May 28, 2018
If you live in Ljubljana and want to see an A+++ star performer then you either have to travel to a nearby country or watch and wait, ready to pounce, when such an artist comes to town. Which is fine by us, as life in a bigger cultural centre can be overwhelming if you lack the time or money to take advantage of what’s on offer, an issue that’s minimised here, where there’s always something to see or do, but rarely so much you suffer.
This week’s standout concert, for us at least, is Saturday’s show by the A+++ countertenor Franco Fagioli, who’s performing arias by Handel and Vivaldi, with full support from the Venice Baroque Orchestra, at Cankerjev dom. In this video you can see the man himself take the stage in a full-costume rendition of “Vo solcando un mar crud”, from Leonardo Vinci’s Artaserse.
However, opera isn’t for everyone, in which case you’ll be glad to hear there’s plenty of techno, death metal and salsa. And if you’d rather hang out in the quiet of a gallery, then in addition to all the permanent shows there’s a new one showing off the work of Magnum photographer Marc Riboud, as well as the ongoing Lighting Guerrilla festival that comes alive around town after dark.
Finally, the coming weekend sees the latest edition of Hiša eksperimentov’s Znanstival, a street-based festival of science and experiments that’s really something special, and will be centred on both Three Bridges / Prešeren Square and the House of Experiments itself, on Trubarjeva cesta.
Details of these activities and more are presented below. 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, and if you want to use the bike share system, as useful for visitors as it is for residents, then you can learn more by clicking this.
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, especially with the current street repairs, is showing, among other features, LBJ, the comedy The Death of Stalin, the Spanish Una mujer fantástica, which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and You Were Never Really Here.
Kinoteka – The revival house is showing various classics, including two Italian movies, Pane e tulipani and Centochiodi.
Kolosej – The multiplex out at BTC City Mall is playing all the big movies, which this week include Avengers: Infinity War, Deadpool 2, I Feel Pretty, Overboard, A Quiet Place, Blockers and Solo: A Star Wars Story, plus Una mujer fantástica. From Thursday on it’ll also be showing Book Club.
Komuna – The cinema in a basement behind Nama department store is showing Deadpool 2, Solo: A Star Wars Story, plus Una mujer fantástica.
CLUBS
Channel Zero – Monday night is Dub Lab night, with Jah Billah & Rasta Altitude Sound (RAS) aka Keso Selecta [Cro], while Friday, June 1 is PSYiNSESSION / Allnighter with Tsujo Twitch.
Klub Cirkus – The more commercial end of clubland has DIF closing; Latino Special on Wednesday, hosted by the Student Organization of the Faculty of Sport – ŠOFŠ. Friday night then sees the fantastically named Boom Pow Mjaw Mjaw – Zadnjič, playing pop, dance and big room anthems, while Saturday there’s RnB Explosion: Fresh Rhymes & Classics Cuts.
Klub K4 – The legendary K4 has SEZAM x Music After Dinner / Season Finale on Friday night, playing disco, house, techno, electro, and bass, with a set from, among many others, Softskinson, who you hear in the first Soundcloud embed below. Then Saturday has an all-nighter called Gibanica x New Blood, with the seductive promise of “rolling techno steps, electro bomb and acid petard”. One of the DJs is Dr. Joseph (Backdrop, UK), who has a set in the second embed.
Klub Gromka – Friday, June 1, there’s a night called Same Old Madness ::: Darkland, featuring dark wave, cold wave, new wave, industrial, minimal and the ever-popular death rock.
Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Centre – Editors are performing here Thursday, May 31, while Joris Voorn is playing a show on Friday.
EXHIBITIONS
Please note that public galleries and museums are closed on Mondays.
Svetlobna gverila (Lighting Guerrilla) can be found lighting up prettifying various locations downtown when the sun finally goes down, with key areas being around Križanke, Sosteka in Novi trg and Palača Cukrarna. Details here, and the whole thing lasts until June 16. The next two things are also part of this.
Galerija Vžigalica – The lighting continues in this gallery space, which has some really nice tuff to enjoy, and is more or less opposite Križanke, in the beautiful French Revolution Square (about which more, here).
The Balassi Institute (The Cultural Centre of the Embassy of Hungary) – This is at Barvarska steza 8, Ljubljana, not far from Dragon Bridge, and hosts various events, but this week’s big event will be held a little further down the road, at the Palača Cukrarna disused sugar factory, Ambrožev trg 3, where Monday night, 21:30 will see the opening of another part of the Lighting Guerrilla festival.
Svetlobna gverila in Novi trg. Photo: Paloma Lavor
The big opening this week is the Marc Riboud show at the Jakopič Gallery . You can learn more about this and see some of the classic images here, like the one shown below.
Marc Riboud. Huangshan, 1985. On the right, the pine named Flower-Formed-on-the-tip-of-a-Dream-Paintbrush. On the left, the Sublime Peak. ©Marc Riboud – all rights reserved.
