Faculty of Arts of the University of Maribor and UGM | Maribor Art Gallery – a shared commitment to the Green Transition

With the main intention to reduce misunderstanding or even resistance to the topics of green transition and sustainability, the Faculty of Arts of the University of Maribor and UGM | Maribor Art Gallery have joined and decided to work together to raise awareness among the general public. The project ZELEN.KOM, which aims at communicating the climate crisis, has been running at the Faculty of Arts since 2022. Through the project activities, the project collaborators aim to raise awareness of the values of sustainable development and the green economy among participants of higher education and target groups from the business and non-economic sectors. At the same time, the ninth edition of the Triennial of Art and Environment EKO 9 will be organised by the UGM | Maribor Art Gallery between 17 May and 28 July 2024 under the title Eyes in the Stone. The Triennial will take place in the old sanatorium at Tyrševa ulica 19 in Maribor, a modernist villa in the city centre, which opened its doors in 1930 as a private sanatorium and later as a lung ward of the Maribor Health Centre. The exhibition Eyes in the Stone will look at the environmental crisis through the prism of the horror genre and provide an opportunity for catharsis, which can be triggered by a well-directed primary emotion of fear. Atmosphere will appear in the Villa of Fear with a double meaning, as climate, atmosphere, and as atmosphere, shtimung. The title eyes in the stone belong to the Heathen Maiden, the heroine of a Slovenian folk tale.

The partnership between the two institutions will be based on the link between communication and art. Project collaborators from the Faculty of Arts will conduct training sessions at the UGM | Maribor Art Gallery, encouraging participants to connect the communication-oriented content of the Green Transition with thinking about contemporary visual art, which also thematises multiple environmental changes at local and international level.

Read more about the project here.

Triennial of
Art and
Environment
EKO 9 Eyes in the Stone is part of project EMPACT | Empathy & Sustainability, co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.