Slovenian Poetry And Arts Evening

The opening of the Contemporary Poetry Evening and Painting Exhibit will cater to your ears by presenting three prominent Slovenian poets, who will read their poems in English language; and it will feast your eyes with a painting exhibit by a Slovenian contemporary painter and sculptor. It will (with the help of mulled wine) warmly welcome your taste buds to the Happy December in the true Slovenian fashion. Poetry and Arts evening at Slovenian Museum and Archives, 6704 St. Clair Ave, Cleveland, OH on 3rd of December at 7PM. Free parking in the back. Admission free and open to the public. 

Barbara Jurkovšek (Ljubljana, 1981), artist, painter, sculptor, illustrator. She graduated in 2006 in painting and art theory from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana. In 2007/08, she studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Lecce in Italy. In 2009, she obtained a master’s degree in painting. For her work, she has received several prizes and awards. She is active in the fields of painting, sculpture, graphics, calligraphy and scientific illustration.

Her work is related to exploring the boundariens between art, science and kitsch. The art project THINGS relates to figures of animalistic creatures as one of her central motifs, from their embryonic state on. The aim of the artist is to draw attention to the increasingly present problem of »human-animal hybrids« in today’s world, which is reflected also in contemporary art and pop culture.

Its topicality is focused on criticism of the modern man, who as a superior biological species and with his insatiable desire for immortality has usurped the right to transform, and interfere with, living tissues, and has, at the same time, also become its victim. The project THINGS wants to confront the viewer with the taboo-like attitude towards death and overvaluation of the body-cult and with acceptance of birth and death as a part of the natural process of all living beings.

Tone Škrjanec (Ljubljana, 1953), poet and translator. He graduated in sociology at the University of Ljubljana. After that he had several more or less odd jobs, the last one was in Cultural And Art Centre France Prešeren as programme coordinator and organiser of poetry events, among them from 1994  the Ljubljana poetry festival The Tercets of Trnovo.

His first poetry collection The Blues of Swing came out relatively late, in 1997,  others followed on a fairly regular basis: Sun On a Knee (a collection of haikus), Wind Pagodas, Knives, Copper, Skin, The Spirit of the Turtle Is Small and Very Old, Noises Are in the Air (Selected And Very Old Poems),  and the last one Sweet Cakes (2015). Books of his poetry have been published in Poland, Bulgaria, US and Croatia. He likes to collaborate with different musicians (Jani Mujič, Ille); some of these fusions of poetry and music have also appeared on the records  (A Bit of Noise and a Pinch of Salt, 2003; Catching the Rhythm, The Word in Voice and Sound).

As a translator from English, Croatian and Serbian he is mainly focused on contemporary poetry. During the day, he enjoys green tea and likes a pint of good beer in the evening.

Jana Putrle Srdić (1975), a poet and intermedia art producer, occasional writer of art film reviews and translator of poetry, lives in Ljubljana. Poetically interested in the bizarre changes of the world we live in, she is never willing to give up the small, passing-by and ‘unimportant’. Personal statement is in her opinion radically important and the claim for one’s own intimacy has always been an unpleasant element in our world of collective demands. She cooperated in different art projects, combining poetry with new media and published three poetry books: Kutine (Quinces, 2003); Lahko se zgodi karkoli (Anything could happen, 2007) and To noč bodo hrošči prilezli iz zemlje (This night the beetles will come out of the ground, 2014) at the same publisher: Centre for Slovenian Literature. Her writings are regularly included in Slovene literary magazines as well as abroad, her poems were translated into numerous languages and included in 15 Slovenian and world anthologies. The book in Spanish is entitled Puede pasar cualquier cosa (Buenos Aires, 2011). Another selection Anything could happen was published in 2014 by the New York publisher A Midsummer Night’s Press. Another two book are coming out in Bucharest and Madrid in 2015. In numerous countries around the world (South America, Russia, Europe) she appeared on poetry festivals or had a reading tour. Besides translating poetry from English, Russian and Serbian (Robert Hass, Sapphire, Ana Ristović, Contemporary Russian Poetry), she worked as cultural manager for different organisations: Centre for Slovenian literature, Kapelica Gallery, Zavod Gulag. For 3 years she was leading literary conversations in Ljubljana’s night club Daktari.

Iztok Osojnik, Ph.d. (1951, Ljubljana, Slovenia). Poet, fiction writer, literary scientist, essayist, editor, translator, artist, tour director, mountain climber, etc. So far he published 28 collections of poetry, 5 novels and 4 volumes of essays on literature, anthropology, and philosophy (in the Slovenian language). He published four books of poetry in English: Alluminations (City Gallery of Arts of Ljubljana), And Some Things Happen for the First Time (Modry Peter, Canada 2001), Mister Today (Jacaranda Press, California 2004), New and Selected Poems (Sampark, New Delhi 2010) and Elsewhere (Pighog Press, Brighton 2011). His poems and essays were translated and published in 25 languages. He was awarded with several national and international literary awards, most lately with the prestigious international award KONS 2011.