Photo: SCCA-Ljubljana archive

Maja Burja: The Project
postcards, 2016

The Project has been made as a response to the invitation of SCCA-Ljubljana: the curators suggested me to react on the historical and artistic context of the Slovenian Avant-Garde. Moreover, it also derives from my idea to produce a repetition of the previous situation entitled (Ante)Chamber (2015) which Imade already in frame of the first version of the Words as Colours, Colours as Words exhibition at the Old Glassware Workshop in Ptuj.

The Project is potentially an unfinished series of postcards, carriers of compositions – a plan, scheme, draught, instruction – and as such incomplete form, performative writing. The postcards refer to ephemeral artworks, the ones that can be accessed only indirectly, through documentation – the documentation which actually allows for references to be made. While the notes that refer to events, situations, performances or site-specific practices, mediate completed acts, simultaneously, there is a potentiality of repetition implicit in writing as a medium – the repetition that within other context produces different conditions of occurrence.
(text by Maja Burja)

Avgust Černigoj: My Greeting!
TANK, No. 1 ½–3, 1927
Reproduction, digital print

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Screening of manifestos

Anton Podbevšek: Political Art
The Red Pilot, No. 2, 1922

Srečko Kosovel: To the Mechanics! (Mechanics and Drivers)
1925, Integrals '26, 2nd Edition, 1984

Ferdo Delak: Us
TANK, No. 1 ½, 1927

Ferdo Delak: Youth, Fight!
TANK, No. 1 ½, 1927

Avgust Černigoj: 1 ½ Edition of Tank,
TANK, No. 1 ½–3, 1927

Avgust Černigoj: Trieste Constructivist Group
TANK, No. 1 ½–3, 1927

I. G. Plamen – Marko Pogačnik: OHO Manifesto
Student Journal Tribuna, 23 November 1966, Year XVII, No. 6

Matjaž Hanžek: Each Creation is Determined in Advance ...
(A Revision of Literary History, 1982)

Jaka Železnikar:What is Literary?
Air Beletrina, No. 21, April 2002

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Avgust Černigoj: Constructivist Poem
1927 (reproduction, digital print)

Like other constructivists, Avgust Černigoj experimented with words and images, creating works that combined visual and poetic aspects (Constructivist Poem). Černigoj kept returning to words and letters and understood them as a visual element, exploring letters and typographies, which he had internalized during the period of the Slovenian historic avant-garde, in various media and various ways throughout his career.

Srečko Kosovel: The Flying Boat
collage reproduction, 1926
(National and University Library Ljubljana)

Three collages, created from 1925 to 1926, have been preserved within the oeuvre of Srečko Kosovel. Among the works, titled Prisoner of the Mirror, R Detective and The Flying Boat, the latter is particularly notable for its composition and the power of its words. Following its publication in Integrals, Avgust Černigoj declared himself as the author of the collage, however, his version turned out to have merely been a template for The Flying Boat, if that. As the collages were created by a poet, we can’t help but think of them as poems rather than visual art.
(Adapted from: Metka Lokar, Likovnost v sodobni slovenski poeziji, Ljubljana, 2005.)

Anton Podbevšek: Literary Evening
poems and interview broadcasted on the radio, Radio Ljubljana, 36 min, 1972

Radio Slovenia’s archives hold a sound recording from 1972 of a radio broadcast of poetry by Anton Podbevšek. The Literary Evening show features Podbevšek’s readings of his own poems and an interview conducted by Aleš Berger. The exact date of the broadcast is unknown, however, the show was repeated on June 11, 1998. The original recording is kept by the archives of Radio Slovenija (tape G-5722).

Source: 
Anton Podbevšek: ZBRANE PESMI
Elektronske znanstvenokritične izdaje slovenskega slovstva
Institute of Slovenian Literature and Literary Studies of the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2010
Transcribed, commented, annotated and edited by: Dr. Marijan Dović 
(Published at: http://nl.ijs.si/e-zrc/podbevsek)

OHO Editions: EVA
Authors: Marko Pogačnik (Drawing), Franci Zagoričnik (Ball beneath the Linden Tree), I. G. Plamen (Midnight Metamorphoses, Adoption of the Post, The Post, Birthplaces), Tomaž Šalamun (The House of Mark), Braco Rotar (John Casimir), Aleš Kermavner (Ad for Nama)

