Supre:architecture Composite

SLOVENIAN ARCHITECTURE 1914–2014 THE PROBLEM OF SPACE TRAVEL

SUPRE:ARCHITECTURE 7. 6. – 23. 11. 2014, PAVILION OF SLOVENIA AT THE

14TH INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURE EXHIBITION – LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA

Edvard Ravnikar et. al., the Revolution Square complex (now the Republic Square), Ljubljana, Slovenia (1963-1983). Numerous activities of commerce, banking and culture are being united in a group of buildings, linked around a large square that is dominated by prismatic towers – a symbol of the Ljubljana Gate (Ljubljanska vrata). One of the foremost working concepts of a pedestrian precinct in Europe, completely integrated in the modern social and business life of the city.

Vladimir Ĺ ubic, NebotiÄ?nik (The Skyscraper), Ljubljana, Slovenia (1930-1933). A modern building in every respect (reinforced concrete construction, elevator, central heathing) considered to be one of the first multistory buildings in Europe at the time it was finished. Judging by the form, inspired with American examples.

The commissioner, the Pension Fund wanted to manifest the bold aspirations of the Slovenian financial business by the tallest building in the city skyline.

SUPRE:COMPOSITE

Peter Krečič, 2014

SLOVENIAN ARCHITECTURE 1914–2014 World War I had begun in the summer of 1914 and shortly afterwards established itself at the Soča (Isonzo) Front, at the western border of Slovenian ethnic territory. It was in that time the Slovenes formed themselves as a modern nation, organizing their life with various cultural and language activities to catch up with other, further developed national communities in their direct neighbourhood. In other words, they succeeded in achieving a level of institutional structure, maybe somewhat lacking in diversity when compared to others, but nonetheless a firm structure that defines a modern nation. They have set their political goals and had a developed political party life, but the very notion of how they established the outset of any kind of cultural activity especially due to first-class artists, painters, architects, musicians, writers and many others was of no lesser importance.

Matija Bevk, Aljoša Dekleva, Tina Gregorič, Rok Oman, Vasa J. Perović, Jurij Sadar, Špela Videčnik and Boštjan Vuga; Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies, Vitanje, Slovenia, 2012

Shortly thereafter, this starting point was followed by initiatives for a formal

was mainly filled with sculptures, among which special attention was cast by the hung,

institutionalization of these activities through professional associations like the movement

“weightless” sculptures and collages in the manner of geometrical abstraction; drawings,

for a National Gallery and, finally, the initiative to establish a Slovenian university in

linocuts, designed usable objects and some more architectural designs. Černigoj only

Ljubljana. However, that was to happen only after the war, in a new state context of

needed one more year to take all the latest architectural drafts and use them to design

the first Yugoslavia, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians. From the turn of the

his best and most visionary work, the Architectonic Study, also named “Teater masse”, a

century to the beginning of the war, especially the achievements of Slovenian painters

tower with light inscriptions that levitates over a tightly packed crowd. The last act in the

played the foremost part. They began to create in the then current impressionism, but

Slovenian historical avant-garde unravelled in Berlin, with a special issue of the magazine

some of them had become keen on the spirit of expressionism even before the war and in

Der Sturm in January 1929, where Ferdo Delak, Černigoj’s collaborator and editor of the

particular during and after the war. The younger generation of painters suffered through

avant-garde magazine Tank, and Heinz Luedecke, a German critic, presented the entire

the atrocities of near and far frontlines directly and, with rare exceptions, stuck to typical

Slovenian avant-garde scene. After that, the movement slowly ceased to exist.

expressionist topics, therefore making adequate changes in formal language. Gradually,

A look at the development of Slovenian architecture in this period shows us a different

the public embraced this modernist idiom, only just began to understand impressionism,

picture. The production of architecture in the 19th century had come to a relatively long

and subsequently needed to face a more radical visual expression, not only an expressionist

standstill and offered no distinguishing creative personalities but also some outstanding

one – the constructivist art avant-garde was already knocking at the door. Avgust

achievements, especially in the Trieste architecture. At the turn of the century, a quality

Černigoj from Trieste (Slo.: Trst) had experienced the Weimar Bauhaus and set up his First

change came also for this type of art. In the spring of 1895, Ljubljana was shook by an

Constructivist Exhibition in Ljubljana, at the gymnasium of Technical High School, in the

earthquake, which caused many buildings to be severely damaged. The authorities,

late summer of 1924. His constructivist sculptures, reliefs and a series of architectural

particularly due to an agile and politically proficient mayor Ivan Hribar, put the earthquake

models that revealed completely new formal possibilities in architecture, above all with

to good use for the citizens as well as the entire country. They acquired a modern urban

the notion of a tall building, a skyscraper, at that time a big novelty in Europe, surprised

plan, provided by the young and promising architect Maks Fabiani, a compatriot from the

the audience, even the expert critique. His ideas met with a more favourable reception of

Slovenian Karst (Slo.: Kras) region and the “monarchy’s architect”, as he is aptly named by the

young, educated people, politically inclining towards the left. This had provoked the rightist

architectural historian Marko Pozzetto. Among many Austrian, Czech and native architects

authority even further in their search for even the slightest reason to induce repressive

who had been building all over Ljubljana with haste, Fabiani contributed with a series of

action – and with Černigoj, they found it swiftly. In the early autumn of 1925, the police

buildings that brought the spirit of modern times into an atmosphere of late historism and

banished him from Ljubljana. Černigoj continued to work in his native Trieste and drew

secession, particularly with the so-called reduction of stylistic elements in favour of modern

some of Trieste’s futurists as well as some young Slovenian artists to his circle. After a

expression which would be achieved both through an original use of planar composition and

failed attempt to organize a private, Bauhaus-inspired school in the autumn of 1927, they

the use of materials like visible iron. His somewhat younger contemporary Jože Plečnik, one

performed as a condensed group under the name Trieste Constructivist Group and set

of Otto Wagner’s best students, also desired to add his share to the construction of a new,

up their own special space within the exhibition of the Fine Arts Syndicate and the Arts

modern Ljubljana, but was rejected. Not only did he then seek his chance in Vienna – he

Club: a constructivist department with a number of their works. This integral art cabinet

also made very good use of it. His Zacherl Palace (1903–1905) indicated new aesthetic

possibilities, added to the modern expression by a concrete skeleton and a suspended façade.

modernist generation formed itself partially from Vurnik’s students, partially from Plečnik’s

With the Church of the Holy Spirit in the working-classes suburbia Ottakring (1910–1912),

dissidents and partially from a group of people educated abroad. Following the concepts

he went even further. In the crypt and the upper part of the church, he demonstrated new

of German Bauhaus, Russian revolutionary architectural avant-garde and above all, Le

architectural possibilities enabled by an original structuring of the concrete construction.

Corbusier and his CIAM, they wanted to establish an effective counterpart to Plečnik’s

However, real opportunities arose with his homecoming of 1921. Ivan Vurnik, an architect

supposedly obsolete views of architecture and such strivings led to the publishing of the

and founder of the architecture department at the newly formed University of Ljubljana’s

magazine Architecture (Slo.: Arhitektura, 1931–1934). Their efforts were not in vain as they

Technical Faculty, appointed him as a professor, which enabled Plečnik to add his personal

soon started to plan and accomplish numerous contemporary buildings in Ljubljana as well

signature to the new and modern Ljubljana in a relatively short time. In the late twenties,

as Maribor, Murska Sobota, Kranj, Jesenice and elsewhere, although nobody could compare

he accomplished his first urban plan and suggested the Slovene’s capital to be the New

with Plečnik in terms of creative potency. Moreover, they established a parallel to Plečnik’s

Athens. From 1926 to the beginning of World War II in 1941, he designed a system of city

exceptional quality in reforming, first of all, the image of the Old Ljubljana; they created

axes with special attention to the Old Ljubljana. He devised a land axis extending from his

a new, modern business and residential axis by the city’s main traffic artery, the former

house in Trnovo suburbia, crossing the centrally placed Congress Square (Slo.: Kongresni

