STA, 3 December 2020 - Feri Lainšček, a writer and poet from Slovenia's north-easternmost region, and Marko Mušič, an architect who has made a name for himself in Slovenia and throughout the former Yugoslavia, are the winners of the Prešeren Prizes for lifetime-achievement for 2021. The country's top accolades for artistic accomplishments will be presented on 7 February.
Lainšček, 61, is being honoured for "literary achievements whose artistic value has been enriching the treasury of Slovenian culture for almost 40 years".
Lainšček, often referred to as the poet of the Prekmurje plains, has established himself as a novelist and poet as well as a short-story, youth and children's fiction writer, film screenwriter and author of song lyrics.
Mušič, 79, is lauded for his unique architectural path, his humanism, known for his "particular, at times controversial perspective standing against the 'flow of the time' and architectural trends and which still aspires to 'architecture for all times'".
Active in the field of architecture in Slovenia and the broader Balkans region for almost 60 years, Mušič has a special place in this space, the justification reads.
The winners of the two Prešeren Prizes and of the Prešeren Fund Prizes for accomplishments over the past three years were announced by the Culture Ministry on Thursday as Slovenia marks the 220th anniversary of birth of poet France Prešeren.
The anniversary of Prešeren's death on 8 February is celebrated as Culture Day with the Prešeren Prizes conferred at the main ceremony on the eve of that day.
The Prešeren Fund Prizes go to poet Brane Senegačnik, violinist Lana Trotovšek, theatre director Tomi Janežič, film director Matjaž Ivanišin, painter Sandi Červek and the architects Budja-Jereb-Majoranc.
The winners are picked by the management board of the Prešeren Fund with the help of expert commissions. The board is chaired by Jožef Muhovič, a painter, art theoretician and philosopher, with mezzosoprano Bernarda Fink Inzko as vice-chair.
