It’s among the latter that we prepared this week’s guide to a few of the offerings in town, beyond the obvious charms of just wandering the streets, choosing a seat with a view, getting a drink and watching life unfurl with a colourful lack of urgency, the most pressing concern being whether to have another cup or glass here, or go on and find something new.
As ever, clicking on the venue name will get you more details with regard to the time, price and location, and if you want to get a Ljubljana Tourist Card, which gives you travel on the city buses and entry to a lot of attractions, then you can read more about that here.
Finally, one free event to consider for Sunday evening is the Kayak X Extreme Slalom Competition, held in the suburb of Tacen, and you can learn more about that here.
CINEMA
You can read about all the cinemas in town here, while a selection of what’s playing this week is below, and note that kid’s movies tend to be shown in dubbed versions, so do check before driving out to a multiplex and dropping off the young ones. (And if you like watching trailers with Slovene subtitles, then catch up on some from earlier this year here.)
Kinodvor – The arts cinema not far from the train station, but still rather tucked away, is showing, among other features, the French language Sage Femme, Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool, and Lynne Ramsey’s latest, You Were Never Really Here.
Kinoteka – The revival house is playing, among other classics, Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, on Sunday at 17:00
Kolosej – The multiplex out at BTC City Mall is playing all the big movies, which this week include the documentary Earth: One Amazing Day, Avengers: Infinity War, A Quiet Place, and Overboard.
Komuna – The cinema in a basement behind Nama department store is showing Avengers: Infinity War, and some other things.
CLUBS
Božidar – Friday sees a night with the name Rx:tx vs. Stiropor: Zaltan & Tim Parker, promoting an eclectic event with house, electro, and more.
Channel Zero – Monday night is Dub Lab, this week with Michel Pfeifer. Friday the 11th then sees Everything Goes, with Rope, Jerry, Sunneh, and Fogy.
Gala Hala – Friday night there’s the regular Rave Voyeur event, while on Saturday there’s DJs following a live show by the synthwave band Futurski.
Klub Cirkus – Friday the colourful commercial klub has a night called Bolnca ft. Matroda promising “naughty nurses, crazy doctors, big doses of bass, suspicious test tubes, and an overdose of bass”, with big room anthems, EDM, future house, trap, and dance, while on Saturday there’s RnB Explosion: Fresh Rhymes & Classics Cuts, with DJ Dej and DJ Martee.
Klub K4 – Friday night the klub for kool kids has another of it’s regular drum’n’bass all-nighters, this one called K4DNB / All This Gold Is, which runs from 23:00–06:00, with the beats provided by, among others, Lunik, Roots In Session and Massimo, with a mix from an earlier K4DNB event presented below. After sleeping the day away you can then go back Saturday night for Monolog w. Roiss, offering house, electro, and techno.
EXHIBITIONS
Please note that public galleries and museums are closed on Mondays.
One special event this week takes place on Saturday, the Magical Misery Tour 3 - Šiška Art Trip. This starts at 10:30 at Aksioma, Komenskega 18, just a short walk uphill from Dragon Bridge, away from the castle. This is a free event that lasts until around 14:00, and you’ll be taken on a bus around town to visit various shows, with details (in Slovene, but Google translatable) here.
City Hall, the building near Robba Fountain in Town Square, the Old Town, will be showing and selling rag dolls for UNICEF, with a related exhibition lasting until May 9.
Cankerjev dom – The show Ivan Meštrović: Corporeality and Eroticism in Sculpture continues until May 20, with an example shown below, while a show linking Meštrović and the architect Jože Plečnik is on until May 20.
Ivan Meštrović: Physicality and eroticism in sculpture
International Centre of Graphic Arts – Running until July 29 is David Lynch: Fire on Stage, presenting seventy lithographs from the director.
City Museum – On until June 2 is a show based on A Tombstone of a Veteran of Legio XV Apollinaris, which “brings new findings about the first generation of settlers in the Roman city of Iulia Emona.” The Museum also has a large permanent exhibition on the history of Ljubljana.
Galerija Jakopič – Running until May 13 is a show by the photographer Mario Magajna.
Galerija Kresija – Hosted by this gallery, but held at City Hall, at the Robba Fountain end of the Old Town, Tanja Pak: The Tales of a Breath, sculpture exhibition, running from May 9 until June 4. Per the publicity: “Tanja Pak is creatively committed to the artistic spatial installations and design of functional glass objects. Her project The Tales of a Breath is combining glass and ceramic sculptures into a comprehensive experience of a single narrative. In her work, she re-examines the questions of forms of our aloneness and vulnerability.”
Galerija Vžigalica – Running from May 11 until June 16, and held both in the gallery and in numerous streets and squares around town, is the annual festival of light, this year called Lighting Guerrilla: Colours. One of the featured artist in the gallery space will be Yoko Seyama, with Melody Dots 14 – Colour, while another is Aleksandra Stratimirović & Athanassios Danilof: Colour Wheels.
MAO – a show called Stanko Kristl: Poetry and Humanity in Architecture continues until May 27.
Moderna galerija – The Marij Pregelj retrospective is on at the Moderna’s main branch, near Tivoli. Well worth the entrance fee, this occupies several large rooms, with the works from the last decade of the painter’s life being especially impressive. Highly recommended and showing until May 20, with an example shown below.
The Moderna’s Metelkova branch has a retrospective on the work of Milenko Matanovič, which you can read about here.