Roman Cardo Maximus, with a dominant skyscraper structure, but it was designed and

trg) with Zvezda Park and ending in a newly conceived South Square (Slo.: Južni trg). The

carried out by the architect Vladimir Šubic – considering architectural standards, we could

river Ljubljanica water axis follows the old city’s water channel and is somewhat parallel

place him somewhere between Plečnik and the modernists – who was not considered to

to the land axis. In relation to both axes, he put some square axes and thus created a

be an orthodox modernist. The Ljubljana Skyscraper (1930–1933) is a good example of this

grid for his later architecture. In his newly formed city inventory, Ljubljana Castle is the

statement. A towering building with the accompanying lower block of flats is, with respect

Acropolis, the valedictory complex of Žale is the Necropolis, the Congress Square is the

to design and realization, closer to modernism in terms of concrete construction and then

Agora, the Market halls are the Stoa, the Church of St. Francis in Šiška is a symbolic new

again closer to the concepts of Fabiani and Plečnik in terms of the reduced use of plastic

temple, the National and University Library is a Hellenistic library … His architecture in the

construction art and a taste for decorative detail.

1920’s is characterized by a special variant of expressionism, masked with some originally

World War II was raging on the territory of the first Yugoslavia between 1941 and

reshaped classical elements of architecture – a good example is to be found in the Church

1945; a new Yugoslavia was formed out of the partisan resistance against Italian, German

of the Assumption in Bogojina (1925–1926) – but in the 1930’s a more classical, yet still

and Hungarian occupying forces, which was successfully led by Yugoslav communists on

innovative formal technique takes the foreground. At first, Vurnik supported the concept of

the allies’ side. At first, the revolutionary communist regime relied largely on the Soviet

national architecture that would voice itself through special colours and morphology, but

Union and – apart from political and economic doctrine – with no critical distance, adopted

today we see this concept as a specific version of declarative abundance in architectural

some ways of forming politics even in matters of art, architecture and culture as a whole.

expressionism. Amid the 1920’s, he also became an advocate of modernism, especially in

Slovenia expanded its national territory in the new Yugoslavia and became one of the six

urban planning, which he himself defined as a social activity as opposing to Plečnik, who

Yugoslav people’s republics. In the first post-war years, Social Realism dominated art and

consistently thought of it as art. Vurnik was the author of some early functionalist buildings;

architecture accordingly; it regulated an exact choice of subject and style for painters and

nevertheless, he remained a man of rather moderate solutions. For all these reasons, the

sculptors; it demanded an architecture of monumental proportion that would adapt itself to

new assignments, mainly noteworthy public buildings, whereas it was still allowed to use

motif of two tall multistory buildings at the edge of a monumental platform along with a

a pre-war modernist manner in industrial and residential architecture, provided of course

business object at the square’s eastern side. Construction time was prolonged until 1983

there was a proper addition of some elements from this new style’s inventory. Regardless

and experienced many changes like the lowering of both towers; the greatest change, of

to the Cominform dispute with the Soviets that caused Yugoslavia to take a distance

course, was the instalment of Cankar Cultural Centre (Slo.: Cankarjev dom), a large cultural

from the Eastern Bloc, architects in Slovenia were beginning to strive for a greater artistic

centre in the SW part of the complex (finished in 1983). The integral and vast complex,

(architectural) autonomy and somehow managed to succeed until 1952. If the Yugoslav

the first successful implementation of a pedestrian precinct concept, excels in numerous

and with it, the Slovenian Communist Party refused to exert direct influence on culturally

original techniques of designing individual buildings – and between them, intimate

engaged artists, they nonetheless reserved an utter right to set the boundaries of what is

ambiences, especially in connection to the nearby historical architecture – as well as large

allowed in culture. Social Realism was therefore replaced by socialist aestheticism, which

dynamic forms. For all these reasons, its quality may well define the late modernist stage

certainly did leave the door of free creativity wide open, but also concealed the line of what

of Slovenian post-war architecture. Ravnikar brought up several generations of architects

the Party’s good humour considers as acceptable.

