Slovenski kulturno-informacijski center v Avstriji (SKICA), Dunaj
Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Vienna, Kolingasse 12, A-1090 Vienna
Phone43 1 319 11 60 33
CountryAUSTRIA
Founded byMinistry of Culture
Slovenian Culture and Information Centre, Vienna (SKICA)
From Culture.si
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Upcoming events worldwide
14 Jun 2026
AustriaViennaAlte SchieberkammerSprachspiel. Biennale West
At the event called "Parasitic breathing" poet Anja Zag Golob reads her poems from collections " Didascalia for breathing" and "Yes no". Followed by a debate about the non-usefulness of poetry in the contemporary world of work, problematizing the division of people into useful and useless. Who determines who can work – and breathe – under what conditions?
Promoted by: Slovenian Culture and Information Centre, Vienna (SKICA).
28 May 2026
30 Jun 2026
AustriaViennaVAM Vienna Art MarketVienna Comix Week
"Dirty Thirty: Thirty Years of Making a Scene", the Stripburger collective presenting the three decades of working on and creating the alternative scene itself
Produced by: Strip Core.
Promoted by: Slovenian Culture and Information Centre, Vienna (SKICA).
Past events worldwide
17 Apr 2026
12 Jun 2026
AustriaViennaSlowenisches Kulturzentrum Korotan
"To See the World" /"Videti svet" is a photography exhibition that presents Andrej Grilc's photographs “World Portraits”, featuring portraits of people from diverse and disappearing cultures. The opening concert presents the Vienna string quartet Ensemble Lux presenting works by contemporary composers Nina Šenk, Thomas Wally, and Kaija Saariaho.
Supported by: Slovenian Culture and Information Centre, Vienna (SKICA).
10 Apr 2026
1 Jun 2026
AustriaViennaHOLLEREI Galerie
The exhibition "Expositur Zukunft" (Exhibition Future) presents artists from Austria and Slovenia whose works explore questions of humanity and human nature. Curators Milena Koren Božiček and Tanja Prušnik reimagine the future. Participating Slovenian artists are Maša Jazbec Mikeln, Eva Petrič and Paola Korošec.
Promoted by: Slovenian Culture and Information Centre, Vienna (SKICA).
19 Mar 2026
21 May 2026
AustriaDornbirnDesignforum Vorarlberg
Bruno Šulmar, "Od osnov do masterchefa", Žarko Vrezec, "70 80 90 00 10 20", Špela Frlic, "Dekle, obljubljeno soncu", ilustracije Ana Zavadlav in Uwe Timm, "Ikarija". These are books on the exhibition that offers a feast for eyes.
Supported by: JAK.
Promoted by: Slovenian Culture and Information Centre, Vienna (SKICA).
Organisational structure
A joint initiative of the Slovenian Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the SKICA Vienna operates within the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Vienna and is an associated partner of the EUNIC Austria Cluster.
Mission and objectives
SKICA connects Slovenian and Austrian institutions, fostering collaboration across the fields of culture, education, and research. Through its programmes and partnerships, it promotes Slovenian creativity and facilitates international exchange and new collaborative projects. Conceived as a model for future Slovenian cultural centres abroad, it was followed by the establishment of SKICA Berlin, Slovenian Cultural Centre in 2016.
Programme
SKICA's programme spans a wide range of artistic disciplines and fields of knowledge, reflecting its commitment to interdisciplinary exchange. Planned on an annual basis, it combines larger initiatives developed in partnership with Slovenian and Austrian organisations with projects for which SKICA facilitates collaboration, communication, and public presentation.
Architecture and Design
SKICA has built a distinctive track record of connecting Slovenian architecture and design with Vienna’s leading specialist institutions. During the Vienna Design Week 2012, the exhibition Niko Kralj – The King of Chairs was presented at Architekturzentrum Wien. Dedicated to one of the pioneers of Slovenian industrial design, the retrospective was prepared by the Museum of Architecture and Design in Ljubljana.
In 2013, the exhibition Silent Revolutions, hosted by designforum Wien, showcased two decades of Slovenian product design at Vienna’s MuseumsQuartier. The same year, the Vienna Design Week hosted a workshop by Petra Černe Oven and Barbara Predan (Academy of Fine Arts and Design), who curated the exhibition Past Future Perfect, presented at the Austrian Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art in Vienna in 2014. That year's Vienna Design Week additionally featured Pop-up Home, an open platform showcasing young Slovenian designers from Ljubljana’s Poligon Creative Centre. The 2016 edition featured the exhibition Friendly Enemy by Re-generacija Association.
In 2015, the Architekturzentrum Wien hosted the exhibition Maks Fabiani, the Architect of the Monarchy, marking the 150th anniversary of the birth of the influential Slovenian-Italian architect and urban planner. In 2022, SKICA co-organised the Learning from Plečnik exhibition at the Architekturzentrum Wien in collaboration with Vienna University of Technology. Featuring photographs by Canadian artist Geoffrey James, the exhibition explored Jože Plečnik’s transformation of Ljubljana’s public spaces. In 2025, Material Bar, presented at Vienna Design Week and co-organised by the Centre for Creativity, showcased the work of ten Slovenian designers and collectives, including Anselma, Hiša Mandrova, ProstoRož, and Toasted Furniture, curated by Katarina Dekleva, Rok Oblak, and Bor Pungerčič.
Visual and new media arts
SKICA has supported a wide range of exhibitions in the fields of visual and new media arts, often in collaboration with leading Austrian and Slovenian institutions. Its long-standing partnership with Photon Gallery Vienna has brought the work of artists such as Borut Peterlin, Goran Bertok, Žiga Kariž, Tomaž Gregorič, Bojan Salaj, Stane Jagodič, and Vanja Bućan to Austrian audiences, alongside projects engaging with the legacy of Laibach, including Forbidden Whispers: Laibach and North Korea. In 2026, SKICA supported Metamorphosis of the Mind, a major retrospective of Stane Jagodič, a pioneer of Slovenian neo-avant-garde photomontage and socially engaged artistic critique, produced by Photon Gallery and presented at the Künstlerhaus Vienna.
The Viennacontemporary International Art Fair has been one of SKICA's most important recurring platforms, featuring Slovenian galleries such as P74 Centre and Gallery, Photon Gallery, Škuc Gallery, and Alkatraz Gallery across multiple editions. Slovenian artists have also been presented within the programme of the steirischer herbst festival, including Tobias Putrih's Routine Inspection in 2014.
Among the most significant larger-scale exhibitions supported by SKICA are The Magic of Art, a survey of Slovenian art from 1968 to 2013 featuring 96 artists and presented at Künstlerhaus Vienna in 2015; the IRWIN retrospective Geography of Time (40 Years); and The World in Colours: Slovenian Painting 1848–1918 at Belvedere in 2025, the largest exhibition of Slovenian art in Vienna to date, co-produced by the National Gallery of Slovenia.
Slovenian artists have also maintained a strong presence at the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz. In 2017, Maja Smrekar received the Hybrid Art Golden Nica for her project K-9_topology. SKICA has supported a number of media art and interdisciplinary projects, including Nika Oblak and Primož Novak's kinetic video installation Border Mover, presented at the Niños Consentidos Vienna Experimental and Interdisciplinary Art Festival at Brick-5. In collaboration with the Ursula Blickle Video Archiv, SKICA has also co-organised presentations of the DIVA Station video archive of the SCCA-Ljubljana Centre for Contemporary Arts, introducing Austrian audiences to key developments in Slovenian media art, including works by Laibach-Kunst and Miha Vipotnik.
