Stara Elektrarna - Old Power Station

Dance performance A Quick Story by Sanja Nešković Peršin and Branko Potočan, Bunker Institute production performed at Stara Elektrarna - Old Power Station, 2004.

Set in a former power plant, the aptly named Stara Elektrarna can be translated as "the Old Power Station". One of the most important contemporary performing arts venues in Ljubljana, it is run by a non-governmental organisation, the Bunker Institute. The place is primarily used for theatre and dance performances, yet also frequently utilised as a rehearsal and residency space. Various workshops (ranging from cultural management to dance techniques), lectures, round tables, concerts and multimedia events also take place here.

Numerous Slovene festivals have been (or still are) hosted by Stara Elektrarna (in part or in their entirety), among them the Mladi levi Festival, the City of Women International Festival of Contemporary Arts, the Gibanica Festival of Slovene Dance, MENT Ljubljana, the Exodos International Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, and also the Lutke International Puppet Festival, etc.

Stara Elektrarna is included in the Transferzala project, a combined season ticket for 6 independent Ljubljana performing arts venues: besides Stara Elektrarna, also Dance Theatre Ljubljana, Španski borci Culture Centre, Mini Theatre, Glej Theatre. and Vodnik Homestead.

The venue's foyer features a small museum displaying various pieces of now-defunct equipment from the old power station .

Background

Protected as immovable cultural heritage of Slovenia, the brick building itself was built in 1898 as Ljubljana's first power plant. When its technology became obsolete in the 1940s, it stopped its operations, but it became modernised in the 1960s and from then onwards the place still produces some of the city's electricity.

However, in the mid-1980s the potential of the old industrial architecture was already being discovered by alternative artists. Ema Kugler's Mankurt I opened the space as a performance venue and during the 1990s several site-specific performances, for example, Enrique Vargas's piece, were staged here.

During the 1990s, it came about that the city of Ljubljana lacked performing arts rehearsal spaces and the building was originally planned as a space for rehearsals. In 1998, the Ministry of Culture began the renovation works and in 2004 (together with the Ljubljana Urban Municipality) made it available for the independent performing arts scene. Following an open call for NGOs to run the space, the contract went to Bunker Institute.

Venue

Type of venue: black-box theatre; main use: contemporary theatre, dance, music, multimedia events, rehearsal space and space for workshops; seating: 300 seats total; performing area: 25m W x 15m D x 3.5m H to grid, floor suitable for dance; suspension equipment: overhead pipe grid for suspension of masking and lighting; forestage: dance floor; lighting: details on request; sound: details on request; stage equipment: details on request; backstage: 2 dressing rooms accommodating 15 persons total; climate control: air-conditioned.

Though leased to Bunker, the place is still owned by Elektro Ljubljana (Enterprise for Distribution of Electric Energy, Co.).

1280px

External links

Old Power Station web page
Bunker Institute website
Transferzala website
Stara Elektrarna architecture – the history of the building from the Theatre Architecture in Central Europe web database

Gallery

Performance Trans-Plant by Luka Martin Škof and Nika Švab at Old Power Station, 2020. Author: Nada Žgank

AnimatekaPRO, Breakfast with authors at Stara Elektrarna - Old Power Station, 2019.

Audiovisual Concert: Katalena Animated (Avdio-vizualni koncert: Animirana Katalena), Katalena concert at Stara Elektrarna - Old Power Station, Animateka Festival, 2009.

The Sleep (Cinema Fury 01), Caden Manson & Big Art Group, Stara Elektrarna - Old Power Station during Exodos International Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, 2009

Bare Naked Souls, by Dave St-Pierre at Stara Elektrarna - Old Power Station during Exodos International Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, 2010

Press image for Bare Naked Souls, by Dave St-Pierre. Performed at Stara Elektrarna - Old Power Station during Exodos International Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, 2010

Marcipan ali pleksi [Marzipan or plexi], contemporary dance production choreographed by Boulogne Marijs, premièring at Stara Elektrarna - Old Power Station, produced by Emanat Institute 2009

Dark Matter by Kate Mcintosh, performed at Exodos International Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, Stara Elektrarna - Old Power Station, 2013

Lea Kukovič's project FORSALE, a conceptual artwork radicalizing the economics of theatre and providing an answer to the question of the value of theatre performances today, Old Power Station, 2021. Author: Nada Žgank