who, each in his own manner, developed architectural assignments and techniques,

The Ljubljana School of Architecture, imbued with fresh forces in the professors’

following their teacher’s examples; spanning from rigorous rationalist construction and

collective, mainly coming from the Plečnik seminar, stood in the front ranks of the artistic

dynamic building cases to the almost proper organic shaping of architectural building mass

fight for (architectural) autonomy. Edvard Ravnikar and Edo Mihevc eclipsed Plečnik and

and, simultaneously, a total reaffirmation of symbolic tasks, displayed through a series

Vurnik and assumed the school’s leading role. Ravnikar deemed it very important for

of architectural plans by Marko Mušič: the Kolašin Memorial Home (Montenegro, 1970–

his ambitions as a teacher and architect to have worked in the studio of Le Corbusier in

1975), the Church of the Incarnation of Christ in Ljubljana (1980–1985) and ultimately –

Paris just before the war. He rather quickly outgrew the dictate of monumentalism for

the Teharje Memorial Park (1995–2011).

large-scale tasks in Belgrade such as the plans for the New Belgrade (1947) or for some

Edo Mihevc was a builder of large factory buildings, also known as “cathedrals of

new government institutions’ buildings in Ljubljana. But even the strict urban planning

labour”, in the first post-war years. In the Ljubljana city district of Šiška, he set up large

teachings of the CIAM group that influenced his designs for Nova Gorica (1947–1949)

machine halls for the Litostroj heavy industry (1946–1963), some accompanying blocks

soon caused him to doubt, soften and to set a new trail. In addition to the common study of

of flats and society’s premises for workers. He was the author of the first block of flats

architecture, he started to acquaint the students with a modern perspective of industrial

inspired with Le Corbusier’s Marseille block of flats, this time in Ljubljana’s city centre

and graphic design in his seminar and addressed the public through the magazine Architect

(1955–1957), and the first skeleton construction of a business multistory building with

(Slo.: Arhitekt; first issued in 1951). He abandoned the rigid form of a modernist cube block

a prefabricated aluminium façade coating (Metalka, 1959–1963). Nevertheless, his

in architectural design, made the walls and roof surfaces in objects more dynamic, allowed

greatest success was the architecture of numerous tourist centres and settlements on

the use of ornaments in cast concrete and arrived at an entirely new administrative building

the Slovenian coast. Large hotels, apartment houses, schools and even factories were

design; this included a “solemn tent” for the grand council chamber of the community

outfitted with modernized elements of traditional Mediterranean architecture and

building in Kranj (1958–1960). Just as the construction works in Kranj were ending, he won

designed to fit in successfully with the original structures. In addition, he created the

the competition for the arrangement of the Revolution Square in Ljubljana; he conceived a

special and original “Mediterranean matrix” that defied the banal modernist schemes of

architecture and urban planning efficiently. The best demonstration of his outstanding

the template vocabulary of leading postmodernists. The most orthodox stance of such

quality and a model of dealing with delicate ambiences like the Adriatic coast was to be

architectural concept was manifested in the construction of a new community building in

found in small tourist house settlements, surrounded by a distinctive littoral vegetation.

Sežana (1977–1979) and in the subsequent projects of the architect group Kras, led by

The Holiday settlement in Lucija near Portorož (1959–1962) is considered as one of such

Vojteh Ravnikar. Due to an essential change in the way past achievements of European

highly successful settlements.

modernism were evaluated, the global expert public had taken more and more interest

At the zenith of Slovenian post-war architecture in the 1960’s, there was a new avant-

in the work of Plečnik, above all in Ljubljana – gradually and most importantly owing to

garde movement emerging from closed artistic circles – OHO, a conceptualist neo-avant-

an important presentation at the Georges Pompidou cultural centre in Paris in 1986, he

garde (1966–1971). Using their visual poetry and all sorts of conceptual visual actions in

earned his legitimate place among the top architects in the first half of the 20th century.

closed gallery spaces and also outdoors, they have set the guidelines for a fundamental

In a short period, Slovenian architects renounced the postmodernist conventionality

conceptual research in the future that paved the way for art installations, body art and

and clung to solid rationalist concepts when they designed a newly adopted conception

land art. They provoked the government with their daring public appearances; the invisible,

of structural organism. A good example of this new developmental stage of “post-

Party-defined limits of what is allowed suddenly became visible. The authorities banned

postmodernism” is the Chamber of Commerce (Slo.: Gospodarska zbornica) building in

some of the announced artistic actions, but somehow the movement itself was exhausted

