20 Posters for 20 Years of Grossmann
Foyer of Vetrinjski dvor theatre, Vetrinjska ulica 30, Maribor
30 May–28 June 2024
Opening: Thursday, 30 May 2024, 17:00
opening time: from Monday to Friday, 10:00–15:00, closed on Saturdays and Sundays.
This year, the Grossmann Fantastic Film & Wine Festival marks 20 years of celebrating horror, fantasy, science fiction and other genre film creations. The festival, which will be held for the 20th time in June in Ljutomer and its surroundings, joins the EKO 9 triennial as a Collateral Environment with an exhibition of 20 posters for 20 years of Grossmann in Maribor’s Vetrinjski dvor.
This year, the EKO 9 Triennial of Art and Environment and the exhibition Eyes in the Stone emerges thematically from the framework of the horror genre. The EKO Triennial and the Grossmann Festival are also among the most important festivals in the field of visual culture in north-eastern Slovenia, the former with a tradition of more than forty years, the latter taking place this year for the twentieth year in a row. At EKO 9, we were bewitched by the visual identity of the Grossmann Festival. Responsible for the visual identity of the festival is the illustrator, comic book author and graphic designer Ivica Stevanović, almost since the very beginning. His visuals have over time become synonymous with the Grossmann Festival and have strengthened the festival’s presence in the public eye at home and abroad. Stevanović’s distinctive illustration references the history of the film poster, especially those of horror films, while at the same time the festival posters often respond to what is happening in the world or to the film opus of the guest of honour each year – them being international genre filmmakers. With the exhibition 20 Posters for 20 Years of Grossmann in collaboration with the Grossmann Festival and Vetrinjski dvor, we at EKO 9 are proud to announce the 20th edition of the festival, which will take place in Ljutomer and the surrounding area between 11 and 15 June 2024.
The Grossmann Fantastic Film & Wine Festival is named after Karol Grossmann (b. 1864, Drakovci near Mala Nedelja, d. 1929, Ljutomer), Slovenian lawyer and pioneer of Slovenian film. He developed enthusiasm for photography and film in the first decade of the twentieth century, when he bought several photography cameras and a 17.5 mm film camera in Germany. Grossmann was the first Slovene amateur camera operator and in 1904 he made the first film recording in Slovenia. The films Leaving the Holy Mass in Ljutomer and The Fair in Ljutomer from 1905 follow the model of French pioneers of cinema, the Lumiére brothers. The following year, he made the documentary film In the Garden, in which he further developed his filming technique. An interesting note in his biography is that during the First World War, as a soldier, Fritz Lang, the later famous Austrian film director of the legendary films Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler (1922), Metropolis (1927), M (1931) and many others, stayed at Grossmann’s family home.
Visitors may see the exhibition 20 Posters for 20 Years of Grossmann at the Vetrinjski dvor, Vetrinjska ulica 30 in Maribor, free of charge. The exhibition space in the foyer of the Vetrinjski dvor theatre is open every day from Monday to Friday between 10:00 and 15:00. The exhibition is a Collateral Environment of the EKO 9 Triennial, which takes place at the old sanatorium at Tyrševa ulica 19 until 28 July 2024.
