Cukrarna Palace

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Cukrarna Palace, in Slovenian, cukrarna means sugar factory, is a cultural-infrastructure project of the Municipality of Ljubljana and their Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana. It is named after the building in which it will be accommodated, Cukrarna, the former sugar factory in Ljubljana, which is today considered a monument of cultural significance. Cukrarna has been left to ruination for a long time, but in the last decade, under the slogan “The former Sugar Factory is becoming a modern Culture Factory”, a renovation and revitalisation have been planning that will give Cukrarna Palace a new life, first with the Cukrarna Gallery, and then with a Palace of Books and Youth. According to Blaž Peršin, Director of the Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana, the renovated complex “will not only be a significant new cultural achievement, but also a new opportunity to develop the environment in which it will operate”.

History

Cukrarna was a sugar refinery in Ljubljana, operating since 1828. It was one of the most important industrial facilities in Slovenia, and in the middle of the 19th Century it climbed to the first place among the sugar refineries in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. In 1858, the factory was destroyed in a fire that ended its operations. A partially renovated building was later used as a military barracks and one part of it as housing. Cukrarna has also a special significance for Slovenian literary history: in it, the good-hearted landlady Polonca Kalan rented rooms to the writers of the Slovenian Moderna period, Oton Župančič (1878-1949), Ivan Cankar (1876-1918), Josip Murn (1879-1901) and Dragotin Kette (1876-1899); the last two died there.

After the Second World War, socially deprived people and migrant workers lived in Cukrarna. In 1972, the director Jože Pogačnik made a documentary film on its history. At the beginning of 1990s, Cukrarna was emptied and sealed due to its bad condition. In 2010, the City Municipality of Ljubljana declared plans for renovation, which has been since 2017 and as the Cukrarna Palace project run by the architectural bureau Scapelab.

Cukrarna Palace

Cukrarna Palace will be home to the Cukrarna Gallery and a Palace of Books and Youth. But many cultural events at the Cukrarna Palace are already underway: it is a festival venue for the Sonica Festival, organized by MoTA - Museum of Transitory Art. From spring 2017 it also hosts the Lighting Guerrilla Festival, its group exhibition “Cukrarna in Colours”, the installation “Absence is the (present) present” and video projection “Sweet Colours” by the students of the Ljubljana’s Academy of Fine Art and Design and many foreign artists.

Gallery Cukrarna

The Cukrarna Gallery, intended for the contemporary fine and visual arts, has an advantage in the revitalisation plans, with the renovation starting in 2018 and lasting two to three years. Cukrarna Gallery will be extended to more than 2.500 square meters, which will increase the number of more demanding Slovenian and foreign art exhibition projects in Ljubljana.

Palace of Books and Youth

The Palace of Books and Youth, the space for the socialising of all generations of literary and other artists and creators, will keep the memory of the literary history of the building and complement it with related literary and cultural contents, which will be directed especially to young people. The plan includes a specialized library for youth literature, workspaces for artists, a bookstore, and a youth centre. The start of the renovation work is scheduled for February 2019.

See also

• Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana