The Gift of Being / Horizon

2007/2008, Rogaška Slatina, Slovenia, Ana Gallery. A sculptural installation.

The installation at Ana Gallery related to Rogaška Slatina as the place where I spent my youth. Much of my cultural work — in a political sense too — was addressed to Rogaška Slatina during the transition years. In that period friends and I founded the Society of Friends of Rogaška Slatina, which encouraged a more careful consideration of urban development and put forward proposals for a different future for the town.

In the nineties we succeeded in halting construction of an oversized hotel that would have closed off the only remaining natural valley in the centre of the spa. We also organised many round tables with various experts and politicians, and laid the ground for a more critical scrutiny of local political decisions.

At the same time we worked in art and culture: we published books by poets from the Rogaška area, organised exhibitions and concerts, and tried to bring the town's potential into public awareness. We also published a book on the ecological problems of the Sotla region.