April 1, 2018
It’s about that time when people start sitting outside cafés without regrets and Slovenian becomes a minority language along the river, and we’re doing our bit to add to the latter by hosting friends and family this week. As such we’ll be dressing up and walking around with our guests, pointing out things of interest and pretending we go to cultural events more often than reading alone in bars.
As ever, clicking on the venue name will get you more details with regard to the time, price and location, and if you want to get a Ljubljana Tourist Card, which gives you travel on the city buses and entry to a lot of attractions, then you can read more about that here.
CINEMA
You can read about all the cinemas in town here, while a selection of what’s playing this week is below.
Kinodvor – The arts cinema not far from the train station has a packed programme, including Peter Rabbit (dubbed), Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson, Call Me By Your Name, and The Phantom Thread.
Kinoteka – This revival house has, among other things, a small, but perfectly framed Wes Anderson season running from April 5–10.
Kolosej – The multiplex out at BTC City Mall is showing, among others, the sci-fi spectacular Player Number One, in 2- and 3D presentations, the parents vs teenagers sex comedy Blockers, Welcome to the Jungle, and the biggest movie of the year so far, Black Panther.
Komuna – The movie theatre behind Nama department store is showing Red Sparrow, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing…, and Peter Rabbit.
CLUBS
Channel Zero – Saturday there’s techno and more from Mr.Madness and support from Djane Katarza. It sounds like a fairly hardcore night.
Gala Hala – Friday there’s the launch party for the Outlook Festival, an all-night event with drum'n'bass, dubstep, reggae, jungle, grime, dancehall, traphall, dub and more, featuring sets from, among others DubDiggerz. The next night there’s electro and techno with an event hosted by Wave Riders, and special guest DJ Alenia
Klub Cirkus – Saturday sees a night called R’n’B Explosion: Fresh Rhymes & Classics Cuts with DJ Dey and DJ Martee, which seems self-explanatory.
Klub K4 – Friday there’s Just Us with Gwenan and Isherwood, among other DJs, while on Saturday there’s techno and electro with a night called Temnica, with sets by Marko Lük and others.
EXHIBITIONS
Aksioma – This small and vibrant space not far from Dragon Bridge (just walk up the hill, away from the Castle, on the corner at Komenskega 18, open noon to 18:00, Tue–Fri). There’s a show called cellout.me by Jeroen van Loon, a man who sold his DNA data, and this runs until April 20
>The Balassi Institute (The Cultural Centre of the Embassy of Hungary) – This is at Barvarska steza 8, Ljubljana, not far from Dragon Bridge, and from March 6 until April 30 will be hosting a show by László Herman, a Hungarian painter living in Slovenia, with an example shown below.
Cankerjev dom – Running from February 13 to May 20 is Ivan Meštrović: Physicality and eroticism in sculpture, with an example shown below from the venue's Facebook.
Ivan Meštrović: Physicality and eroticism in sculpture
City Museum – An extensive exhibition on Medieval Ljubljana is showing until May 2, 2018.
Galerija Jakopič – Running until May 13 is a show by the photographer Mario Magajna.
Galerija Kresija – On until April 12 there’s Millennial Journey of Anatolian Civilizations: “Mosaic Breeze” Paintings from Turkey, exhibition of Turkish artists Sedef Yavuzalp and Önder Aydın, with an example shown below. Note that this show actually takes place in City Hall (Mestni trg 1), just behind the Robba Fountain.
Sedef Yavuzalp - The Dragon Mosaic Byzantine Imperial Mosaic
MAO – a show called Stanko Kristl: Poetry and Humanity in Architecture continues until May 27.
Moderna galerija – The Marij Pregelj retrospective is on at the Moderna’s main branch, near Tivoli. Well worth the entrance fee, this occupies several large rooms, with the works from the last decade of the painter’s life being especially impressive. Highly recommended and showing until May.
The Moderna’s Metelkova branch has a retrospective on the work of Milenko Matanovič, which you can read about here.
Museum of Contemporary History – Renovation work means that the permanent exhibition “Slovenians in the 20th Century” will temporarily lack the period from 1945-1990, but there are still interesting things to see about the recent past in this museum, set in Tivoli Park.
