The exhibition SLOVENE TOWNS THROUGH TIME was held on the initiative of the State Archives Administration of China with whom the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia has been collaborating within the framework of cooperation agreement. When faced with their suggestion that we prepare archival exhibition for the Chinese public and when thinking of how to prepare an exhibition that would draw the attention of visitors, who in general did not have much knowledge on Slovenia, we first had to set ourselves two basic goals; first, the contents and the form of the exhibition need to be such as to provide Chinese visitors with basic information on Slovenia and Slovene history mostly by means of visually stimulating documents, and second, the exhibition needs to be such as to enable us to hold it in other countries as well (thus, the English text on exhibition panels).
Such were the beginnings of the exhibition that portrays moments in the history of 16 Slovene towns from the Middle Ages to the end of the 20th century.
When choosing the exhibited towns, we considered their historical significance, the available archival material, as well as proportional representation of the Slovene territory. The following towns made it into our selection: Ljubljana, Brežice, Celje, Črnomelj, Idrija, Kočevje, Koper, Kranj, Krško, Maribor, Novo mesto, Postojna, Ptuj, Slovenj Gradec, Slovenska Bistrica and Škofja Loka.
The exhibition encompasses 53 panels in the size of approximately 100 x 70 cm. It presents reproductions of 256 exhibits from the collections of 16 Slovene and 4 foreign cultural institutions – archives, museums and libraries. Included are medieval charters with seals, drawings, cadastral and other plans, landscape drawings, pictures, old postcards, old and present-day photos, and present-day city coats-of-arms.
The exhibition was held in Beijing from October 30 to November 5, 2003 and turned out to be a great success, attracting a total of around 6000 visitors. It will also be held in Skopje from April 7 to April 21, 2004, also planned are tours to Poland, Argentina and perhaps elsewhere.
The authors of the exhibition are Vladimir Kološa, MA and Andrej Nared, design by Dane Petek – GALdesign, English translation by Marija Vera Erjavec. |