The book was edited by: I. G. Plamen, Marko Pogačnik
Self-published (each author is publisher of his own work)
Printed by ČP Gorenjski tisk, Kranj, 1966, 600 copies

The first publications to tackle the issue of crossing the lines between different artistic practices and connecting them in total works of art appeared in 1966. Among them, OHO Editions used a series of publications to explore the status and role of the book. The EVA collection thus only lists the authors, titles and the publisher on the cover, while the works within the book are unattributed and there’s no pagination.
EVA consists of a couple of introductory empty pages and the spherical rhythms of Marko Pogačnik’s black circles. These are followed by visual poetry by Franci Zagoričnik, poetry by Iztok Geister and prose by Tomaž Šalamun and Braco Rotar. The book closes with pop-texts by Aleš Kermavner.

Matjaž Hanžek: Door
visual poem, original, 1967

Matjaž Hanžek: Skyscraper
visual poem, original and first publication in Student journal Tribuna, April 26, 1967, XVII/21, p. 5

Matjaž Hanžek: Scissors
visual poem, clipping from Student journal Tribuna, April 26, 1967, XVII/21, p. 5

Matjaž Hanžek writes visual poetry as a language game and his oeuvre is considered to be among the most extensive such bodies of work in Slovenia (alongside the output of Franci Zagoričnik). In 1966/67 and especially 1967/68, Tribuna disseminated visual poetry to a broad audience (thanks in particular to Marko Pogačnik, then editor of the culture pages), prompting a number of polemic articles on the essence of poetry.

Alenka Pirman: Matjaž Hanžek, Skyscraper, 1967–2006
from the series The Most Beautiful Poems (Silent Lectures)
powepoint animation in a loop, 2006

Silent Lectures are presentations made with PowerPoint ('the power of the point'), a computer program designed for marketing viewpoints, products, services, and knowledge and one of the dominant forms of persuasion technology in the world today. The artist decided to use it as an independent medium of expression. The series The Most Beautiful Poems was made including the animations of six concrete poems from the 1960s. The kinetic poem, while preserving the poet's intention, transforms readers into viewers and offers them and endless meditative animation.
(source: Alenka Pirman, Collected Works, p. 120–21)

Jaka Železnikar: Ascii Kosovel (Kosovel: Sampled, Type a Portrait, Biographical Portrait)
E-literature, November 2004
www.jaka.org/2007/asciikosovel

In November 2004, in the year of 100th anniversary of the birth of Srečko Kosovel, Jaka Železnikar created a work entitled Ascii Kosovel including three segments: Kosovel: Sampled; Type a Portrait; Biographical Portrait. This interactive and generative work is based on poems by Srečko Kosovel, his biographical data and his portrait by Avgust Černigoj from 1926.

Andrej Hočevar & Jaka Železnikar: Izbris Šalamun (in Slovene language)
E-Poetry April 2015
www.ludliteratura.si/izbris-salamun

Web page for creation and archiving of erasure poetry made from poems of Tomaž Šalamun (from two poetry books: Letni čas (LUD Literatura, 2010) and Ta, ki dviga tačko, spi (LUD Literatura, 2015)).

Zoran Srdić Janežič: Scribbled Words
video, 2005

Poetry: Jana Putrle Srdić
Production: Gulag

Valérie Wolf Gang: Distant Memory
video poetry, 2014

Video and poetry: Valérie Wolf Gang
Voice: Ulay

Distant Memory is a video poetry, which speaks about the times that once were. It all starts with a random event which evokes narrator’s memories about the times before the disintegration of Yugoslavia and encourages reflection about what the war actually brings and how quickly people forget everything. The poem can be interpreted as a letter or a personal confession of an unknown man written for the mighty Tito’s ship Galeb. The ship has a symbolic value in the poem and through the variety of short scenes showing different details we can observe different interpretations and connections between real life and the imaginary world of poetry.
(text by Valérie Wolf Gang)

Primož Čučnik & Gregor Podlogar & Žiga Kariž:
Ode on Manhattan Avenue
2003

Poetry: Primož Čučnik, Gregor Podlogar
Visuals: Žiga Kariž
Audio material prepared by: Primož Čučnik, Gregor Podlogar, Žiga Kariž
Composition: Primoz Čučnik
Audio/record player design: Sašo Kalan