices, PMM represents an important generator of non-institutional and independent art practices; it encourages socially engaged art, hybrid, and experimental artistic expressions and approaches.
The agenda of GuestRoomMaribor - the only residency program in Slovenia’s second-largest city - is to prove the continuous presence of international and Slovenian artists and to encourage art production that: (1) engages critically with the relations and tactics that counter domination in the current neoliberal social context; (2) production that question engagement of art, art’s role in society as well as relations between art and politics; (3) production that engages with feminist and queer theory and art; (4) and production that forms explicit relations with the specific social, cultural, historical and political context of the local community (Maribor), such as participatory, site-specific art projects, interventions in public spaces, and similar.
The agenda of GuestRoomMaribor - the only residency program in Slovenia’s second-largest city - is to prove the continuous presence of international and Slovenian artists and to encourage art production that: (1) engages critically with the relations and tactics that counter domination in the current neoliberal social context; (2) production that question engagement of art, art’s role in society as well as relations between art and politics; (3) production that engages with feminist and queer theory and art; (4) and production that forms explicit relations with the specific social, cultural, historical and political context of the local community (Maribor), such as participatory, site-specific art projects, interventions in public spaces, and similar.
About Maribor, local and Slovenian art scene
The sociopolitical context of Maribor: from the '90s deindustrialized and disintegrated city, the starting point of protests wave in Slovenia between 2012 and 2013 which among other resulted in the establishment of a platform of self-organizing city quarter assemblies, moderated by Iniciativa Mestni Zbor whose main goal is the process of empowerment of citizens and initiative/campaign for participatory management of the municipal budget. In 2012 European capital of culture; planned sustainable development projects resulted primarily in the perpetuation of differences between public institutions and independent cultural producers, however, it should have had positive effects on the deepening connections within the independent cultural scene. In the context of the ECOC 2012 in Maribor also the Centre for alternative and autonomous production (CAAP) was established – a platform for integration, research, and practice of new economies (co-working, cooperatives, etc.), an incubator of social entrepreneurship and the new social and ecological practices.
The sociopolitical context of Maribor: from the '90s deindustrialized and disintegrated city, the starting point of protests wave in Slovenia between 2012 and 2013 which among other resulted in the establishment of a platform of self-organizing city quarter assemblies, moderated by Iniciativa Mestni Zbor whose main goal is the process of empowerment of citizens and initiative/campaign for participatory management of the municipal budget. In 2012 European capital of culture; planned sustainable development projects resulted primarily in the perpetuation of differences between public institutions and independent cultural producers, however, it should have had positive effects on the deepening connections within the independent cultural scene. In the context of the ECOC 2012 in Maribor also the Centre for alternative and autonomous production (CAAP) was established – a platform for integration, research, and practice of new economies (co-working, cooperatives, etc.), an incubator of social entrepreneurship and the new social and ecological practices.
Non-governmental cultural/art organizations in Maribor:
KIBLA, Radio MARŠ, Moment, Kolektiv ZIZ, Fotogalerija Stolp, Plesna izba Maribor, Center plesa, Bukvarna Ciproš,Public institutions in Maribor:
Narodni dom Maribor, Vetrinj Mansion, UGM / Maribor Art Gallery, MKC Maribor, Puppet Theatre Maribor, Museum of National Liberation Maribor, Regional Museum Maribor, University Library of Maribor, Slovene National Theatre Maribor