Admission Free Festival

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Vstop prost, festival urbanih umetniških akcij

Admission Free Festival is an annual art festival with artistic interventions, actions, performances and installations taking place in 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' need to surpass the conventional limitations of 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 are discussing a common theme that is chosen every year, in 2008 the topic was "forbidden", the jubilee 10th Admission Free Festival discussed intolerance (2009), in 2010 artists examined different aspects and influences of sound, following themes was "admission free at home" (2011) and "collectivism" in 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 work by Andreja Džakušič and Boris Oblišar who believed that joint preparation of food, a priori involves participation of artists and 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 13th festival (2012).

For the festival it's typical that artists are working in the city and with the city and art interventions fill the city space with art in a communicative and unintrusive manner. The artworks are integrated into local environment and many of them are created in situ 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 were 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 local situation and look for suggestions to improve social environment, such as Litter (2005) by Franc Purg or his more recent action that included growing paradise at 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

• 13th Admission Free Festival (2012) Facebook page (in Slovenian)
• 9th Admission Free Festival (2008) web page
• Admission Free Festival 2012 on youtube
• 12th Admission Free Festival on TV SLO1 (in Slovenian)