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0 LIFESTYLE: Enter The Carnival Spirit
February 2010
Looking GoodBusiness Services Lend a Helping Hand
A campaign for building a multi-cultural and cohesive society, for establishing further successful international relations and open-minded cooperation between people of different cultural backgrounds. For the sixth year in a row, Guest Star campaign continues to hold its meetings and continues to draw attention to the people who are making a positive contribution to Slovenia and its society.
2009
Prime sponsors Automotive sponsor Media partner Organizers Award ceremony partner
Looking for the most popular foreigners in Slovenia
BusinessDiplomacy
SportsCulture
Campaign timeline15th February: Introduction of the nominees1-31th March: Voting7th April: Final event
Nominate your candidate!Is there someone you think belongs among the nominees in one of the four categories? Send us their name, position and briefly state the reason for nomination. E-mail: [email protected]
2006
2007
2008
February 2010
�CONTENTS
POLITICS
6 Karel Erjavec shakes the coalition
7 Minister of Justice versus the Prosecutors
ECONOMY
10 Business services providers face new challenges
12 Managing human resources in crisis
14 Banks are still reluctant to lend money
16 The future of public relations in Slovenia
17 New opportunities in management consulting sector
18 Interview: Goran Brankovič, CEO of Slovenian Railways
22 Interview: Rudolf Klötscher, BSH
Partners
February 2010
4 Panorama
46 Every picture tells a story
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LIFESTYLE
24 The Renaissance of health resorts
27 Traditional masks
30 Hit the Slopes: Maribor Pohorje
32 Dine with style: Shambala
CULTURE
34 The capital: Festivalna dvorana
35 200 years of Chopin’s birth
36 The legend of Slavko Avsenik
38 The Event Guide
43 Interview: Oskar Korunovas, theatre director
SPORTS
44 Andrej Šporn, another downhill ace
HISTORY
45 The pioneers of Slovene aviation
2009
The Slovenia Times
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source: STA, Slovenian Press Agency
www.sloveniatimes.com
Published every month by DOMUS, založba in trgovina d.o.o.CEO and publisher: Brane Krajnik
Editorial office: Trg MDB 12, 1000 Ljubljana
phone – desk: +386 (0)1 520 50 84
phone – marketing: +386 (0)1 520 50 85
fax: +386 (0)1 520 50 82
email: [email protected]
PANORAMA
Editor-in-chiefMarko Vuković[email protected]
Senior editorJaka [email protected]
Copy editorTerry Troy Jackson, s.p.
Art directorMaja Kaplan ([email protected])
Marketing/Advertising
Marko Stijepić[email protected]
Irena Krž[email protected]
Uroš [email protected]
Subsciptions/[email protected]
Circulation: 10,000 copies.©DOMUS d.o.o., 2003. All rights reserved.
The Slovenia Times is listed in the Media Register of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia under number 491.
All content - texts or pictures - with no author specified are exclusively created by contributors to The Slovenia Times or published in accordance with owner’s instruction.Printed by Littera Picta Medvode
All uncredited materials printed in the Slovenia Times are either created by the Slovenia Times journalists/photographers or acquired from the author/owner in accordance with the legal terms.
For Unity, Understanding
Diplomacy
Žbogar in ParisForeign Minister Samuel Žbogar met French counter-part Bernard Kouchner in Paris, highlighting after the meeting talks on strategic partnership between the two countries. A declaration is expected to be penned soon at the highest level, which could be an opportunity for the first visit of Nicolas Sarkozy to Ljubljana. The pair had talked about a number of topics, including Europe, the Balkans bilateral relations, the Middle East and Afghanistan, however they did not touch on reports that Renault was planning to discontinue the production of the second generation of its Clio supermini model in its Slovenian subsidiary, Revoz.
Neighborhood
Friends again?Croatian Prime Minster Jadranka Kosor and President Stipe Mesić paid visits to Slovenia in mid January, both underlining in the meetings with their counterparts plans to follow up the signing of the border arbitra-tion agreement with a tackling of the remaining open issues between the two countries. PM Bourt Pahor received Kosor for an informal meeting in Kranjska Gora, with the pair agreeing on the creation of a joint com-mission which will review and propose solutions to open issues. The two countries will also address Slovenia’s remaining reservations in Croatia’s EU talks, which are related to Croatia’s failure to to fulfil its commitments related to the jointly-owned Krsko Nuclear Power Plant and issues related to fisheries. Pahor and Kosor announced that their next meeting would take place on the Croatian coast. The need for good relations was also stressed by Türk and Mesić as the later paid his farewell visit, before his term ends in February. The pair moreover agreed that Slovenia and Croatia must cooperate in the interest of the region.
Charity
Tents to HaitiSlovenia’s Administration for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief sent 25 tents worth some EUR 70,000 to Haiti to provide shelter for some 300 people who were left homeless in a devastating earthquake. Slovenia decided not to send experts but material aid because of the great distance between Slovenia and Haiti and because of the logistic problems the humanitarian staff is facing there. Also joining the relief efforts have been Slovenian branches of worldwide charities Caritas, Red Cross and UNICEF who opened donation bank accounts to raise money for the trou-bled country. In a first few days money raised topped EUR 150,000. The media also issued warnings of individuals who reportedly collected money “for Haiti” door-to-door, a practice unknown to any of the official charity organisations.
The new Ljubljana Archbishop Anton Stres called for coopera-tion at investiture Mass at Ljubljana’s St Nicholas’s Cathedral, saying his prime job would be to care for “good understanding and unity”. The high-profile ceremony which was attended by top religious dignitaries, senior state officials and members of the diplomatic corps. Stres believes unity should be sought in diversity. While he agrees that unity in diversity is difficult, he believes that it is possible to attain it if there is enough love, unselfish dedication and mutual respect. Stres was inaugurated as the 35th archbish-op of Ljubljana by Apostolic Nuncio Santos Abril y Castello. After reading the papal bull on Stres’s investiture, the nuncio presented Stres with a crozier, thus formally investing him as archbishop and metropolitan. Stres, who so far served as the Maribor auxiliary bishop, succeeds Alojz Uran, who asked for dismissal last year. Born in the village of Donacka gora in December 1942, Stres was ordained bishop in 2000. He took over in 2006 the newly-created Celje diocese and became Maribor auxiliary bishop in January 2009. He still serves as administrator of the Celje diocese. Ph
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�UNDER THE PRESS
“The public might get an impression that in the same way relationships used to be sharpened, now they have become a bit too sweetened. I would say that both of us were honest.” PM Pahor at a press conference explaining the relationship between himself and his Croatian counterparts.
“Slovenia has a medieval labour market. Because it is difficult to lay off people, employers don’t employ as many as they could.”
PM Pahor, comparing layoff conditions to feudal times.
Space
3,2,1... ESA!Higher Education, Science and Technology Minister Gregor Golobič signed in Noordwijk an agreement allowing Slovenia to be-come a participating state in the European Space Agency (ESA) allowing Slovenian com-panies, researchers and students to take part in ESA projects. The ESA grants the participant status only to those EU member states that have enough R&D potential to take part in its projects. Golobič stressed that the government was aware of the significance of space research and the opportunities it presented to science and economy: “Slovenia realises that it could never play a leading role in this field. But the fact is that its future lies in distinct specialisations, innovation and the ability to find new busi-ness opportunities.”
The Balkans
A Helping HandPM Borut Pahor promised Macedonia a support in its ef-forts to join the EU and NATO as he paid a working visit to Skopje. He stressed the time was right for Macedonia to resolve its dispute with Greece over the use of the name “Macedonia”. Pahor is said to have become personally involved in the discussion of the issue under the auspices of the UN in trying to help the two sides overcome their differences. During his one-day working visit, Pahor met his Macedonian counterpart Nikola Gruevski, who thanked him for the support and labelled Slovenia a strong friend of Macedonia. He also said that Slovenia had been one of the leading advocates of the measures that saw the EU lift visas for Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro at the end of last year. Pahor, who was accompanied by Foreign Minister Samuel Žbogar, pledged that Slovenia would con-tinue to provide development as-sistance to Macedonia.
Nature
Wolf Attacks IncreaseThe number of wolfs attacking small cattle in the southwestern region of Kras has been increas-ing every year since wolves were first spotted in the area in 1996 after decades of absence. In 2005, the number of attacks stood at 24, while in 2007 it climbed to 177. Last year, however, 251 attacks were recorded, in which 864 sheep, goats or donkeys were killed. Wolves returned to Kras with the spread of forest, which is home to their pray. The estimated dam-
age arising from wolf attacks reached EUR 150,000
in 2009, ac-cording to the
Slovenian Forest
Service.
