Cankar150 Project at the MUZA Museum and Gallery
Event date: to
Event location: MUZA TR2, Trg republike 2, 1000 Ljubljana
The Academy of Fine Arts and Design (UL ALUO) and the MUZA Museum and Gallery invite you to an exhibition of works by master’s students from the Department of Visual Communications at UL ALUO, created as part of the Cankar150 project.
The project presents a selection of student works created as part of five project assignments in the second-cycle programme at the Department of Visual Communications at UL ALUO, in the fields of Graphic Design and Illustration. The exhibition is part of the wider Cankar150 programme, organised to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ivan Cankar, one of Slovenia’s most important writers, playwrights, and socially critical thinkers. Through diverse approaches to contemporary visual communication, the project opens a dialogue between Cankar’s literary work and the present day, exploring how his works and ideas can speak to contemporary contexts and audiences.
The first section features illustrations created by students of Illustration under the mentorship of Assistant Professor Suzi Bricelj. The starting point for their work was Cankar’s short prose pieces, from which the young artists developed individual interpretations of literary motifs and characters. The resulting illustrations became the basis for further design projects by students of Graphic Design, who, under the mentorship of Professor Radovan Jenko, designed a separate book for each short prose piece. The focus was on experimental approaches to book design, exploring typography, page rhythm, materiality, and the relationship between text and image.
The exhibition also features large-format posters created under the mentorship of Professor Eduard Čehovin. The students designed posters thematically connected to the life and literary work of Ivan Cankar. They expanded the traditional poster medium through the use of digital applications and animation: when a mobile phone is pointed at the poster, the static image is transformed into a moving visual animation.
As part of the Visual Thinking course, led by Assistant Professor Roman Ražman, students drew on Cankar’s pronounced social criticism and his sensitivity to social issues. They identified specific social messages addressing themes and issues of the present day.
The exhibition also presents internationally award-winning student projects created under the mentorship of Professor Eduard Čehovin. These projects involved developing the identity of the fictional brand #10:50, named after the time of Ivan Cankar’s birth. The students created the name, visual identity, and packaging, including the product can, using contemporary design approaches to explore ways of connecting literary heritage, visual culture, and the principles of brand communication.
Authors: Gaja Aksinja Abramović, Aurora Biljak, Zina Duvnjaković, Đorđe Božić, Manuela Buzov, Zala Hriberšek, Tit Jaklič, Gabriel Klančar, Katja Klinc, Rosa Kobasić, Štef Klojčnik, Daniel Lenarčič, Maria Praničević, Miona Racić, Lana Ravlić, Eva Zudič, and Urša Volovšek.