Museum of Contemporary History – Renovation work means that the permanent Exhibition “Slovenians in the 20th Century” will temporarily lack the period from 1945-1990, but there are still interesting things to see about the recent past in this museum, set in Tivoli Park. The same venue is also showing a selection of graphic works from the German expressionist master Otto Dix entitled “Der Krieg”, on until May 6.
Mestna Galerija – A show called Tomislav Gotovac: Don't Ask Where We're Going is on until June 10, which is being promoted with the following image.
tomislav Gotovac
National Gallery – Running until June 3 is an exhibition dedicated to Artists of the SAZU (he Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts), a great chance to see works from a wide range of Slovenian artists – seize the day.
National Museum of Slovenia – There’s a lull in the temporary shows, but still plenty to see in the permanent collection, from Roman times, Egypt and more.
Photon Centre of Contemporary Photography – Running from March 30th to May 18th there’s a group exhibition called Beyond Myself: Self-portrait in the time of social media, including the following image from Paula Muhr, titled Etat Normal (2009).
Slovene Ethnographic Museum – There’s a number of permanent exhibitions here, and it’s conveniently located near one branch of the Moderna galerija and Metelkova.
FAMILIES & KIDS
You can find our Top 10 list of things to do with kids in Ljubljana here, and if want to read more about the philosophy behind the wonderful House of Experiments look here.
Lean more about this happy fellow here. Photo: JL Flanner
The Balassi Institute (The Cultural Centre of the Embassy of Hungary) – This is at Barvarska steza 8, Ljubljana, not far from Dragon Bridge, and on Saturday there’s two free events for children. 10:00–10:30 a showing of some cartoons, followed by, from 10:45–13:00 a stop-motion animation workshop. Recommended age group: 5 to 12 years
LGBTQI+
If you want to learn more about Ljubljana Pride, then take a look at our interview with its president here.
Klub Monokel – No events are being promoted this week, but that’s no reason not to head to this lesbian bar and see what’s happening
Klub Tiffany – Tuesday, from 19:00–21:00 there’s a discussion on chemsex, while Thursday night, starting 19:00, this friendly gay bar has an evening of card and board games. Saturday 20:00–02:00 then sees Eurosong 2018, an event to accompany the Eurovision Song Contest.
LIVE MUSIC
Wednesday, May 9, from 21:00 to 22:00 will be a free concert in Kongresni trg / Zvezda Park to celebrate Europe Day. Details here.
Channel Zero – Thursday there’s a night of black metal, both death and post-, with Grob and Fierce.
Klub Gromka – Friday night there’s a show by Superhiks.
Kino Šiška – Tuesday you can see Femi Kuti & The Positive Force, while on Wednesday night Demolition Group will be promoting their new album. Thursday is then your chance to catch The Bongo Club.
Koncertna Dvorana Rog – Saturday night the alternative to Metelkova, which should be closing down ‘soon’, will have a live show from Lesson to be Learned, a punk-rock-band from Austria.
Ljubljana Castle – Friday night is jazz night at the castle, and this week sees a show by Towel of Shower (Slo), playing funk/RnB/soul.
Orto Bar – Saturday night there’s a show by From Ashes and Necrotik.
Pritličje – From 22:00–03:00 there’s a show by Jung An Tagen (and you can read more about this venue here).
Slovenska filharmonija – Sunday, May 13, there’s “a concert of sacred music, mainly comprising musical settings of Latin liturgical texts from the Renaissance to the present day. Between the individual movements of Missa Rigensis by Latvian composer Uģis Prauliņš are interwoven compositions by two English masters of Renaissance polyphony, Thomas Tallis and William Byrd, as well as works by two contemporary composers, Vytautas Miškinis from Lithuania and Paweł Łukaszewski from Poland.”
OPERA, THEATRE, DANCE
Cankerjev dom – Saturday night there’s another chance to see the dance performance Ana Pandur Predin: Firebird, which is promoted as follows “Firebird is what happens: the first creative collaboration between dancer and performance artist Ana Predin Pandur and musician Giani Poposki, lead vocalist of Noctiferia, an internationally renowned heavy-metal band. A crossbreed between brash rock concert and flamenco choreography ‘peppered with’ performance art.”
Pocket Teater Studio – Nothing is scheduled this week, but you can read about the man behind the theatre here.
Slovensko mladinsko gledališče – Tue–Thur, 19:30, there are performances of Idiots, based on the work by Lars von Trier, and presented with English surtitles.
MISC.
Arena Stožice – Sunday, May 13, Enrique Iglesias will be melting hearts at the sports arena.
Cankerjev dom – If you’re a fan of the writer Jo Nesbø then consider taking the chance to see him in conversation with Tadej Golob next Saturday at 19:00, with more details here.
Every Friday through the warmer months there’s the Open Kitchen in Ljubljana Market, where you can try food and drink from some the biggest names in town, and you can read more about it here.
Breg Embankment, just opposite the Old Town and by the river, has a small flea market open every Sunday morning. Learn more about it here.
If you’re in town and want to go jogging or walking in nature, why not take another look at the Castle, with a brief guide to the trails here. If you want something bigger, head to Tivoli Park.
Ziferblat – Monday, 20:00, there’s Let’s Talk Slovene, Wednesday 19:00 there’s Tango, Thursday 17:30 there’s a Taste of Yoga, and on Friday, 17:00, you can try and kill the king at Chess Club (read more about this pay-by-the-minute café here).
TRIPS
Most of Slovenia is only a few hours from Ljubljana, and you can easily visit Lake Bled, Lipica Stud Farm, Postojna Cave, Predjama Castle, the coast and other locations.
