August 2026

Banka Slovenije’s Mala Galerija [Little Gallery] is a joint project between the University of Ljubljana (UL) and Banka Slovenije that began in April 2019. Every year we plan a series of exhibitions that, among other things, present the work of artists and creators from UL’s member faculties in the fields of the fine arts, design, architecture, urban planning, landscape architecture, music, the performing arts, the audiovisual arts, drama, the literary arts, hybrid (intermedia) arts, and other forms of creative endeavour suitable for presentation in a gallery setting.

The call invites submissions for proposals from UL member faculties for presentations of projects by UL students at Banka Slovenije’s Mala Galerija, which focuses on contemporary artistic and cultural practices.

This call is for the co-financing of arts-related projects by UL member faculties in 2027,

and covers the following fields:

• architecture, urban planning and landscape architecture;
• musical arts;
• fine arts;
• literary arts;
• design;
• performing arts, audiovisual arts and drama;
• hybrid (intermedia) arts.

The deadline for applications is 23.59 on Monday 12 October 2026.

The terms and conditions for participation, the eligible costs and other information can be found in the relevant call for applications documents.

This year’s ‘Dobimo se pred Škucem’ [Let’s Meet at Škuc] festival opened, as it has done for the last 18 years, with a fashion show and sales exhibition organised by the Department for Textile and Clothing Design (OTGO, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering). The event, ‘2.6 KOTOfolio’, presented the latest work by some of the university’s textile and clothing design students. The presentations gathered together a number of student projects that brought their ideas to life through a variety of conceptual themes and a wide range of manual, mechanical and digital techniques, sustainable approaches and design research processes. The projects by undergraduate and master’s students took centre stage: V poklon Pieru Paolu Pasoliniju [Homage to Pier Paolo Pasolini] (Anika Katušić Kocbek, Gal Pohar, Sinja Hudnik Zaviršek), S(l)edi (Amelija Kracina and Isak Podgoršek, Klara Povirk and Tadej Šandor, Ema Čargo and Alex Devetak), Potovanja [Travels] (Ana Seles, Vita Velikanje), Oblika – Obleka [Form – Clothing] (first-year undergraduate studies), a multidisciplinary project Narava na obisku [Nature Comes To Stay] (Tadej Šandor), Vjetar u vlaknima [Wind in the Fibres] (Iva Želimorski, University of Zagreb, Faculty of Textile Technology) and a number of selected clothing collections. The exhibition was on show at ŠKUC Gallery from 24 July to 14 August.

Participating students/designers: Hana Ademi, Evelin Bajc, Ema Barbič, Samanta Bergoč, Čarna Berk, Hana Birsa, Taša Blatnik, Katja Bradač, Ema Cestnik, Ema Čargo, Katarina Debevec, Alex Devetak, Petar Domić, Una Dopuđ, Nada Filipič, Larisa Gregor, Laura Guštin, Zoja Gloria Hernaus, Sinja Hudnik Zaviršek, Anika Katušić Kocbek, Jerika Kauppi, Tea Kobe, Lana Kovačević, Amelija Kracina, Ida Križnič, Nina Lisjak Mašera, Jera Marn, Lejla Lamija Mešanović, Matic Možina, Lucija Novak, Anže Orešnik, Jerca Perne, Pia Gaja Perš, Isak Podgoršek, Gal Pohar, Klara Povirk, Janž Rener, Maruša Sedovnik, Ana Seles, Gonçalo Silva, Eva Sonc, Stela Stanič, Tadej Šandor, Grega Štor, Saira Veladžić, Vita Velikanje, Pia Wallner, Iva Želimorski (University of Zagreb, Faculty of Textile Technology)

Mentors: Professors Nataša Peršuh, Almira Sadar, Elena Fajt, Marija Jenko and Koraljka Kovač Dugandžić (University of Zagreb, Faculty of Textile Technology), Associate Professor Katja Burger Kovič, Assistant Professors Arijana Gadžijev and Petja Zorec, teaching assistants Sara Valenci, Kristi Komel, Jana Mršnik, Alenka More, Nataša Hrupić and Anže Mrak

Technical mentor: Associate Professor Brigita Tomšič

Specialist associates: Nina Glavič, Mojca Košir, Veronika Vidmar, Andrej Vilar

Creative design and project management: Assistant Professors Arijana Gadžijev and Petja Zorec, teaching assistants Sara Valenci and Kristi Komel

Styling for the fashion show: Taša Blatnik, Ema Cestnik, Larisa Gregor, Ida Križnič

– Assistant Professor Petja Zorec and teaching assistant Kristi Komel, UL Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering

The next in the UL ALUO Highlights: Award-Winning Student Projects exhibition cycle opened at the TAM-TAM Street Gallery on Vegova ulica in Ljubljana on 11 August. This exhibition, the sixth in the cycle, presents the final undergraduate theses of Katarina Snoj and Tim Topić, who both received UL ALUO awards for their exceptional creative and academic achievements in the 2024/25 academic year.

The cycle comprises ten exhibitions showcasing exceptional creative, research and academic projects by UL ALUO (Academy of Fine Arts and Design) students who won awards in the 2024/25 academic year. The programme, which runs throughout the year, opens up perspectives on current production by the young generation of artists, designers and researchers, at the same time placing their work in an urban setting in which it can be accessed by passers-by.

Katarina Snoj

UL ALUO Prize 2024/2025 for her undergraduate thesis Poskus o šumu [An Attempt on Noise]

First-cycle academic higher education programme: Painting
Supervisor: Professor Ksenija Čerče
Co-supervisor: Assistant Professor Rok Benčin

In this work, the artist tries, through an understanding of her own preoccupations and feelings, to characterise and explain the noise of an environment that is inundated with images and information. It has become clear from the relationship between signal and sound, and the inverse proportionality of information and meaning (in which there is increasingly less meaning), that sound is a universally present and constitutive element of our perceptions and conceptions of the environment. This saturation, which can also be violent, is slowly and silently transforming the individual by directly altering the environment around them.