Press
Masters of RatingsThe results of the National Readership Survey show that the most widely read paper in Slovenia in 2009 was free weekly Žurnal (360,000 readers), followed by TV guides Vikend (350,000) and Pilot (334,000), both supplements to dailies. These are followed by free weekly Dobro jutro, tabloids Slovenske novice and Nedeljski dnevnik, and supplement women’s magazine Ona, which all had a circulation of over 300,000 read-ers. Slovenske novice was most popular among dailies, followed by free daily Žurnal24 and broadsheets Delo, Večer and Dnevnik. Although only five printed media recorded higher readership, the number of the ones that recorded a drop was lower, which shows the falling trend in readership is slowing down. The readership survey, which also includes ratings for radio and TV stations, further showed the two most popular radio stations remained national broadcaster’s Val 202 and Slovenija 1, the third place going to commercial station Radio 1. Commercial TV channels meanwhile took over as with POP TV remaining in first place and Kanal A climbing to second. The first and second channels of national broadcaster RTV Slovenija thus only rank third and fourth. The falling readership trend of the printed media is meanwhile slowing down.
“If we have feudalism, then we should burn down the castles!”
ZSSS Union president Dušan Semolič, on a TV debate how to cope with medieval situations.
“Pope John Paul II often stated that there’s no need to be afraid of the church, the same as there’s no need to fear Jesus Christ. How could a man possibly fear his saviour along with the one who brings the message of the redemption, who makes a promise and includes you?”
The new archbishop Anton Stres at his inaugural mass, in front of the president and the prime minster, communicating an attempt to warm relationships with the state.
“If a replacement of a single minister becomes a key problem, a topic that is more crucial than the crisis, then there are bad times ahead. I will not speak about second-class topics.”
Opposition leader Janez Janša no-commenting the replacement of Karel Erjavec.
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� POLITICS
The Government
Now You See Him; Now You Don’tIn a surprising move, Karl Erjavec has resigned from his position as Minister of the Environment, shifting the political balance of power within the ruling coalition.By Jaka Bartolj
Erjavec’s decision came on January 26 after a heated de-bate in parliament. Erjavec,
who is also the head of DeSUS, did not have enough votes to survive a vote on his future. Crucially, he also didn’t have the support of Prime Minister Borut Pahor, who had asked Parliament to dismiss his minister.
In His CourtPahor announced his decision in
the wake of a ruling by the Court of Audit that Erjavec’s ministry had failed to establish an efficient system of separate waste collec-tion and had managed its finances poorly. In fact, the Court of Audit formally called on Erjavec to step down.
The Court’s Ruling raised con-siderable objections from Erjavec’s
supporters. It is simply improper, they pointed out, for the judicial branch to interfere with the ex-ecutive branch in such a matter – violating the principle of the separation of powers. Erjavec even announced that he would file for a constitutional review of the law governing the Court of Audit. However, constitutional scholars were quick to point out that the Prime Minister is not bound by the court’s decision.
And that’s precisely what upset Erjavec the most. Janez Janša, the previous Prime Minister, ignored a similar ruling from the Court of Audit. And when current Minister for Science and Higher Education Gregor Golobič was caught in a lie about his stake in a company with government contracts, Pahor for-gave him. The harsh punishment given to Erjavec was, in many ways, a break from past practice.
This appearance of double standards led Erjavec to argue that the Court of Audit ruling was just an excuse and that Pahor had been trying to get rid of him from the beginning.
A Last-Minute Ministry?Even before the new govern-
ment was formed in the wake of the September 2008 election, Karl Erjavec and his party were seen by many in the centre-left coalition as a liability. After all, he had served as Minister of Defense in the pre-vious centre-right government during the still-unresolved Patria Affair, which cantered around bribes for defence contracts. The new government, several mem-bers of which had been highly critical of Erjavec’s performance as minister, was quick to veto Er-javec’s bid to remain Minister of Defence.
However, the coalition needed DeSUS’s support, so Erjavec was offered a consolation post: The Ministry of the Environment. As it turned out, however, the posi-tion was somewhat of a booby prize. The ministry had been plagued with managerial prob-
lems for quite some time. For Pa-hor, having Erjavec take over the ministry had a double advantage: It placated Erjavec and his party, whose support Pahor needed, and it filled a position overseeing a troubled ministry.
This dilemma underscored De-SUS’s unique position in the gov-erning coalition. More than just an ordinary political party, DeSUS is also a powerful interest group representing a crucial segment of the electorate – retirees. Its unique position had initially given DeSUS – and Karl Erjavec – a dispropor-tionate amount of leverage. This power was evident when the gov-ernment initially gave in to DeS-US’s demand on pension increas-es for thousands of low-earning retirees.
Going OutHowever, if Erjavec got his min-
isterial post as a result of DeSUS’s influence, his political power had begun to wane in recent times. One reason was political infight-ing within DeSUS, which led to resignations and an overall weak-er party – a party that could no longer use its leverage to keep Erjavec in power. And despite his popularity among oridinary peo-ple, Erjavec had made too many political missteps.
One example of Erjavec’s loss of influence is the failure of his candidate to replace him, Matjaž Zanoškar, to obtain sufficient sup-port in Parliament.
When Pahor first threatened to replace Erjavec, the Minister threatened to take DeSUS out of the governing coalition. Despite rumblings of dissatisfaction and predictions that the party will re-consider its position, DeSUS will almost certainly remain a part of the governing coalition without Erjavec.
As for Erjavec, he has already announced plans to become an MP in 2012. The Slovenian pub-lic may not have seen the last of this populist, wise-cracking poli-tician.
It’s good to be the head of Pensioner party.
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February 2010
Law and order
Minister versus ProsecutorThe dispute between the State Prosecutor General Barbara Brezigar and Minister of Justice Aleš Zalar remains unresolved. The bone of contention? The draft of the instructions for the implementation of the State Prosecutor’s order that Minister Zalar has recently put forward but Barbara Brezigar and the prosecutors rejected.by Barbara Štor
Last September, Minister of Justice Aleš Zalar imposed extraordinary judicial over-
sight on the Ljubljana District Prosecutor’s Office, which – ac-cording to the Ministry – revealed major irregularities. The Prosecu-tor’s Office responded that there were merely slight deficiencies, but certainly not severe mistakes.
The reason for the oversight was prosecutor’s handling of the pro-ceedings against Finnish journal-ist Magnus Berglund in relation to the Patria defence scandal. At the beginning of last August, the Min-istry of Justice asked the prosecu-tion for explanations regarding the need to take action against the Finnish journalist, who had ac-cused former Prime Minister Jan-ez Janša of receiving a bribe in the 2006 Patria defence deal, especial-ly since the prosecutor responsible for the case threw out Janša’s com-plaint against Berglund. However,
the prosecution failed to provide the requested information; as a re-sult, the Ministry started the over-sight procedure. It suspected seri-ous irregularities and also wanted to investigate the office’s handling of other cases.
When the oversight revealed major irregularities, the minister decided to introduce special in-structions for the implementation of the state prosecutor’s order. At the same time, he stated that he would not require the dismissal of the State Prosecutor General, although his trust in her, he said, was severely shaken.
Facing ImplementationWhile the position of Barbara
Brezigar seems to be safe at the moment, the opposition Sloveni-an Democratic Party (SDS) called for dismissal of Minister Zalar be-cause of his alleged interference with the prosecution’s work. How-
ever, Prime Minister Borut Pahor asserts that the complaints were unfounded and that the minister has carried out its work in accord-ance with the law; he thus rejected the demand.
Dissatisfied, the SDS conse-quently threatened to file a mo-tion to oust the minister of justice; while the party has not yet decid-ed to actually do so, the initial re-actions of other parties suggested that such a move was doomed to fail. The Social Democrats (SD), Liberal Democrats (LDS) and the party ZARES also support the minister, while a vote against him would also probably not be en-dorsed by National Party (SNS).
The whole situation is heavily burdened with two decades of separate if political backgrounds. While Minister Zalar belongs to the LDS, many see Brezigar as a judicial guardian angel of opposi-tion leader Janez Janša.
Rebutted MinisterTo cool down the overheated at-
mosphere, in the middle of Janu-ary Aleš Zalar called a meeting with the heads of district prosecu-tion offices over the instructions he intended to issue. However, the prosecutors failed to heed his re-quest. Zalar termed their decision “a boycott of the rule of law.”
In return, Barbara Brezigar ac-cused the minister of “...threaten-
ing prosecutors with yellow cards before exclusion” and continued by stating that it was important that politicians not interfere with the prosecution’s work and to ac-cept the explanations and argu-ments given by prosecutors, who know their field.
Furthermore, according to Brezi-gar, “As a representative of the ex-ecutive branch, [the minister] may not summon the heads of prosecu-tors, bypassing the Supreme Pros-ecutor’s Office.” She asserted that by doing so, Zalar had encroached upon the independence of state institutions.
The Ministry of Justice replied by stating that the decision of prosecutors would in no way af-fect the issuing of instructions or-dered by the Minister.