Kino Šiška – The new artist of the month is Maja Poljanc, with a show called Encyclopedia Mythologica Slovenica.
National Gallery – Art for the Brave New World: Sculptures from the Government Art Collection runs until April 21, including the following work by Janez Pirnat.
Janez Pirnat
National Museum of Slovenia – The Past Under the Microscope. Scientific Analyses in Museums is on until the end of April.
Photon Centre of Contemporary Photography – Running from March 30th to May 18th there’s a group exhibition called Beyond Myself: Self-portrait in the time of social media, including the following image from Paula Muhr, titled Etat Normal (2009).
Slovene Ethnographic Museum – Until May 6 there’s the show Africa and Slovenia. A web of people and objects.
FAMILIES & CHILDREN
You can find our Top 10 list of things to do with children in Ljubljana here.
LGBTQI+
One way to connect with this community is by volunteering to help with Ljubljana Pride, an international group that works in English. Learn more about it here.
Klub Monokel – No events are posted for this week at this predominantly lesbian club, but Tiffany, see below, is next door and very welcoming.
Klub Tiffany – Thursday sees an evening hosted by Legebitra, and a screening of the club kid documentary Party Monster. Saturday there’s a clothing exchange at the same venue, running from 16:00–20:00, and organised by TransAkcija.
LIVE MUSIC
Cankerjev dom – On Thursday the Enzo Fabiani Quartet & New Ritual Quartet will play works by Boris Kovač at the main arts centre in town, with a recent performance by some these artists shown below.
Channel Zero – Monday is the regular Dub Lab night, this week with live music from Raggalution.
Kino Šiška – Monday there’s a line-up of three metal bands: Trivium, Power Trip and Venom Prison.
Ljubljana Castle – Friday night is jazz night at the castle, and this week sees a show by the Vito Marenče Group, playing some flamenco.
Nostalgija Vintage Café – Friday there’s Peter Hudnik and Matic Ajdic playing an acoustic grunge show (and you read more about the venue here).
Orto Bar – Orto Fest, with a varied line-up, runs until April 28, but the big names this week are local heroes Laibach on Friday and rapper Klemen Klemen on Saturday.
OPERA, THEATRE, DANCE
Arena Stožice – Saturday there's a performance of the Irish dance spectacular, Lord of the Dance.
Cankerjev dom – Your chance to see the Sydney Dance Company comes Saturday, April 7, with three performances: Wildebeest, Full Moon and Lux Tenebris, with a preview of the second shown below.
Mini Teater – Wednesday there’s a show by the People’s Democratic Circus Sakeshvili.
Pocket Teater Studio – Nothing is scheduled this week, but you can read about the vision behind the theatre here.
Slovensko mladinsko gledališče – The Mladinsko Showcase runs this week, with a different show every evening, and all with English surtitles, including Hitchcock on Saturday.
MISC.
Every Friday through the warmer months there’s the Open Kitchen in Ljubljana Market, where you can try food and drink from some the biggest names in town, and you can read more about it here.
Breg Embankment, just opposite the Old Town and by the river, has a small flea market open every Sunday morning. Learn more about it here.
If you’re in town and want to go jogging or walking in nature, why not take another look at the Castle, with a brief guide to the trails here. If you want something bigger, head to Tivoli Park.
Cankerjev dom – All day on Thursday this venue has the 10th Culture Bazaar, and, as per Facebook, “The program includes almost fifty events: presentations, lectures, workshops and guided exhibitions for professionals from different fields (education, culture, agriculture and nutrition, health, social work, environment and space, sports ...)”.
Vodnikova domačija – Wednesday nights there’s another in the series Expat Chats with Noah Charney, this one on journalism. Thursday then sees a pop-up comic book store at the same venue
Ziferblat – Thursday there’s an event called Improve my everyday life: #2 Motivation, read more about this pay-by-the-minute café here).
TRIPS OUT OF TOWN
Most of Slovenia is only a few hours from Ljubljana, and you can easily visit Lake Bled, Lipica Stud Farm, or Postojna Cave, and Predjama Castle, among other locations.