In 2026, the group exhibition Expositur Zukunft at HOLLEREI Galerie, curated by Milena Koren Božiček and Tanja Prušnik, brought together Slovenian (Maša Jazbec Mikeln, Eva Petrič, and Paola Korošec) and Austrian artists to explore questions of humanity and human nature. The same year, an exhibition of photographs To See the World by Andrej Grilc portraying people from diverse and disappearing cultures, opened at Slowenisches Kulturzentrum Korotan, accompanied by a concert by Ensemble Lux featuring works by Nina Šenk, Thomas Wally, and Kaija Saariaho.
Film
Since 2013, SKICA has maintained a close partnership with the Let's CEE Film Festival in Vienna, providing a regular platform for Slovenian cinema in Austria. The collaboration began with a retrospective and masterclass by director Damjan Kozole in 2013, followed by Slovenian Film Days in 2014 and 2016, while six Slovenian film screenings were presented in Graz in 2015. The 2017 edition of the festival featured eleven Slovenian films, reflecting the growing visibility of Slovenian cinema within the festival's programme. (cf. link below).
SKICA has also supported screenings at the Diagonale Festival in Graz and a number of individual Slovenian film premieres in Austrian cinemas. Among them was the Austrian premiere of Beyond Boundaries, a film combining music by Brina Vogelnik with texts by Aleš Šteger, presented within the framework of the Diagonale Festival.
In 2025, SKICA supported screenings of Nika Autor's experimental documentary Newsreel 63 – The Train of Shadows and Želimir Žilnik's Eighty Plus, a film following an ageing jazz musician as he returns to his hometown to settle his late father's estate.
Literature
Literature has long been a key part of SKICA's programme, connecting Slovenian authors, publishers, and literary institutions with Austrian audiences. At Literaturhaus Wien, writers Goran Vojnović, Katja Perat, Nejc Gazvoda, Nataša Kramberger, Jure Jakob, Vesna Lemaić, and Klemen Pisk were presented in 2012. Anja Golob read at the Schamrock – Festival of Female Poets 2014. In 2016, Literaturhaus Wien hosted the graphic novel exhibition The Worldtravelers met Mexicans by Jakob Klemenčič, Zoran Smiljanić, and Marijan Pušavec, while TRADUKI organised a discussion between writer and editor Ana Marwan and translator Erwin Koestler.
Buch Wien has been a particularly important platform: in 2012, Slovenian book illustration (1954–2011) was presented alongside an exhibition of the Biennial of Slovene Book Illustration award-winners.
The centre has been a consistent partner in connecting Slovenian literature with the major German-language book fair scene. When Slovenia was Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2023, SKICA Vienna co-supported a rich accompanying programme at Buch Wien, presenting authors Drago Jančar, Maja Haderlap, Mojca Kumerdej, Maja Kastelic, and Žiga X Gombač.
SKICA has also co-supported author events at the Literatur & Wein Kulturenfestival in Krems (Ana Pepelnik and Stanka Hrastelj) and co-organised Slovenian literary encounters in partnership with the Miran Jarc Library, Novo mesto and the Austrian Centre for Ethnic Groups, featuring lectures on Slavko Grum and kamishibai performances based on Slovenian literary tales.
In addition, it has contributed to events marking the World Day of Ivan Cankar, including screenings of Amir Muratović's documentary Cankar accompanied by lectures by scholars and researchers from the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana and the Centre for Slovene as a Second and Foreign Language.
Music
Music has been another important strand of SKICA's programme. Since 2013, it has collaborated with SIGIC, Slovene Music Information Centre and Kino Šiška Centre for Urban Culture to present Slovenian musicians at the Waves Vienna Music Festival. Over the years, the festival has featured a wide range of Slovenian artists, including Coma Stereo, It's Everyone Else, New Wave Syria, N'toko, Toronto Drug Bust, Werefox, Oknai, Your Gay Thoughts, Nikki Louder, Blaž & Simon, Koala Voice, All Strings Detached, and Ludovik Material. Collaboration with MENT Ljubljana has further strengthened the visibility of contemporary Slovenian music in Austria through the Slovenian moMENTs showcase series. The programme has introduced Austrian audiences to artists such as The Canyon Observer, Karmakoma, Jardier, persons from porlock, Daniel Vezoja, КУКЛА, the epop/electronic funk group Masaž, the indie-rock musician Dora Tomori, and folk/pop artist KiKi, reflecting the diversity of Slovenia's independent and emerging music scene.