Trying to bring about reconcilia-tion, Minister Zalar gave prosecu-tors a chance to prepare their own opinions regarding the instruc-tions and set a deadline to sub-mit their propositions. However, Prosecutor Brezigar has asked the minister for an extension and si-multaneously expressed both se-rious doubt whether she would be able to draw up their sugges-tions in time as well as hope that the ministry would not implement the instructions until the prosecu-tor’s office contributed its opinion. The Justice Ministry granted her request. Barbara Brezigar: Femme fatale?
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The Slovenia Times
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Only a couple of months ago, you would have to look hard to find someone that insisted on cutting public spending as a recipe for dealing with the crisis. Keynesianism was rampant: with over-indebted companies and insecure house-holds unable or unwilling to spend, the government was the only bulwark against the total collapse in demand, the adage went. However, without sustainable pick-up in economic growth the government could spend itself into bankruptcy, econo-mists warn. Here’s where the exit strategy comes in.Slovenia’s exit strategy 2010-2013 focuses on measures to cut public spending, with the aim of convincing Slovenia’s creditors and rating agen-cies that the country is a creditworthy borrower. The strategy, which is being drawn up by a govern-ment coordinating group headed by Development
and European Affairs Minister Mitja Gaspari a consolidation of public finances, as well on steps towards stronger flexicurity and structural and institutional adjustments.
Boštjan Vasle of IMAD, the boss of the govern-ment’s economic policy think tank, highlighted Slovenia’s growing debt abroad. Slovenia took out EUR 3.5bn in loans last year, while a slightly higher figure is also planned for this year. “This is problematic in terms of interest payments. These will climb to more than EUR 500m this year and reach close to EUR 700m in 2011, which is twice as much as in 2008,” he stressed.
The government hopes to be able to cut public spending by an additional EUR 600m annually in the coming years, which should be possible by setting priorities and downsizing or abolishing ineffective or low priority programmes.
The flexicurity section of the document envisages among other things the introduction of caps for social pension and health care contributions. According to the Finance Ministry, a cap in pen-sion and health care contributions would annually mean EUR 235m less in contributions, which could however be offset with other tax measures.
The minimum wage is to be increased to the level of minimum costs of living in three steps, starting with January 2010 and ending in 2012. The first step, in 2010 would covered for by the state with an increase of the general tax relief, while employ-ers would take over in 2011 and 2012. Changes are also planned in the area of student work.
Major structural changes meanwhile involve a reform of the pension system (raising of the minimum and full retirement age, which would
become equal for men and women), changes to the system of long-term care, and a health care reform addressing the irrational and uncontrolla-ble costs in health care.
On a more positive note, the government said that the budget deficit for 2009 as a share of GDP will be nearly 0.2 percentage points lower than initial-ly planned, at 4.8% of GDP. The general govern-ment deficit by EU standards, which includes all public purses, on the other hand, stood at 5.9%. The European Commission had forecast a 6.3% budget deficit for Slovenia in November.
The only way out for an export-dependent econo-my such as Slovenia’s is to increase its exports, however. With competitiveness taking a serious dive last year, this will be hard. While labour costs gradually stopped rising, the drop in productivity was much more substantial. The country found itself at the very bottom in terms of cost-competi-tiveness in the EU. So it’s either lower wages or less people doing the same amount of work – not a cheery prospect for the country’s battered work-ing class.
ECONOMyFACTS AND FIGURES source: STA, Slovenian Press Agency
Looking for the Way Out
Beverages industry
Laško Plans to Start Production In SerbiaPivovarna Laško plans to set up a production base in Serbia, the head of the beverage group Dušan Zorko announced. According to Zorko, local presence is a prerequisite for popularity. The CEO is meanwhile considering inviting Laško’s em-ployees into the group’s ownership structure. “Everything is ready, we only need to reach a final agree-ment with the partners,” Zorko said. He estimates the invest-ment at a few tens of millions of euros, “which is something that we can handle and obtain”.
Highways
DARS Capable of Servicing Debt, For NowDARS boss Mateja Duhovnik said that the national motor-way company’s debt currently stands at around EUR 4.5bn. While DARS has enough rev-enues to cover its credit liabili-ties, 2010 could prove a critical year, she believes. Duhovnik said that higher revenues from toll stickers than expected al-lowed the company to smoothly service its debt. The company collected EUR 230m, EUR 30m more than projected.
SMEs
Slovenian Craft With 20% Drop in 2009Slovenian craft and small business were affected by the financial and economic crisis to the extent that the output in 2009 fell by 20% on aver-age, president of the Chamber of Craft and Small Business (OZS) Stefan Pavlinjek said. According to him, the worst is over, since employment has already started to rise. The only area where problems are still expected in 2010 is construction, where all major projects were finished last year.
Pharmaceuticals
Krka Ups Revenues and Profit Last YearPharma group Krka generated EUR 951m in revenues in 2009, one mil-lion more than in 2008. Revenues at the level of the parent company rose by 3% to EUR 850m, while net profit increased by 6% to EUR 170m. The group’s net profit was a few million euros higher. Some EUR 90m of the net profit is the result of releasing the provisions for some patents, especially for atorvastatin for lowering blood cholesterol, Krka CEO Jože Colarič explained.
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GRAH PREVODI, s.p., Užiška ulica 6, 2000 Maribor, SloveniaT: +386 (0)31 731 006, E: [email protected], www.grahprevodi.com
The Festive Season Discounts – Real Bargains
Translation, Consecutive Interpreting, Proofreading
Experts on Technical, Legal, Medical and Other Texts
February 2009
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Car industry
Car Sales Drop 21% in 2009
The sale of new cars in Slovenia dropped nearly 21% in 2009 compared to the year before, while Renault, Volkswagen and Opel remained the most popular cars. The number of newly registered cars reached 60,951 between January and December 2009. Renault sold 16.94% of all cars, although its sales dropped 13.57% year-on-year to 9,428 cars. Volkswagen sold 5,848 cars, down 22.4% compared to the year before, its market share amount-ed to 10.5%. The third most popular car maker in Slovenia, German Opel, sold 4,567 cars (8.2%), 29.6% less than the year before.
Railways
Govt to Pump EUR 38m Into Railways OperatorThe government has agreed to an EUR 38.4m injection to the debt-ridden national railway operator, Slovenske železnice, railway opera-tor boss Goran Brankovič said after the company was visited by PM Borut Pahor. “This will save the com-pany from an imminent collapse, but further measures will be required to pull the company out of the red in the long run, said Brankovič. The company sent over 1,075 of its employees on state-subsidised paid leave until the end of June, while fur-ther temporary layoffs are expected in the coming months.
Workers’ rights
Social Partners Agree on Raise of Minimum Wage
The government and employers agreed to the trade unions’ demand that the minimum wage be raised to the level of minimum costs of living in 2010. However, the cabinet and employers insist on tying this to greater flexibility of labour legisla-tion, whereas unionists demand that minimum wage be increased immediately. The trade unions called on the government to take a position on their demand that legislative amendments raising the minimum wage by EUR 102 to EUR 562 net be sent to the National Assembly now and not together with changes to labour legislation.
Economy
Wages Up By 6.9% in NovemberThe average net wage in Slovenia increased by 6.9% to EUR 999.49 in November 2009 and was 1.8% higher year-on-year, yet the high in-crease is mostly the result of extra payments like Christmas bonuses which are usually given at the end of the year. The average gross wage stood at EUR 1,570.53, which is 8.5% more than a month before.
Poverty
Slovenia with Low At-Risk-of-Poverty RateThe at-risk-of-poverty rate in Slovenia stood at 12% in 2008, which puts Slovenia among the eight countries in the EU with the smallest relative number of people whose income after social transfers was below the poverty threshold, Eurostat figures released suggest. The survey, presented along with the launch of the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion, shows that in 2008, 17% of the population in the EU were at risk of poverty.
Public debt
Slovenia Sells EUR 1.5bn Bond IssueSlovenia successfully sold a EUR 1.5bn bond issue in January, mostly attracting banks and assets manag-ers. German, Slovenian, British and French investors showed the most interest in the ten-year bond that has a coupon rate of 4.125%. In less then five hours, 150 investors subscribed for a total of EUR 2bn. Banks bought 45% of the issue, as-sets managers 26%, and insurance companies 24%, leaving 5% for the remaining investors. Slovenia sold three bonds in 2009: a three-year issue worth EUR 1bn in January, a five-year issue worth EUR 1.5bn in March and a 15-year issue worth EUR 1.5bn in September.
OECD
Slovenia Could Join OECD in MaySlovenia could become a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in May, OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria after meeting Slovenian Foreign Minister Samuel Žbogar in Paris. The negotiations are running very smoothly and all formalities could be settled in April, he explained. “I think we are ap-proaching the finish line,” Minister Zbogar stated after a visit to the OECD headquarters in the French capital.
