Admission Free Festival

Contact

Vstop prost, festival urbanih umetniških akcij

http://vstop-prost.naspletu.com/

The Admission Free Festival is an annual art festival with artistic interventions, actions, performances, and installations taking place in the urban context of Celje since 1990. It was formally established in 1999 as a project of Celje Visual Artists Association (DLUC) members who run it in collaboration with Celeia Celje Institute - Centre for Contemporary Arts, Art kino Metropol Celje, and (since 2012) Celje Central Library.

The concept of the festival is based on involvement and arises from artists' needs to surpass the conventional limitations of the gallery space as such, using town streets as an exhibition space, interacting with random passers-by, visitors, or city inhabitants.

Programme

Presented projects are created as a reflection on current affairs of Celje, its citizens and wider social developments and address a common theme, selected annually. In 2008 the topic was "forbidden", the jubilee 10th Admission Free Festival discussed "intolerance" (2009), following themes have included different aspects and influences of sound (2010), "admission free at home" (2011) and "collectivism" (2012).

Interactivity

The interventions actively involve the public, for example at the 12th edition of the festival visitor were asked to bring sleeping bags to participate in Simon Macuh's work Bedroom – Good Night and Pleasant Dreams while a year later visitors could rest while participating in KOLEKTIVA's project Rent a Tent.

An important aspect of many projects is also hospitality and gastronomy. At early festivals there were, for instance Take a little Bit of my Heart (1999) by Željko Opačak and works by Andreja Džakušič and Boris Oblišar who believed that the joint preparation of food a priori involves participation of artists and the public and creates new social spaces. More recently Andreja Džakušič organised a lunch and Klaus Mähring invited people for coffee at the 12th Admission Free Festival, while Mark Požlep presented his Drunk Cook Book and Manja Vadla hosted a picnic at the 13th festival (2012).

Typically artists work in the city and with the city for the festival, and art interventions fill the city space with art in a communicative and unobtrusive manner. The artworks are integrated into the local environment and many of them are created on-site and specially for the occasion.

Past festivals

A great deal of the organisation of the festival has always been in the hands of Celje Visual Artists Association members, especially active ones have been Franc Purg (during the first beginnings of the festival), Manja Vadla (from 1990 to 2010), Željko Opačak, Andreja Džakušič, Simon Macuh, and others.

Among the artworks presented at the early festival editions there were The Buyer Sets the Price (2005) by Milena Kosec, A Lucky Raffle Ticket (2005) by Manja Vadla, The Counts of Celje Today and Still (2000) by Dalibor B. Zupančič and others. Artists seek to shed light on the local situation and look for suggestions to improve the social environment, such as Litter (2005) by Franc Purg or his more recent action that included growing paradise at the 12th Admission Free Festival. Since its beginnings the festival has expanded and besides the members of Celje Visual Artists Association there are also many guest artists from Slovenia and abroad.

The 13th Festival also included some collaborative projects as public reading that took place at many city locations and was done by Petra Kapš, Zoran Srdić Janežič, Sara Heitlinger, and others.

See also

• Celeia Celje Institute - Centre for Contemporary Arts
• Art kino Metropol Celje
• Celje Central Library

External links

• 9th Admission Free Festival (2008) web page
• Admission Free Festival 2012 on youtube
• 12th Admission Free Festival on TV SLO1 (in Slovenian)