Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies (KSEVT)

View from the upper floor of the building in Vitanje.

The Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies (KSEVT) opened in Vitanje in September 2012 to complement the Herman Potočnik Noordung Memorial Centre. The building design is the work of four architectural bureaus which established the Architectural Union for Vitanje (AZZV): Bevk Perović Arhitekti, Dekleva Gregorič Arhitekti, Ofis Arhitekti, and SADAR + VUGA Architects. KSEVT's programme is based on the concept of the culturisation of outer space, introduced by Dragan Živadinov, Dunja Zupančič, and Miha Turšič within the Delak Institute.

Described as "a living room of Vitanje inhabitants and a space for the synthesis of art and science focused on the post-gravity art" by its inceptors, KSEVT promises an interaction between the local, the regional, and the planetary. In 2014 the KSEVT team will represent Slovenia at the Architecture Biennale in Venice with The Problem of Space Travel - Supre:architecture project.

Building

The Integrated Revitalisation of the Vitanje House of Culture into KSEVT project received funds in 2009 through the Development Investing in Public Cultural Infrastructure programme, run by the Ministry of Culture. The fascinating building of 2500 m² replaced the old cultural centre and is inspired by Herman Potočnik's plan for the first geostationary space station from 1928. It is situated in the hilly landscape between the neoclassicist Church of the Mother of God, the Gothic Church of St Peter, and the former Bishop's Mansion.

Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies (KSEVT), a space for the synthesis of art and science focused on the post-gravity art, Vitanje, 2012. Since 2017 the programme is run by Herman Potočnik Noordung Space Center.

The ground level includes the Vitanje Library and a multi-purpose circular hall with 300 seats. The first floor with research facilities is dedicated to the KSEVT programme.

Programme

The permanent exhibition Herman Potočnik Noordung: 100 Monumental Influences is based on 100 of Herman Potočnik Noordung's drawings, used in his book The Problem of Space Travel - The Rocket Motor. The display covers Potočnik's life and time, the early rocket technologies, space architecture, usage of the Earth orbits, space wear, the Treasures of Modernity collection, and, last but not least – Slovenia in space.

A replica of Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite in the world to be put into outer space, part of the permanent exhibition at the Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies (KSEVT), 2012

The international residency programme will focus on the interdisciplinary research of the cultural context of the human interaction with space and will host artists, scientists, and philosophers.

International cooperation

On a regional level KSEVT generates connections between Trieste, Italy (liaising it with the Trieste Constructivist Ambient from 1927); Pula, Croatia (Potočnik's birth town); and Graz, Austria. KSEVT already cooperates with the Russian State Museum in St Petersburg and the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C..

In 2011 the Centre prepared the Memorandum on the Culturalisation of Outer Space that the Slovene President Danilo Türk presented to the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev as a new dimension of cooperation between Slovenia and Russia. The document foresees the first (professional) artist spaceflight, presumably in the person of the Slovene primaballerina Mateja Rebolj who has also collaborated with Dragan Živadinov in the Noordung Cosmokinetic Cabinet.

External links

KSEVT website

References

Gallery

The building designed by four architectural bureaus which established the Architectural Union for Vitanje (AZZV): Bevk Perović Arhitekti, Dekleva Gregorič Arhitekti, Ofis Arhitekti and SADAR + VUGA Architects, 2012

Hermann Noordung depiction of a space station habitat wheel. Hermann Potocnik (1892-1929), also known as Herman Noordung, created the first detailed technical drawings of a space station, 1929

Hermann Noordung image depicts a three-unit space station as seen from a space ship. The three units were the habitat, the machine room, and the observatory, each connected by an umbilical, 1929

Hermann Noordung space station. Treppenschacht=Stairwey. Aufzug=Elevator. Aufzugschacht=Elevator shaft. Achskörper=Axle, 1929

Cod.Act’s sound kinetic installation Cycloid-E, on view at the Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies (KSEVT), 2012

The Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies (KSEVT) building design is the work of four architectural bureaus which established the Architectural Union for Vitanje (AZZV): Bevk Perović Arhitekti, Dekleva Gregorič Arhitekti, Ofis Arhitekti, and SADAR + VUGA Architects.

Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies (KSEVT), described by its founders also as "a living room of Vitanje inhabitants", 2012

The Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies (KSEVT) was founded by Miha Turšič, Dragan Živadinov (Delak Institute), Municipality of Vitanje, Delak Institute and Planit Institute. A space for the synthesis of art and science focused on the post-gravity art was opened in Vitanje in 2012.

Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies (KSEVT), a space for the synthesis of art and science focused on the post-gravity art, Vitanje, 2012

The upper floor of the Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies (KSEVT), Vitanje, 2012

The interior detail of the Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies (KSEVT), Vitanje, 2012

View from the upper floor of the building in Vitanje.

View from the upper floor of the Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies (KSEVT), Vitanje, 2012

The upper floor of the Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies (KSEVT), Vitanje, 2012

Herman Potočnik's biographic map, part of the permanent exhibition entitled Herman Potočnik Noordung: 100 Monumental Influences, Vitanje, 2012

Permanent exhibition entitled Herman Potočnik Noordung: 100 Monumental Influences in Vitanje, 2012

A replica of Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite in the world to be put into outer space, part of the permanent exhibition at the Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies (KSEVT), 2012

The roof of the Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies (KSEVT), Vitanje, 2012

Spacesuits, part of the permanent exhibition entitled Herman Potočnik Noordung: 100 Monumental Influences at the Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies (KSEVT), 2012

One of the study rooms at the Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies (KSEVT), Vitanje, 2012

The building design is the work of four architectural bureaus which established the Architectural Union for Vitanje (AZZV), the fascinating building of 2500 m² is inspired by Herman Potočnik's plan for the first geostationary space station from 1928. Vitanje, 2012

Dragan Živadinov, Slovenian theatre director, founder of the Noordung Cosmokinetic Cabinet and co-founder of the Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies (KSEVT). Vitanje, 2012.

Herman Potočnik Noordung (1892–1929) was an engineer in the Austrian army who wrote an early work on spaceflight and created the first detailed technical drawings of a space station.

Miha Turšič co-founder of the Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies (KSEVT), Vitanje, 2012

Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies (KSEVT)

Contents

Building

Programme

International cooperation

See also

External links

Gallery

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