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The latest oasis, the first in the 2nd expedition of the Nurope has just finished and I was again happy that I attended. During the days we met a lot of different people, to describe it a bit, we met “1/4th” of Laibach something of a national icon part of an awakening in Slovenia regarding media censorship public participation democracy philosophy etc. They told us about the process how they came to be, what the reactions were to their work, how they overcame some of the negative reactions and described to an extent how they work. One thing they said I can’t help but repeat

“You can’t come with flowers or you can but the idea is bizarre.”

This is I suppose is part of what I think art is, simple sometimes everyday things that can move or affect in a great way, “…a little bit”.

On Saturday a party was arranged in the City Museum, DJ Emil was playing. We, me and Kim had our first public screening of our road movie a rough cut version. To which we got some really good feedback and even some professional advice as some of the participants have a little experience in cultural productions.
The local hosts had done a wonderful job and everything worked very smoothly. We were mostly working in the City Museum but also had sessions walking around the city, at the ministry for commerce and Moderna Gallerija.

Ljubljana is one of my favourite cities in Europe and not because of the nice riverbank cafés or the great architecture, the nice small squares, the castle looking down over the city, no, those are just a small part, the nicest part of Ljubljana by far was the people! Friendly, helpful, nice, beautiful and smart ) Thank you all for making my stay a great one.

But back to the culturally vibrant side of town or in this case the capital of Slovenia. Ljubljana felt more alive than many other cities, and for me I think it’s partly because of the graffiti. The art form was everywhere but in most cases done very tastefully and with great skill. You often see graffiti and tags written all over and with most larger works on smooth surfaces. I was impressed that they in Ljubljana used the weave of the surface as a part of the piece. As an example, there was a city painted on a wall at an under-pass, however the wall was made up of vertical lines in the cement  ||||||||||||||||| this pattern was simply used as a part of the work and made into sky rises by painting windows on them short black lines simulating windows and floors the material painted on did the rest.

In ten days I will be attending the oasis in Istanbul and I look forward to the experience immensely.