Economic diplomacy
Govt Approves over EUR 42M for JAPTIThe government approved the financial and project plan of Slovenia’s Public Agency for Entrepreneurship and Foreign Investments (JAPTI) for 2010 and 2011. This year the agency will get EUR 42.6m to support international presence of Slovenian companies and to attract foreign investors. Over EUR 40m will go into projects including Slovenia’s representa-tives abroad, while the remaining EUR 2.5m will fund the agency’s operations, Economy Minister Matej Lahovnik said.
Economy
Fitch Preserves AA credit Rating for SloveniaInternational credit rating agen-cy Fitch Ratings has affirmed Slovenia’s issuer default ratings at “AA” with a stable outlook, the Finance Ministry said. Fitch also confirmed for 2010 the short-term foreign currency rating at “F1+”. The rating for Slovenia continues to be based on the country’s relatively well-diversified economy and a stable, transparent political system. Achievements include eurozone membership, which is an asset for Slovenian public finance and country risk evaluation, the ministry recaps Fitch’s report.
Steel industry
MLM Foundry Generates EUR 3M Loss
Foundry Mariborska livarna Maribor (MLM) generated EUR 3m loss in 2009, a consequence of the tough economic situation. The foundry’s revenues reached EUR 61m. The management expects the foun-dry to increase sales revenues by some 15% in 2010. MLM’s boss Branko Žerdoner said 2010 could either bring a EUR 1m loss or the group could break even. The group employs 725 people and it is not planning any layoffs, however it already reduced the number of its employees by 13% between 2008 and 2009.
House appliances
BSH Hišni Aparati Makes Profit Despite RecessionThe house appliances giant has continued working succesfully throughout the economic downturn with 5% profit increase in 2009 in comparison to 2008. The company increased its workforce in Slovenia by 9%, now employing 1,050 people. In 2009, its factory in Nazarje produced 5.7 mil-lion house appliances. BSH Hišni Aparati also managed to open offices in Serbia in addition to its offices in Croatia that opened in 2008.
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The Slovenia Times
Supporting GrowthWhether they are riding the wave of an economic boom or grappling with the fallout from a crisis, it is usually exporters, energy companies and real estate developers that get the most attention. The providers of business services that make the market economy purr along come hell or high water, however, tend to get overlooked. Having high-quality business services support operations helps companies weather the crisis and seize new opportunities in the long-awaited rebound. By Marko Vuković and Maja Dragović
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BUSINESS SERVICES
February 2010
ECONOMY
It is not only the companies that profit from a well-developed business services market, how-
ever. Marja Torkar’s story is a case in point. A chemical engineer by profession, Torkar had been em-ployed by a Slovenian pharma-ceutical company, but then lost her job in a reorganisation. Instead of relying on government-sponsored employment agencies, she decid-ed to throw her lot with a human resources management (HRM) firms.
Three months later she got a job with the same drug maker, the only difference being that the new job was better suited to her expe-rience and abilities. “It seems that the agency was very well aware of what my employer wanted and where my skills could fit in,” she explains.
Hard times: An opportunity?
A skilled worked force may still be a hard-to-find asset, but these days, unfortunately, companies are thinking more of cost-cutting than investing in new employees. This may not bode well for those HRM services providers that were doing well only because the thirst of businesses for workers seemed unquenchable in boom times.
Other providers, however, may see the demand for their services rise as the economy reels. Tax ad-visors and accountants, helping companies navigate the flotsam and jetsam of tax codes and com-plex accounting regulations, are in high demand, especially at a time when every euro counts. It has become a platitude to say that a crisis can also be an opportunity, but at least in the field of business services some companies could come out on top, as their custom-ers move to cut costs and exploit every loophole available to save money.
Not that badWhen the fallout from the US fi-
nancial crisis hit Slovenia in early 2009, the stock market was the first to feel the pinch. With investors fleeing to safer asset classes, share values crashed and mutual funds were bleeding money. Not even a year later, however, the Ljubljana Stock Exchange (LJSE) started see-ing the first increases in volume of traded shares. As central banks around the world inundated the markets with cheap money, some of it found its way to Slovenia, giv-ing brokerages and fund manag-ers a much needed boost.
Although the reputation of fi-nancial firms is at its lowest in decades, the loss of confidence will not hurt all financial services providers to the same extent. Take
credit insurers, for example. With loans increasingly harder to come by and an increasing number of companies on the verge of insol-vency, it is becoming increasingly sensible (and common) to take out insurance on loans or accounts receivable.
Sorting it outHowever, is inevitable that some
companies will go under. Perverse as it may seem, bankruptcies are not necessarily a bad thing, espe-cially for those business services providers that specialise in insol-vency and bankruptcy procedures. When it comes to untangling a web of claims on a bankrupt com-pany’s assets, debt restructuring and selling off viable portions of the business, highly-qualified pro-fessionals are required.
Judging by the latest efforts of Slovenia’s competition watchdog to make sure that a competitive situation is established on markets as diverse as retail and electricity distribution, it seems that lawyers specializing in competition law will not be sitting empty handed any time soon.
Shifting prioritiesOn the other side, the crisis has
resulted in a decrease of business transactions, such as mergers and acquisitions, hence a fall in de-mand for legal advice on these activities.
“Before the recession, we were mostly advising on transaction structuring within the framework of the applicable Slovenian laws – such as takeovers act, capital markets rules, specific regulatory regimes like the banking, insur-ance, energy sectors – and accom-panying merger control advice,”
explains Vid Kobe of the Schoen-herr law firm.
However, at the start of the economic downturn, interest for investing in Slovenia fell signifi-cantly, but other issues surfaced and different types of legal advice were sought.
“Since the recession,” adds Kobe, “the focus of our clients’ interests has somewhat shifted to corporate housekeeping, capi-tal maintenance rules, general compliance with regulatory laws. There is also growing interest in advice with regard to corporate restructuring and the implica-tions of the Slovenian insolvency regime. Also, we have noticed an increase of demand for advice re-lating to the implications of the Slovenian merger control regime with regard to foreign-to-foreign
mergers, reflecting the numer-ous ‘distressed’ mergers of large multinationals taking place these days.”
Value for moneyWhat also emerged was that
clients are now making sure they get their money’s worth, with every single piece of information requested is being scrutinised for its value.
“A client will – more so than be-fore the recession – impose strict timing deadlines and fee limits, as well as carefully evaluate each individual piece of advice with re-spect to whether it is, indeed, help-ful,” says Kobe. “Especially in the business of legal services it is now, more than ever, indispensable for a lawyer to truly understand the industry in which the client oper-ates and to be able to produce ac-curate, lean and business-oriented advice.”
The old waysEven though certain changes
in the downturn have occurred, one would be naive to think that the change fundamental or per-manent. The types of services are evolving and, with Slovenia com-ing out of the recession, foreign interest is returning. And with them, the old type of advice.
“Lately, we are seeing more and more foreign companies return-ing,” notes Nina Zidar-Klemenčič, a well-known lawyer. “They are primarily interested in invest-ment opportunities and are seek-ing legal advice on their local op-erations. With increased foreign investment, we will experience an increased demand for top per-formance in the business service sector in Slovenia.”
11
Not so explosive anymore producer price indices for selected business services, 2006=100
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The Slovenia Times
ECONOMY
Human resources management
Back to BasicsThe recession has forced the human resource sector to return to their fundamental business model, which is to act as a middleman for employers and job seekers.By Maja Dragović
In 2009, financial sector caught the headlines with cuts and fi-nancial losses but the human
resources management firms have suffered equally in the economic downturn. Tight economic condi-tions have heavily shaken the la-bour market. This is not surpirs-ing since when a company decides to cut costs, the first on the list has always been streamlining human resources. Of course, Slovenia is no different - it’s unemployment rate has gone up to 6.8% in No-vember 2009 from 4.6% in Janu-ary 2009 (see chart). The impact is obvious on the government’s spending. But employment agen-cies have also faced some unprec-edented challenges.
Steep fallAdecco, an international hu-
man resources management firm, reported a 35% fall in demand for its services in Slovenia in 2009 in comparison to 2008, with the first half of last year being particularly hard.
Moje Delo, a Slovenian employ-ment web portal, also saw a sharp fall in demand for its services in 2009 – an incredible 50%. They ob-served the biggest fall in industry terms in the metal production in-dustry and the real estate sector. In contrast, the greatest demand for new employees in 2009 was seen in the pharmaceutical indus-tries, as well as IT and insurance sectors.
“The companies were employ-ing primarily in the services sec-tor and the value-added services, which - unfortunately - are not in abundance in Slovenia, thus the employment wasn’t massive,” commented Adecco.