Cankerjev dom – Running until June 3 is an Art Critics' Choice show, featuring he work of Anka Krašna. Per the website “The current exhibition addresses female social exploitation through a diptych; two paintings and two representations of a woman. The body of the first woman is covered, she is wearing a burka or niqab that veils her face, leaving slits for the eyes, and she is thus watching us with a wide-eyed gaze. This figure is juxtaposed with a blindfolded nude woman, as the motif of the second painting.” Part of the image is shown below.
Anka Krašna - detail
Also at Cankerjev dom, and on until June 24, is a show with photographs of Ljubljana by Igor Andjelić, telling “a story about the artist’s embeddedness in Ljubljana’s urban existence, his intense engagement in the city’s artistic circles and street life.”
International Centre of Graphic Arts – Running until July 29 is David Lynch: Fire on Stage, presenting seventy lithographs from the director who’s made a fine career in movies on and on TV, with classics such as Eraserhead, Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks, but who started off as a painter and never left that world behind.
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 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.”
MAO – The Museum of Architecture and Design is showcasing Slovenian designers in a show called Made in Slovenia, lasting until the end of 2018: “The selling exhibition aims to present good practices of Slovenian designers and companies in the creative sector.” The same venue has an exhibition based on Slovenia’s Pavilion at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, called “Living with Water”, and on until November 25.
Moderna galerija – The main branch of this gallery, to found near the entrance to Tivoli Park, has a good collection of modern art, as well a nice café in the basement. For even more contemporary work you can take a trip to the Metelkova branch, which until June 24 has a retrospective on the work of Milenko Matanovič, as noted 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.
Mestna Galerija – A show called Tomislav Gotovac: Don't Ask Where We're Going is on until June 10.
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, and then to explore the larger collection of works on display.
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.
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, but the big attraction at the weekend will be the “Znanstival”, or open-air science festival, hosted by the Three Bridges and elsewhere by the very wonderful House of Experiments, which you can read about here. This year’s big experiment won’t be announced until Friday, but here’s some of what happened last year.
LGBTQI+
If you want to learn more about Ljubljana Pride, then take a look at our interview with its president here, while the group’s events page, often updated after this guide is compiled, is here. This week there’s a Lesbian Picnic for Sunday 3.
Klub Monokel – Saturday, June 2, 23:00–05:00 there’s a night being promoted under the name Ashida Park (AT), cl_tr, Futon, with short sets from two of the DJs below.
Klub Tiffany – On Tuesday, 19:00–21:00, there’s a discussion about chemsex aimed at men who have sex with men. The evening will look at various publicity material, in English, aimed at providing education about chemsex, with the eventual goal of producing similar material for a Slovenian audience. Saturday 13:00–19:00 there’s then the regular Mavrična retorika / Rainbow rhetoric event, “The purpose of the workshop is to offer the opportunity to drink your rhetorical skills in a LGBTQI + friendly environment”. There are limited places, so contact the group here.
LIVE MUSIC
Cankerjev dom – As noted at the top of the page, this Saturday sees a performance by the world-class countertenor Franco Fagioli and the Venice Baroque Orchestra, with a programme of Handel and Vivaldi. The best seats seem to have gone, but you can get tickets here, if available. Mr Fagioli can be seen and heard below singing one of the evenings arias, albeit with a different orchestra.
Gala Hala – Wednesday to Friday sees the hrupni dnevi / noisy days music festival, with bands and artists such as Big Ups, Turisti, Melkbelly, ŠKM banda, Warrego Valles, Lynch, Blaž, Partijska linija, 7AM, Holomondo and Tús Nua. The official website is here, and below you can hear something from Blaž, followed by Big Ups.
Klub Gromka – Saturday night the stage will be owned by the death metal, grindcore and punk rock sounds of Haemophagus, Ekpyrosis, and Britof. The headline act is being promoted with the following video.
Ljubljana Castle – Friday night is jazz night at the castle, and this week sees a show by Vlado Kreslin & The Passengers (Slo), playing rock/blues.
The castle also plays host to a Salsa Festival, Friday and Saturday, with music, dancing and workshops, including on the river. Details are here, in Slovene but Google translateable.
Pritličje – Saturday night you can enjoy the electronic sounds of Luka Prinčič, Gašper Torkar and 5237, in an event called Kamizdat Rentgen: Entropy (and you can read more about this café / bar / venue here).
OPERA, THEATRE, DANCE
SNG Opera and Ballet –Rossini’s Cinderella will be performed on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, while Puccini’s Madame Butterfly is on stage on Saturday.
MISC.
The ARTish arts and crafts exhibition and market will be held next Saturday, June 2, at Gornji trg, the square at the west end of the old town.
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.
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.
LOOKING AHEAD
Kino Šiška – Peaches is playing town June 15.
