STA, February 7, 2018- The winners of this year's Prešeren Fund Prizes, given out for achievements in the last two years, agree that culture should be celebrated throughout the year and not only on Culture Day, which is observed on 8 February. As regards the holiday itself, they have mixed feelings, from considering it a farce to a true holiday.
Performer Simona Semenič
Performer Simona Semenič, "one of the most important contemporary theatre figures in Slovenia", according to the Prešeren Fund, told the STA that she was not happy with the term culture because it was "far too encompassing".
"If we're supposed to celebrate art on 8 February, then I have to say I don't feel it as a holiday. I consider it a farce."
"We put on some makeup and become cultural for a day, we give out an award or two, we read and see how cultural we are in the media, and this makes up our contribution to art for the year."
"I don't think we truly celebrate art on 8 February, it's more of an excuse, maybe even an indulgence for politicians and other citizens as well, to be able to brush the good-for-nothing away," said the artist, who is critical of differences between freelance artists and those employed in the public sector.
While true that the Culture Ministry pays contributions for freelance artists, "if a public sector [artist] had so many awards as I have, they would be in the top wage bracket and get much higher monthly pay as well as contributions than me", she illustrated.
"I'm a second-rate artist, regardless of successes or awards. Farce left, right and centre," said the artist.
Actor Matej Puc
Matej Puc, honoured for "the wide range of various directing aesthetics that made him into an actor, whose principle of acting evades the schematics in the formation and understanding of a role" sees the holiday as a reminder that art exists.
From MGL's Instragram
"It's just how people are - we have to be constantly a reminder that some things exist".
"It would be ideal if we didn't celebrate Culture Day as something special and culture was seen as something self-evident instead. Let everyone take a moment and think how culture is interlocked with their everyday anyway. Culture and art is everywhere. And it's not a question of whether we need it - it simply is."
The actor, who works "in a safe bubble of the MGL theatre", says that glory and honour should go to freelancers: "How can they endure from one year to the other? How much love and how much sacrifice. And so many masterpieces!"
"People in positions of power don't even see it. Why? In the first place, because they don't even go to see art."
Choreographer and ballet dancer Valentina Turcu
Meanwhile, choreographer Valentina Turcu, who will receive the award for "the ballet masterpiece Eugene Onegin" and her "visionary ideas", says that the state should not have a neglectful attitude towards arts and culture.
"Art must be bowed to, revered, loved and proudly celebrated. Once we no longer have the opportunity to create, an eerie void will emerge," said the dancer, who says Slovenian arts surpass the national borders despite little recognition at home.
"We work in minimalism. As a theatre form, minimalism is being increasingly developed because of the severe financial crises in culture ... Gifted people are a gift to the country."
Director of photography Marko Brdar
Filmmaker Brdar, who will receive the award for the work he has done over the past two years, including the films Ivan by Janez Burger and The Family by Jan Cvitkovič, would not allow politics to interfere with his attitude towards arts and culture or towards celebrations. "But it does interfere with our work and the conditions we work in."
"Despite limitations potentially being even stimulative in terms of creativity, the long-term impoverishment, including of the Slovenian film, is simply harmful."
Intermedia artist Maja Smrekar
"I still consider 8 February a holiday ... because it is a holiday for all citizens. Another purpose of this day is in a broader perspective, because it deals with the valuation of a human activity that truly requires a consideration in the zeitgeist of a constant crisis," Smrekar said.
"Political discourse has also given in to this and that's why I find it important to think about what individual and collective culture means to us, what kind of civilisational heritage we want to leave to our descendants."
"Is it a culture of conservationism and extreme populisms or a culture of listening, of a mature deliberation and constructive dialogue?"
Working in intermedia arts in Slovenia means working in a niche field, which makes awards even more important "because they put the entire Slovenian intermedia production in a more visible spot on the local and international maps".
"Sadly, it seems that those who decide on the financing of the field do not recognise it," stressed the artist honoured for her K-9_topology, "a monumental work that has emerged from almost four years of artistic research".
Photographer Boris Gaberščik
To Gaberščik, everyday is a culture holiday, he dreams of photography during the day and thinks about it during the night.
Moreover, he has the perfect conditions to work in: "I make my photographs in wonderful conditions: my wife understands me, the curator considers me, and kids and grandkids love me."
He was honoured for his series of photographs entitled Solve et Coagula and Von Dieser Welt. According to the panel, "every series of photographs brings him closer to perfecting his expression".