Everything’s changedTo weather the crisis, changes
had to be made. In Moje Delo, they had to cut costs and reorganise certain projects. They also went further, by helping those most in need of their services - the un-employed. Throughout 2009, the company organised free seminars around Slovenia, which were de-signed to inform visitors on ways of finding employment.
Not only did the number of de-mands for the services of employ-
ment agencies changed - the type of demand has changed, too. Moje Delo is finding that companies are recruiting more carefully and employers are putting more em-phasis on keeping their current workforce. They want to retain good people so they want to find out how much their employees are worth in today’s market. At Si-mobil, for example, they have cut down on using external staff, and are relying more on the internal employees. As a result of this strat-egy, HRM agencies are being asked to provide advisory services such as assessment centres even for sen-ior management personnel.
There has also been a change in the type of employment, with an increase in demand for part-time and temporary employees. This type of employment had been growing rapidly in Slovenia even before the crisis, especially since the country joined the European Union in 2004.
“Long-term employment is al-most gone,” said Tomaž Dimnik, the business director of Moje Delo.
Future problemsThe current trend with employ-
ers is that they only employ new people when there is an immedi-ate need to fill in a position. The employment agencies agree this strategy is appropriate for staff with lower qualifications, where
basic training can be done fairly quickly. But the agencies warn that highly qualified profession-als will be difficult to find in the future and the choice in a country like Slovenia will be small. The headhunting agency Trescon says this is not new and that shortage of highly skilled professionals has been apparent in the past decade. Poor employer branding and poor image of some professions have added to this problem, the agen-cy says. But lack of key personnel could only play in the hands of recruitment companies and addi-tionally increase their role in the employment sector.
“That si why so many of our searches are headhunting based,”
explains Petra Treven Bernat, head of Trescon. “And the fact is that this applies to the search for specialist managers and not gen-eral managers.”
The local attitudeThere is an additional problem
in Slovenia that prevents compa-nies from hiring the best candi-dates. The fact that most small or mid-sized companies do not have a designated HR manager – most HR operations are done by sec-retaries, directors or managers – shows that the importance of hu-man resource management is not fully taken into account.
“Statistics show that one HRM expert is usually there to serve 80 or more people”, explains Ms Treven Bernat. “There are other extremes,” she continues, “we have a media client who decided to employ an HRM expert only af-ter reaching 300 employees”.
Industry experts warn that the role of the HRM in Slovenian la-bour market will have to become more strategic rather than mana-gerial. To cap that, the providers of such services here have to find ways to raise up to challenges left by the recession itself.
“The recession has made a long-lasting impact on HRM services,“ Dimnik said. “It is hard to have the same level of quality and low-er prices, so only those who will be innovative, fast and with the best service will survive.”
12
With the right attitude, unemployment need not be a curse; HRM agencies are here to help
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J F M A M J J A O N D 2009
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featuring
Building a lasting world
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Build strategies and alliances to ensure your company’s steady growth.
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Register for MIPIM and:
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Obtain a clear vision of the state of the market,
Spotlight on Poland at MIPIM 2010MIPIM 2010 will honour Poland, a market that has remained strong despite the crisis.
As the Country of Honour, Poland will receive special coverage on the MIPIM website, in publications and in communications. A series of dedicated conferences and events will increase visibility for Polish
exhibitors and promote the country’s market potential to an international audience.
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For further information, please contact us:Paris (HQ) tel: +33 (0)1 41 90 45 20London tel: +44 (0) 20 7528 0086New York tel: +1 (212) 284 5141
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Spotlight
2010
slovenia_times_230x320.indd 1 25/01/10 09:10
The Slovenia Times
1� ECONOMY
Banks
Waiting for Better Times Credit is the life-blood of every economy. In the boom years from 2004 to 2007, debt was one of the most important drivers of Slovenia’s economic growth. It not only allowed export-oriented companies to invest into new production capacity, it also fuelled real estate and stock market bubbles. Today, however, banks are stingy with loans; a significant volume have gone bad, making banks wary about lending even though government guarantee schemes are in place. By Marko Vuković
Economists warn that the government has moved too slowly and that the im-
plementation and take-up of the schemes has been half-hearted. Companies say that the govern-ment’s actions did not significant-ly alleviate the credit crunch. This might not be entirely the govern-ment’s fault, however. With the re-cession in full swing, banks have started to screen borrowers more thoroughly, while debt-laden com-panies have lost their appetite for new loans. Credit growth has thus fallen steeply (see chart).
Troubles in wonderlandAt the end of December, the
news broke that NLB, Slovenia’s biggest bank, postponed a EUR 250 m rights issue that would re-plenish its capital base. With the government being the biggest sin-gle shareholder in the bank, that would mean committing a signif-icant amount of taxpayer money. KBC, a Belgian financial group that owns a third of NLB, is selling its stake and is thus not interested in pumping fresh capital into the state-owned behemoth.
While NLB’s head, Božo Jašovič, says that the bank needs money for expansion abroad, especially into the markets of southeast-ern Europe, some economists have warned that the rights is-sue is more about making sure that NLB gets a sounder capital adequacy ratio. Under previous management, Slovenia’s leading bank was involved in financing a couple of controversial manage-ment buyouts (MBOs) that later went awry, not to mention its ex-posure to the souring real estate market.
The state to the rescue? With the economy still flailing,
loans are bound to go from bad to worse. Injecting fresh capital into state-owned banks at a time when private investors are shying away from such investments seems like a good policy. In 2008, NLB and NKBM, the country’s second big-gest bank, sold EUR 300 m and
EUR 51m of new shares, respec-tively. The majority of funds were provided by the government as the largest shareholder in both fi-nancial institutions.
State ownership of the banks has long been an issue dividing economists and policy makers alike. Critics point to the fact that NLB and NKBM extended MBO loans to politically well-connect-ed firms, allegedly accepting less than adequate collateral. Be that as it may, both banks are being gradually privatized.
Small shareholders and a couple of institutional investors bought up more than half of NKBM’s shares in 2008, while KBC is look-ing for a buyer for its share of NLB. It seems that the govern-ment will have to think about of-fering potential buyers more than half of the bank to make it worth their while. Santander, a Spanish financial group, is rumoured to have expressed interest, although it will probably not be satisfied only with the third of NLB now in KBC’s hands.
Fighting the crisisIt is now clear that European
economies have entered a pro-longed period of suboptimal growth. During the boom, Slov-
enia imported far more than it ex-ported, which was possible only because banks bridged the gap with their loans to households and companies. In order to do so, however, they issued bonds and took out syndicated loans on in-ternational financial markets; once the latter froze in the wake of the Lehman collapse, funds for continuing credit expansion were nowhere to be had.
The government has stepped in with guarantees, but the take up of the schemes has been slow, and
the credit crunch persists. This does not mean that bankers are sitting on their hands. Abanka, Slovenia’s third biggest bank, is planning to merge with Gorenjska banka, thus creating the nation’s second biggest bank.
With the European Central Bank’s refinancing rates at their lowest in a decade, money is cheap and liquidity ample. Let us just hope that bankers are not using the money to take over their com-petitors, instead of helping the economy on its feet.
NLB’s boss Božo Jašovič (left) and his counterpart at Abanka Aleš Žajdela face tough business environment
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Broadening the HorizonsMIPIM, the World’s Property Market, together with MIPIM Horizons, dedicated to fast-growing regions, will share the billing in Cannes from March 16-19. MIPIM featuring MIPIM Horizons will highlight such markets as Latin America, Turkey, and Africa. According to a recent report by Ernst & Young*, emerging countries are taking advantage of the crisis by delivering sustained growth that is attracting both domestic and international investors.
MIPIM 2010
Property professionals have noted this trend, as confirmed by Nadine Castagna, Director of MI-PIM featuring MIPIM Horizons: “The first MIPIM Horizons in 2008 clearly demonstrated the grow-ing interest from international property compa-nies in these high potential regions. By incorpo-rating MIPIM Horizons into MIPIM for the first time this year, we offer an opportunity for all our participants to meet key new players from these
areas who come to showcase their dynamic prop-erty products to the rest of the world.”Major real-estate developments from these areas will help expand the MIPIM exhibition hall this year. Flagship projects include the Sport Cities Interna-tional Tunis project (Tunisia), a sports-focused real estate development, which will be presented by the Bukhatir Group. Nicaragua Developments (Nicaragua) will exhibit its luxury Seaside Mariana resort, located on the Pacific coast. The devel-oper Sbt Juul (South Africa) will unveil the Monte project, located in the Rivers State (Nigeria) and directly inspired by traditional Tuscan villages. The 2010 conference sessions will be specially designed to probe deeper into the particulars of these markets, often perceived as hard to pen-etrate by professionals, and highlight potential in-vestment opportunities. For example, case stud-ies will be dedicated to countries such as Brazil, which will promote the infrastructure to be de-
veloped for the 2014 World Cup Finals and the 2016 Olympic Games which it is hosting. Another session will focus on the extensive redevelopment plan launched in Morocco. This national program factors in sustainable development criteria and is intended to create new urban areas and open up traditional rural communities to meet the coun-try’s new needs. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey will also be analysed.