Katarina recognises a certain silence in the painting that defies the more synchronised modes of communication and expression characteristic of the modern age, yet nevertheless achieves a condensed affective impact based in the material itself. The main challenge she has set herself is to understand and define the threshold at which the painting still coexists with time despite its nostalgic nature, or where the impression of time is condensed into the medium of painting. She has sought the point of contact between the resistance of a delicate material and the mobilising stimuli with which we are bombarded. A quiet unease that she tries to understand, come to terms with and work through.

Tim Topić

UL ALUO Prize 2024/2025 for his final undergraduate thesis The Visual Identity of Currency as a Subliminal Building Block of Collective Identity in the 21^st Century, With a Focus on the Eurosystem

First-cycle academic higher education programme: Visual Communications Design (Graphic Design stream)
Supervisor: Professor Domen Fras

This thesis looks at the visual image of currency as an important but frequently overlooked element of collective identity in contemporary society. The theoretical section employs critical theory to examine the idea that price and financial instruments do not merely reflect market conditions, but actively organise political and social reality. Capital is understood as the ability to create social relations and financial systems as a complex hyperspace that transcends the traditional boundaries of national sovereignty.

In the practical section of the thesis, Tim presents a design solution for a new series of euro banknotes and coins. The autoreferential imagery presents key historical events in the development of the euro and the European Monetary Union, from the introduction of the currency in 1999 to the financial crises and institutional changes of more recent times. Tim’s design system employs a reduced visual language, clear colour coding, typographical hierarchy and abstract graphic elements. The aim is to spark interest in taking a fresh look at our banknotes and coins – as things that bear more than simply their face value.

The ‘Psi so dobrodošli’ [Dogs Welcome] exhibition project arose during the Norwegian graphic artist Trude Johansen’s second residency in Slovenia. She showed her work to the Slovenian public for the first time in 2018 at the International Centre of Graphic Arts (MGLC) in Ljubljana as part of a collaboration between Nordic Artists’ Centre Dale and MGLC. Trude returned to Slovenia in 2026 as a participant at the Izlake-Zagorje Art Colony, which is one of the oldest art colonies in Europe. The exhibition opens up a space for considering temporary residence, everyday rituals and forms of coexistence that bring people, animals and different communities together.

The starting point for the exhibition is Trude’s art book Dogs and Dinosaurs (2018), which records impressions and observations from her first residency in Slovenia through graphic art and writing. The project, designed as an intimate visual diary of the artist’s encounters with an unknown environment, is re-presented in the Mitnica Gallery at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering as a place for reflecting on memory, space and experiencing space.

The exhibition’s central motif derives from the seemingly routine practice of walking a dog. Inscriptions, observations and selected texts are transformed into recurring graphic patterns created using textile screen printing. Through recurrence and repetition, these motifs create rhythmic visual structures that transcend the boundaries of the individual image and reflect the continuity of everyday routines. Within the works, the dog appears in its many varied roles and guises: for example, as guard dog, companion, trusted friend and fellow traveller. The works also draw attention to the importance of common public spaces, particularly green spaces, which are sites of movement, play and relaxation for animals and their owners.

Trude sees daily habits as broader patterns of life. Walking a dog is not merely a routine activity, but a form of social and spatial interaction that steers the individual beyond their established ways of looking at things. As they stop, run into each other and spark up spontaneous discussions, dog owners create temporary communities and open up new ways of experiencing their environment. The artist recognises the potential for community in this network of relations – one based on shared space, attention and experience.

The exhibition therefore explores the intertwining of everyday life, the coexistence of different species and collective forms of belonging. The recurring graphic patterns become visual metaphors for the social ties that arise through seemingly unimportant gestures and everyday rituals. It is within these that Trude Johansen sees the possibility for dialogue, mutual understanding and shared ways of being in the world.

Trude Johansen (born 1981) is a Norwegian artist and printmaker based in the town of Moss. Although her primary focus is on woodcuts, she works across a wide variety of media, including found objects and images, publication practices, and text-based work.

Her exhibition at the Mitnica Gallery was created as part of the Intercultural and Intergenerational Creative Inspiration project, with the support of the University of Ljubljana’s HUD Fund. Members of the Zagorje ob Savi Pensioners’ Association actively collaborated on the project by helping to create the graphic patterns. Their participation also added a valuable element of intergenerational dialogue and cooperation to the exhibition.

– Assistant Professor Boris Beja, UL Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering

I am an illustrator and a graduate in visual communications design. I attended the Diocesan Classical Gymnasium at the St. Stanislav's Institution and I am currently completing my master’s degree in Illustration at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, University of Ljubljana. In my work, I most enjoy expressing myself through illustration and I’m particularly interested in visual storytelling, humour, characters, and exploring different techniques. In addition to illustration, I also work in graphic design and visual communications, and I love experimenting with different media and approaches. 

Hip-hop is also an important part of my life. I am a dancer and choreographer, and I have been teaching hip-hop for many years. Dance is an important source of inspiration for me and a means of expression that often intertwines with my visual art. I also really enjoy working with children, which is why I love leading various creative and art workshops. When working with them, my main priority is to create a relaxed environment where they can explore, experiment, and develop their own way of expressing themselves. In my work, I enjoy combining the various fields that interest me – illustration, design, movement, humour, and working with people. It is precisely this interplay that allows me to approach my creative work in a playful, exploratory way, and above all, with a great deal of curiosity.

– Zala Hriberšek, student at UL ALUO