Classical and contemporary music have also featured prominently in SKICA's programme. In 2014, Slovenian musicians were among the highlights of the 17th International Accordion Festival Vienna, with performances by Tori Tango featuring accordionist Jure Tori and Otto Lechner & die Wiener Ziehharmoniker featuring accordionist Bratko Bibič. The acclaimed Vienna-based Slovenian composer and electroacoustic improviser Maja Osojnik has also been presented in SKICA-supported programmes, while the wind quintet Slowind performed works by Nina Šenk, Vinko Globokar, and Vito Žuraj at the ORF RadioKulturhaus.
Within the Slovenian-Austrian Year of Neighbourhood Dialogue 2019–2020, SKICA supported a double accordion concert featuring Bratko Bibič, Vasko Atanasovski, Jelena Popržan, and Vid Drašler, and a Slovenian Culture Day concert with violinist Rok Zaletel Černoš, pianist Urban Stanič, and soprano Jerica Steklasa. More recent highlights include a 2025 concert by flautist and singer Manja Pančur and composer-guitarist Timotej Kosovinc, a performance by Katalena, known for its contemporary reinterpretations of Slovenian folk traditions, and Cross-native Soundscapes that brought together Aleksandra Bajde, Nejc Kuhar, Uroš Rojko, Matija Krečič, and Tamara Friebel for a programme featuring three world premieres.
Theatre and dance
In 2015, several performances toured Austria with the support of SKICA. The Library of Letters: A Walk, a monodrama conceived and directed by Barbara Novakovič Kolenc and produced by Muzeum Institute, was staged at the Italian Culture Institute in Vienna as part of the Magic of the Language EUNIC festival programme. Nora Gregor – the Hidden Continent of Memory, a performance dedicated to one of Austria's most celebrated film stars of the 1920s and co-produced by Mladinsko Theatre and the Slovene National Theatre Nova Gorica, was presented at the Schauspielhaus Graz. Dance Theatre Ljubljana productions Wunderbare Jahre and Senza senso by Jan Rozman were staged at the tanzhafen Festival in Linz. In 2017, Metamorphoses 3°: Rhetoric by Bara Kolenc and Atej Tutta, produced by KUD Samosvoj Cultural Association, was presented at Brut Theatre in Vienna.
The Pelzverkehr Festival of Dance and Performance featured a Slovenian programme that included Matija Ferlin's Staging a Play: the Glass Menagerie (Emanat) and a poetry-dance piece Solo for Two Voices by Anja Golob, Magdalena Reiter, and Milan Tomášik (Mirabelka Institute/Dance Theatre Ljubljana). In 2019, SKICA supported the premiere of Nocturnals, a sound object-theatre performance directed by Peter Kus and co-produced by Kuskus Art Productions and the Maribor Puppet Theatre. The theatre performance Emma2 by the ZIZ Collective was also presented in Vienna with SKICA's support.
Arts & Culture Residency Vienna
SKICA also supports the artist-in-residence programme in Vienna organised by the Slovenian Ministry of Culture, providing Slovenian artists with opportunities to work and connect within the Austrian cultural context.
See also
- Slovene Arts & Culture Residency, Vienna
- Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Vienna
- Slowenischer Lesesaal, Graz
External links
- SKICA website
- Let's CEE Film Festival 2017 Slovene film programme
- Cankar Days at Literaturhaus Wien
- Anja Golob at Literaturhaus Wien
- Skicirajmo SKICO!, a website in support of SKICA (2013)