Exclusive in 2010: MIPIM will feature the second annual MIPIM Horizons, the world’s property market for fast-growing regions. Discover potential opportunities in emerging markets through special projects, conferences and events.
MIPIM, the world’s premier real estate market for more than 20 years, brings together the most influential players in the global property sector, offering unrivalled access to the greatest number of development projects worldwide.
adve
rtis
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* Globalization 2.0 Report published on December 15, 2009, Ernst & Young - “Emerging markets: towards a new global architecture.”
The Slovenia Times
1�
derstanding of clients’ business needs, their business reality and an ability to adapt PR services [to them] with proven and measura-ble effects,« says Marjeta Tič Vesel, PR director at communications/consulting firm Pristop.
Large companies are diverting their attention from traditional marketing platforms to new me-dia where costs are significantly lower so it will be vital for PR firms to have mastered new media
Size doesn’t matterIn Slovenia, many of the agen-
cies facing these challenges are relatively small. It might seem that such organisations - already deal-ing with limited resources before the economic downturn - don’t stand a chance of weathering the storm. But so far that’s not proved to be the case. Again, challenges seem to result in creativity.
»I don’t think the size of the company is a measurement for success,« comments Ms Tomšič of Etre PR. »Maybe in smaller com-
panies employees are under more pressure but they are also more creative since they get straight into the project rather than having the briefing session delays one has in a bigger company.«
Trust meAnd with the status of corpo-
rate managers falling greatly dur-ing these economic difficulties - a recent poll published by Finance Daily showed that only 48% of the general public in Slovenia trust corporate managers - there are plenty of opportunities for PR teams to unleash that creativity. Increasing numbers of companies are turning to public relations professionals to repair their dam-aged public images.
»Last year the demand for inter-net communication, management of social media, crisis communi-cation, conflict management, and internal communication all in-creased,« explains SPEM. »Crisis communication is often the reason for hiring a PR agency.«
ECONOMY
Projecting an attractive public image has become increasingly important for businesses in all sectors of the economyIn the years of economic boom,
Slovenian business PR serv-ices thrived. Some saw it as
easy money - especially in a coun-try where people like to see their name in the paper, whether the news is good or bad. But the real-ity was that the industry was al-ready facing a significant change: the rise of new media. The power of traditional means of commu-nication was suddenly dwarfed by the collective power of the in-ternet - first blogs, podcasts, now Facebook and Twitter. PR profes-sionals had to find new ways to represent clients in the best pos-sible light.
More money, less money
Just as the industry had started to grapple with that challenge came a new one: recession. Wheth-er clients cut or increased budg-ets, one factor remained constant - they expected value for money more than ever before.
»Since the recession, clients have become more careful when choosing their PR representation,«
says Barbara Tomšič of the Etre PR agency. »They are also becoming more demanding. For the money they pay, they want innovative and well researched campaigns.«
»Without a doubt the coming years are going to be demanding because clients have higher expec-tations,« a spokeswoman for the PR consultancy SPEM says.
But both organisations see the situation as an exciting creative challenge.
»For us, this [situation] mainly means being creative and fresh when it comes to looking for new means of communication,« SPEM say.
Ms Tomšič believes it leads to a stronger bond between agency and customer.
»The agency is actually able to delve deeper into a brand, follow the brand, and thus have better communication with the client,« she says.
Only the strongest will surviveInevitably, not all agencies will
be able to develop this kind of relationship.
»What will set apart the PR win-ners from the losers is a deep un-
The recession has provided the public relations industry with a unique challenge: dealing with a simultaneous increase and decrease in budgets. While some companies have poured more money into PR, reasoning that communications activity can help retain their market share during the downturn, others have severely cut the amount of money they dedicate to publicity. But the industry is coping in the way it always does: through creativity. By Claire Read and Lucija J. Millonig
Public Relations
Creating Opportunities
February 2010
17
Management consulting
Adaptability Is the Way ForwardWhen Slovenia joined the European Union in 2004, there were plenty of benefits waiting to be reaped, not least for the consulting industry. Already booming, the industry saw new opportunities surface with EU membership, with domestic companies looking to expand abroad and international companies looking to establish themselves in the Slovenian market. But last year came recession, and with it a corporate culture of “do more with less”. The question for the consultancy industry: will firms still have a need for consultants as they did before 2009? The surprising answer: yes.By Claire Read
The numbers are striking. Statistics from the European Federation of Management
Consultancies Associations show that in the 1990s, the Slovenian management consulting industry had an average growth rate of 13% a year. 2005, the year following EU membership, saw an additional 9% growth, generating a EUR120 mil-lion profit for that year. 2007 saw the industry grow by a whopping 19,5%, and in 2008 the trend con-tinued with 17% growth.
A different ball game2009. Recession. And with it un-
forseen challenges for consultancy companies across the globe. Slove-nia was no exception: the fact that in 2009 the consultancy sector is expected to have grown by 1-3% following years of double-digit growth speaks for itself. But even though it’s been modest, there has been growth. How has it been achieved?
Driving factorThe answer can be summed up
in one word: adaptability. With the market as a whole changing, con-sultancy agencies had to change with it. Mr Janko Arah, head of Arah Consultancy in Ljubljana, points out that in the recession pe-riod there were more company liq-uidations than startups, and more terminations of employment rela-tions than new employment. So the challenge for consulting com-panies was to adjust its activities to the new market demand.
Deloitte, a global consultancy firm with offices in Slovenia, no-ticed similar changes. They de-scribe «a significant increase in requests for risk management, hu-man capital, fraud protection, and strategy realigniment« during the economic downturn. «Overall we have seen a significant trend to-ward the public sector, an increase
in competition for tenders, and a realignment of pricing“, a spokes-person added.
Self-analysisThis fall and change in demand
has brought about an unexpected benefit, industry insiders say: a fundamental re-think of the sector from within the sector itself. Most agree this has been crucial given that the finger of blame for the re-cession has often been pointed at the consultancy industry.
«Recession is not a Slovenian phenomenon – it is a global prob-lem with global and local roots«, said Mr Arach. «In my opinion, very ‘innovative’ consultants who have advised bank managers, insurance companies and other American or global players con-tributed to the economic down-turn by promoting and supporting unrealistic business decisions.«
Strategic positionThere is no doubt that the re-
cession has posed challenges for business. But by being flexible and adaptable, it’s a challenge which many companies have managed to meet – consultancy firms includ-ed. Slovenian consultancy firms believe that they are in a better position to emerge from the crisis stronger than in some other Euro-pean countries, such as Portugal. They belive their strength lies in their good market position and prospective foreign markets such as southeast Europe.
Mr Peter Kraljič, of McKinsey consulting group, predicts that the growth of consultancy firms is far from over. «The demand for consulting services will grow in line with overall economic and in-dustry growth,« he says »yet prob-ably also with increasing regional differences, reflecting growing yet different needs.«
ECONOMY
Peter Kraljič, a McKinsey legend, thinks that consultancy business is not in a recession
Slovenian consultancy firms believe that they are in a better position to emerge from the crisis stronger than in some other European countries
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The Slovenia Times
1�
Interview: Goran Brankovič, Slovenian Railways
Assuming an Active RoleGoran Brankovič has no easy task ahead of him. At the beginning of October, he became the eighth CEO of Slovenske železnice (Slovenian Railways) in the last five years. He took over a railway monopoly that is overburdened by debts and losses. The Slovenian government (the owner of the company) promised at the beginning of this year to provide millions of euros to help the company avoid bankruptcy. Brankovič is nevertheless confident that the company can become a successful logistics player, but some conditions need to be met. Until then, he is just trying to find as much business as possible for the company. A small success in this regard is his recent meeting with the CEO of Deutsche Bahn, which is especially interested in cooperation with Slovenske železnice in the field of cargo traffic. By Luka Vodopivec
Shortly after becoming the CEO you announced an internal reorganization and increased sales in the field of cargo traffic, which is the activity with the biggest losses for the company. When do you expect to see more concrete re-sults of your actions?
It is true that cargo traffic is our only money-losing activity, but this is significantly connected to the economic crisis, because 90 percent of the cargo is transported in international traffic. Together with my co- workers, I have been paying the utmost attention to car-go traffic. Our goal is to adapt the operations to the new conditions as quickly as possible and try to seize new opportunities. The measures that we are carrying out include enhancing the capaci-ties of our sales team, expanding operations in the field of full logis-tics services, greater attentiveness for the needs of the buyers, part-nership with the port Luka Kop-er, expansion of activities abroad and expansion to the new markets in south eastern Europe. We are also developing a modern logistics terminal in Moste, optimizing the operation processes, enlarging productivity and rationalizing material costs. All of these activi-ties should eventually bring some positive results.