Ljubljana, designed by the Sadar+Vuga architects bureau (constructed 1996–1999).

or mutated to various other forms of artistic and social action. Their efforts produced a

On the other hand, the excellent object of the Slovenian state tax administration by the

new awareness of responsible action in a natural environment and the beginnings of an

architect Andrej Černigoj and associates denotes a successful example of the so-called

organised ecology movement.

deconstructivism (2000). These bold new constructions, under the circumstances in

On the other hand, however – apart from a short and failed attempt of Edvard Ravnikar

Slovenia best summarized in the engineering architecture of bridges – Peter Gabrijelčič

to implement the so-called “B course” study of industrial and graphic design, based on

being its most noteworthy exponent, especially in his ultimate achievement: the

elementary visual arts theory, to the School of Architecture in 1960 – architecture produced

suspension bridge over the river Sava in Belgrade (2011) – confirm a rationalist, even

neither the activities aiming for experiment in art nor an attempt to deepen the knowledge

constructivist orientation. Consequently, the new minimalism is by no coincidence the

or pass critical judgment on existing experience in design and its realization. At the end of

prevalent central orientation in the first years of the new century. It is embodied in some

the 1970’s and the beginning of 1980’s, facing no noteworthy public discussion, architects

excellent architectural associations: Bevk Perović architects, Dekleva Gregorič architects,

joined the overall expression of discontent with shallow formalism in the late modernism,

Ofis architects, Sadar+Vuga architects (the four produced a joint design for the Cultural

and along with younger generations of architects, they started to follow the ideology

Centre of European Space Technologies building in 2012), Enota, Zadravec architects

of a new postmodernist paradigm in urban planning and architecture. Besides the once

and some others, all of them achieving international recognition. Among the younger

again awakened passion towards decoration and the rediscovery of Plečnik’s postulates

generations, we may not find formal traces of the Ljubljana School of Architecture with

on architecture and design, Slovenian version of this course preserved a basic element

Plečnik, Vurnik, Ravnikar and the later; this is maintained through other standards like

of rationalism and reverted to a more compact, limited structural organism; every now

the imperative of originality, utter devotion to architecture and perfection in realization.

and then, they also resorted to the eminent quotes of postmodernist design, taken from

A modest range of practical means in Slovenia still prevents them, however, from using

exciting new architectural techniques that have been globally confirmed as exceptional in

Marjetica Potrč who explored the effects of artistic interventions in the already shaped

the last two decades and propelled by unlimited technological and financial possibilities.

architectural spaces. In addition, Marko Peljhan and Jurij Krpan designed and executed the

Since the early 1980’s, different avant-garde groups emerged in Slovenia. We could

Makrolab (2004), a laboratory architecture defining a new, artistic space for science. The

describe them as the third, postmodernist avant-garde, yet they declared themselves as

art theory that emerged from the multiple faces of retro-garde activity, especially when

the retro-garde. Their line of activities ranged from music, theatre, fine arts, design, even

addressing science, is just about to grab the future opportunities – these claims are fully

architecture and, similar to the group from the 1960’s, they provoked the governing Party

legitimate, since this art knows more about modern “hard science” than this very science

structure. With the so-called “poster affair” in 1987, when the Yugoslav Federal Youth

knows about art.

Organization confirmed the proposed New Collectivism’s official poster and script for the so-called Tito Baton (Slo.: Titova štafeta) event and later on recognized a Nazi pedigree in the poster’s template, a scandal broke out. The authorities’ time ran out and the announced measures against the authors were never set in motion. Once again, a thin red line of the politically permissible was drawn, but young artists and the new, democratically oriented groups ignored it. Yugoslavia started to break up, fell into the clutches of a bloody civil war and eventually dissolved in the early 1990’s.