How do you plan to approach the small number of competitors that could quickly take a bigger piece of your market share? You said recently that there is a dan-ger of losing up to 60 percent of the market.
We cannot delude ourselves; competitors have already taken away some market share. This is logical, because our biggest com-petitor is a company from Aus-tria, a county that is connected to almost half of our cargo. The advantage of our competitors is undoubtedly that they are more adaptive and more cost efficient, because they have only recently
ECONOMY
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February 2010
1�
started their business. It is no se-cret that they can attract the former staff from Slovenske železnice, because they can promise them better work conditions. Neverthe-less, we are confident that we can match the challenge. We will not be passively waiting for cargo; we are assuming an active role on all company levels. I am personally assuming the role of the lead sales person of the company. I constant-ly travel abroad and look for new business anywhere I can.
How, in more concrete terms, do you plan to provide full logis-tics services?
Slovenske železnice must be-come a technologically advanced and cost-efficient logistics provid-er and in this regard we must look abroad. Our multisystem locomo-tives enable us to transport cargo to almost every European country. We are currently waiting for per-mission to start using railways in Austria. We are also expanding our cooperation with companies from the Balkan countries and Germany. Our aim is to be able to provide quality service for the whole cargo route. The mental-ity of the staff needs a definite change: no more just picking up orders and waiting for the buyers to contact us. These are the first concrete steps; others will follow suit. We don’t anticipate imme-diate positive results, but we are heading in the right direction.
Is it at all possible to secure the successful business operations of Slovenske železnice, if the cur-rent company structure is to re-main the same?
The structure of the company needs a definite adaption. Reor-ganization will be a result of pre-cise analysis, so I decline to speak off the top of my head and give rough assessments. I believe that the employees need to have re-sponsibilities and a mandate. We need to monitor their work and both take action if they are not successful and reward them for doing well. We need to motivate them. Reorganization, together with financial consolidation and greater income from cargo traffic, is definitely urgent, because the current system will not survive in the long term.
Neither the Ministry of Trans-port nor the Slovenian government have yet announced which of the models for the reorganization of Slovenske železnice they will car-ry out. How much information do you have on their planned decision and, in your opinion, which model is the most suitable?
The three models you are talk-ing about are: making a uniform company or a holding or splitting
up the company and having sepa-rate infrastructure and transport operations. The decision is in the hands of the owner. Prime Minis-ter Borut Pahor said that the study made by the company KPMG does not represent the final decision of the government. The government also believes that all the partici-pants that will take part in the company reorganization should also give their opinion. We will discuss all of the possibilities, but the fact is that if the current work practice continues, we will not be efficient in any of the system. I do not wish to prejudice a solution; I wish to decide only after all of the facts are clear.
When do you plan to confront the powerful company unions who oppose any company reorganiza-tion?
The unions are an important part of Slovenske železnice. They are loud and efficient. They are doing their job very well. I neither view them as opponents or ene-mies. I believe that they also gen-erally support the interests of this company. Thus we will be looking together for the solutions that will benefit the company.
What is your opinion on the idea that the most important Slovenian companies in the field of logistics should integrate to provide more efficient full logis-tics services?
Railways and road carriers are not just competitors, but also partners in the logistics chain, to-gether with forwarding agents, ports and land terminals. Logis-tics is an integrated activity and providing just railway transport cannot meet the demands of the majority of buyers or be competi-tive on the full logistics services
market. There are several ways or means of cooperation among the logistics companies. For defining a concrete model of business inte-gration, clear roles, expectations and strategies for individual com-panies should be decided.
The Slovenian government emphasises that potential part-nerships with foreign companies will take place after the company reorganises. The German railway company Deutsche Bahn has been appearing as potentially the most promising strategic partner for some time now. The recent Slov-enia-Germany government agree-ment on the cooperation in the field of the railways development is also another confirmation of that. How do you view this poten-tially strategic partnership?
The basis for any strategic part-nership is firstly the stabilization of the conditions inside of Slov-enske železnice. Setting aside re-organization and strategic con-nections, sales and marketing activities also need to start with Deutsche Bahn, who is already a good partner. We do not wish to attach ourselves to a specific com-pany in advance, so the contract on the strategic partnership is something completely different to everyday business cooperation.
In the coming years, Slovenia together with the help of the EU plans to invest as much as nine billion euro in the railways in-frastructure. How does Slovenske Železnice plan to seize these big investments?
Slovenske železnice, of course, welcomes the announced invest-ments and hopes that they will be realised as soon as possible, as they will enable us a further de-velopment that is hindered by the
ECONOMY
With less and less passengers, public transport division has been making losses
Our goal is to adapt the operations to the new conditions as quickly as possible and try to seize new opportunities. The measures that we are carrying out include enhancing the capacities of our sales team, expanding operations in the field of full logistics services, greater attentiveness for the needs of the buyers, partnership with the port Luka Koper, expansion of activities abroad and expansion to the new markets in south eastern Europe.
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current infrastructure. First of all, we expect the quick and efficient abolition of current bottlenecks and slow rides. All main and some secondary railways also need to allow bigger axle burdening for up to 22.5 tons. We also wish the main railways would enable speeds of up to 160 km/h. All of
the main railways and some of the secondary ones should be electri-fied, the sections of the main rail-ways should get a second railway, signal and security devices should be modernised.
How do you view the railway infrastructure investments in re-gards that Austria has been lob-bying at the European Commis-sion to divert the railway part of the so called 5th corridor through Austria?
Modernization of the railway’s infrastructure and building new infrastructure in Slovenia has been running late for at least 15 years. In the first period after in-dependence, this made sense, be-cause all of the structures needed to be established, but later on this delay caused major damage for the whole Slovenian economy, not only for Slovenske železnice. Lobbying is completely legitimate; there is a special meaning to it, if it is being done by a government for a specif-ic economic branch. At Slovenske železnice, we wish that the respon-sible government authority would lobby for Slovenia’s rail interests at the European Commission. Our role as a company in preventing these attempts to divert the cargo is to offer the quality service and a proactive marketing approach, but all this is connected with the state of the infrastructure. Thus, we welcome the declarations from the prime minister and Minister of Transport Patrick Vlačič that the railways will be Slovenia’s in-frastructure priority in the follow-ing years.
How could Slovenia’s govern-ment quickly secure a bigger diver-sion of the cargo traffic from the
roads to the railways, bearing in mind that carriers’ lobby in Slov-enia is strong?
The government can, with vari-ous measures of its active trans-port policy, significantly influence the diversion of the cargo from roads to railways, because this is also one of the goals of Slovenian transport policy. In this regard, the government should include this in its attempt to achieve its environ-mental goals. When talking about measures, we should not consid-er only the compulsory ones, but mostly the ones that would stimu-late railway traffic, such as com-bined traffic or transport of dan-gerous cargo. The participants of the Copenhagen conference made it clear that concrete measures that would affect the costs of using a specific means of transportation need to be taken. It is important that suitable infrastructural con-ditions for this kind of transport are established. We are also aware that the government needs to have a holistic economic policy to pro-vide answers for the road carriers when the cargo is diverted from roads to railways. We should also consider how railway and road transport could become partners offering full logistics service and not just competitors.
Under ideal circumstances, when do you think Slovenia could become a European or world lead-er in the field of railways logistics service?
If we put things into realistic perspective, we can say that our goal for the following ten years is to become an important partner in central in south eastern Europe that provides full logistics serv-ices.
ECONOMY
Railway infrastructure will almost certainly stay in state hands
26th and 27th March 2010, 9 a.m.−6 p.m.Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Centre (Gospodarsko razstavišËe) Ljubljana, Slovenia
www.proprio.si
The fair which gatheres all relevant information on real estate buying, selling, renting and restoring.
Organiser: Event partner:
Modernization of the railway’s infrastructure
and building new infrastructure in Slovenia
has been running late for at least 15 years.
In the first period after independence, this made sense, because all of the structures needed to be established, but later on this delay caused major
damage for the whole Slovenian economy,
not only for Slovenske železnice.
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Bisnode
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The Slovenia Times
22
Interview: Rudolf Klötscher, BSH Hišni Aparati
Sustainability is the key to successLast year was undoubtedly one of the most difficult years companies have faced in modern times with many titans perishing. This wasn’t the case BSH Hišni Aparati, a subsidiary of the international Bosch Siemens Home Appliances Group. In fact, this company, located in Slovenia and responsible for nine countries in the Adriatic East region – including all countries of the former Yugoslavia as well as Albania and Bulgaria – managed to achieve a 6% increase in turnover in 2009. This is reason enough to talk to company CEO, Rudolf Klötscher.By Maja Dragović
What is, in your opinion, the reason behind the success of BSH Hišni Aparati?