The lasting development of the last avant-garde in Slovenia, the retro-garde, established a view to observe two evolutional stages. In the first period, their actions pursued the spirit of examining and toying with different artistic processes, derived from domestic and foreign avant-garde movements. In the second period, they began to explore the possibilities for a theatrical expression in extreme conditions – space and weightlessness. A combination of the Černigoj cabinet with hung, “weightless” abstract objects, and the Herman Potočnik Noordung book dealing with the problems of space travel (1928) inspired Dragan Živadinov, Miha Turšič and Dunja Zupančič for numerous artistic actions, chiefly tending to attempt and create art in the state of weightlessness.

This postgravity art project leads us to the universal concept of space culturalization.

Besides the scientific, commercial and military aspects of orbital stations’ use, the time has come to introduce the space programmes with a cultural dimension. Therefore, not coincidentally, regardless of their activity in or out of the retro-garde – this very generation has shown great interest in science and its modes of operation. Moreover, they explored the options of introducing it into the artistic way of thinking. Here we should mention

While the closer reaches of space are quite populated already, the conditions for

THE PROBLEM OF SPACE TRAVEL – SUPRE:ARCHITECTURE | 14th International

human life there remain unsuitable, and without adequate devices and objects even

Architecture Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, the Slovenian Pavilion | 7. 6. – 23. 11. 2014

deadly. The material manifestation of human presence in space is architecture at its most

| Created by: Miha Turšič, Dragan Živadinov | Co-creators: Dunja Zupančič, Špela

fundamental: as an articulation of surroundings and as a functional form of habitation in

Petrič, Peter Krečič, Tanya N. Zhelnina | Curator: Jurij Krpan | Commissioners:

weightlessness.

Miha Turšič (KSEVT), Maja Ivanič (DESSA Gallery) | Assistance: Vera Vilardebo Sacchetti, Robertina Šebjanič, Jerneja Rebernak | Cooperators: Bevk-Perović

The history of appropriating space has always been a history of architecture, too,

Architects, Dekleva-Gregorič Architects, Ofis Architects, Sadar+Vuga

most prominently in connection with scientific and technological achievements. One

Architects, Blaž Šef, Gregor Novaković (3Data) | Exhibition construction: OPL,

of the pioneers of space architecture was the Slovenian engineer HERMAN POTOČNIK

Altos | Production: KSEVT | Co-production: DESSA Gallery, Ljubljana Architects

NOORDUNG, who in his 1928 book THE PROBLEM OF SPACE TRAVEL offered a series of

Association | Project supported by: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of

technological solutions for human survival in orbit. Noordung’s quest echoes that of the

Slovenia; Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, Star City; La Biennale Di

modernists and avant-gardists of the early 20th century – the search for a new artistic

Venezia | Sponsors: AplusA Gallery, Pinacoteca ManfrediNIana, Municipality

expression, which coincided with the invention of a new social order and a new man

of Vitanje, SPIRIT Slovenia, Casino and Hotels HIT, Zlati Grič, GoOpti

altogether. In this context, space enables a whole new view of art and society.

For any additional information please contact us at PR@KSEVT.EU. If at first it seemed as if these artistic breakthroughs and their utopianism were aiming for the future, today – with space exploration in full swing – they can be seen as contemporary. At the 14th International Architecture Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, THE SLOVENIAN PAVILION, curated by the CULTURAL CENTRE OF EUROPEAN SPACE TECHNOLOGIES (KSEVT), looks at past scientific and artistic space research as diverse preliminary efforts of space culturalization. While considering the architectural, artistic and scientific pioneers of space culturalization, the Pavilion defines a course for the next epoch of life outside the Earth – an expansion of life in space to all dimensions that befit a civilization in terms of concept and experience. Architecture for space – SUPRE:HUMAN, SUPRE:LIVING and SUPRE:COMPOSITE – is that very civilization’s first material harbinger.

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Avgust Černigoj, Eduardo Stepančič, Giorgio Carmelich in Josip Vlah, TRIESTE CONSTRUCTIVISTIC CABINET, Trieste (1927).

For the first time they have not tried to exhibit the objects, but they let them levitate from the ceiling on transparent strings. With this the objects lost their Earth-bound gravity and with this, their spiritual moment was heightened.