I guess one of the main reasons is our corporate strategy which is based on sustainability. Sustain-ability is connected to different parts – people, products and the company as a whole. If a company, for instance, has a change in man-agement every one or two years, or a high employee turnover, it would be hard to follow a long-
term strategy. Within our group, there are no dramatic changes in this field and – because of this sustainability in management and employees – BSH is also investing in the profits of the people in the future.
This becomes obvious when you look at what we have done in the last ten years. Only last year we in-troduced an energy-saving tumble dryer that is in a class of its own (A-50). We also produce washing machines and dishwashers that use between 55%-70% less water and less energy. This wasn’t done overnight; our group has been working on it for 10 to 15 years. This is what I mean by sustain-ability. For these efforts, the BSH group received the Sustainability Award in 2009.
With such a strong global presence, were you affected much by the recession?
Recession – that bad word of 2009 that started in the fourth quarter of 2008. Of course, the BSH group was affected, because we have a strong presence in the UK and Spain: countries badly hit by the economic downturn. But luckily we didn’t feel these huge and dramatic changes more than any other sectors. You might say the business of household appli-ances is not a ‘’sexy’’ business – like working for Apple where you can develop some fancy gadgets – but it is a stable, continuously growing business. When there is an economic downturn, it is the household appliances that the trade and end-users look to in or-der to make money. Prices for mo-bile phones fell by 30% or 40%, but prices for washing machines, ov-ens, or fridges are giving the trade a sustainable profit.
What would be the strongest growth area for BSH Hišni Apara-ti in regional terms?
The most growth for us was in Croatia. But even more impor-
tant is the fact that in Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia, we also grew in 2009, compared to 2008, which in itself was an excellent year. We were again able to increase mar-ket shares in all countries, despite the fact that all the markets were shrinking dramatically. In addi-tion, we employed 90 new people in 2009 – 20 of them in research and development – and we are planning to employ an additional 20 experts in technical fields for new projects.
Many complaints are heard from foreign companies, as well as local ones, that the costs for busi-nesses are too high in Slovenia. Do you agree?
Our production site Nazarje in Slovenia has been in operation since 1970. So this year, we are celebrating 40 years of the factory. Due to successful collaboration, this factory was taken over by the BSH group in 1993 and since then it has been an important part of the BSH group, not only for pro-duction, but also for research & development. So, Slovenia for us is an important location for the rea-
ECONOMY
BSH Hišni Aparati factory in Nazarje celebrates 40 years of production in 2010
When there is an economic downturn, it is
the household appliancesthat generate profit for the trade and the end-
consumer.
February 2010
ECONOMY 2�
sons mentioned but also for sales and marketing. That said, the cost topic is making me nervous be-cause Slovenia is no longer a low-cost country for production sites. The government has to be careful in finding solutions for the reces-sion. If you just increase taxes, we have to pay for products. And if people are not able to pay an up-grade price for products because production costs are higher, then it is obvious what companies will do in such situation. It is understand-able the government needs to find money to pay for the handling of the increase in unemployment, but raising taxes for fuel and, probably energy is not smart in my opinion because it is just a “quick fix”, not a long-term strategy.
So what are the advantages of having a company in Slovenia?
Obviously, there are a number of advantages; otherwise we wouldn’t be here for such a long time. We call it “the 4 Q’s”: the quality of workforce, the quality of infrastructure, the quality in the regional location and connec-tion to the ex-Yugoslav and eastern Europe markets; and, of course, the quality of life. Finally, it is im-
portant to add the economical and political stability.
Would you single out a prod-uct from BSH that you would say is the best at the moment?
One of the reasons you start working in this field, like I did, is that you have to love all these products, whether it’s a major domestic appliance or a small household appliance. I, person-ally, am really proud of the new full automatic espresso machine, developed and produced here in Nazarje, which is a highly com-plex product, made up of 450 parts. This is one of the most com-plex appliances we have in the en-tire Bosch Siemens Home Appli-ances group. And it is important to emphasise that this amazing product is, like nearly six million small household appliances, pro-duced right here in Nazarje and sold all over the world. The reason I emphasise this is because many people don’t know that, and they probably think the production is done somewhere in Asia.
Nazarje has a reputation for filing many new patents. Does this represent small patents to the ex-isting products or entirely new patents?
They are patents for new prod-ucts. Just in the new coffee ma-chine, we have many new patents. This also shows the highly inno-vative and creative atmosphere we have at BSH in Slovenia; when you have that, you will attract the best engineers and the results are excellent.
How closely do you work with Slovenian universities in em-ploying your workforce?
We work with the university in Maribor on the technical side and we also support some student theses. However, there is weak communication between the uni-versity and top management. In Germany, for example, where I give lectures at a university, it is a norm to invite people from cor-porations to participate in courses.
This is not the case in Slovenia. I believe it would be very interest-ing and beneficial for students to get some first-hand information of practice from such multinational corporations, to add to the theory taught at the university.
So, do the students from en-gineering courses come to BSH for work experience?
They do, but they call us direct-ly, it is not organised by universi-ties. For example, last year, we had requests from German universities for their students to visit the fac-tory here, but we had no requests from Slovenian universities. And we are definitely interested in working more closely with uni-versities here – not just from the technical side but the commercial side, too.
The new coffee machine is a highly complex product that is made up of 450 parts
Almost six million small household appliances are produced in Slovenia and sold all over the world.
We were again able to increase market shares in Slovenia, Serbia and Croatia, despite the fact that all the markets were shrinking dramatically.
The Slovenia Times
2� TOURISM
The Renaissance of Health Resorts
Slove n e h e a l t h r e s or t s scored a good result in the last month of 2009, mostly
through arrivals and overnight stays of foreign guests. Reading the records, there were 7% more arrivals and 2% more overnight stays than in the record month (December) of 2008. Foreign visi-tors’ increase is undoubtedly a good prospect for the beginning of 2010, even though before that, a domestic-and-foreign guest ra-tio has tilted in favour of domes-tic guests. Most of foreign guests in Slovenia were the Italians, 87,200, followed by Austrian visi-tors, Croatian ones coming third, followed by the Germans. One third increase of Serbian guests in health resorts is very pleasant news, apart from noticing again
an increase in Dutch, Czech and mostly Russian visitors. The lat-ter are the most sought for since their stay lasts over 10 days on average.
Reasons for such good statisti-cal results are mostly a very in-tensive investment period of the past few years and thus obtaining new capacity both in accommoda-tion complexes and bathing-well-ness facilities, as well as remark-able adaptability of sales services to new trends. At the same time the last year was characterised by numerous sales promotion cam-paigns in the domestic as well as foreign markets. The spas asso-ciation sees big future potential on markets of China, India, the Middle East, where promotional activities have been focused.
Natural health resorts are coming to the forefront of the Slovene tourist offer. In spite of an unfavourable market situation, last year can be declared successful.
According to a statement by the Slovene Spas Association, fi-nancial indicators in many spas will be, unlike statistical ones, somewhat worse nevertheless - namely, prices had to undergo appropriate corrections due to ex-tremely intense competition. Hun-gary should be singled out since a 30-percent devaluation of its cur-rency in the middle of last year, made it instantly more competi-tive for the same per cent. In addi-tion, new facilities in Austria have reduced prices ( due to poor visit) to stop negative trends. The effect of the economic crisis has been partly manifested in a decrease of out-of-hotel consumption.
Very intensive marketing ac-tivity, efforts of certain spas (also searching for new markets) as well
as a number of campaigns, also or-ganised by the Slovene Spas Asso-ciation, give us a legitimate expec-tation that also 2010, though not an easy year, will yield a positive result and therefore boost health resorts’ position as the best tour-ist product being responsible for a third of all stays in the country.
Characterised by domestic guests and renovations
Let’s take a look at activities of major health resorts: Terme Čatež Spa have set up in the summer, on a scenic spot by the lake, an Indian village with 25 tents, pro-viding 100 extra beds; enlarged a campsite; and erected 30 new su-perior apartments. Further, Hotel Žusterna in Koper has upgraded its Aquapark.
In 2009, one of more important investments of Terme Krka Spa has been the opening of an ex-tended golf course in Otočec, hav-ing been declared the best in Slov-enia for the second consecutive time. The course now covers more than 75 hectares of surface. Apart from that, their coastal property has been renovated, too.
Terme Podčetrtek Spa have opened the Wellness Orhidelia in-creasing the water surface for ad-ditional 2,000 m2, thus extending their offer to a total of 10,000 m2 of a usable area within the complex.
In the raging crisis, spas in the North-Eastern Slovenia (Terme 3000, Zdravilišče Radenci, Terme Lendava, Terme Banovci and Terme Ptuj) have directed their marketing focus mostly on invit-ing domestic tourists, a move that has paid off. Their campaign was also helped by resources from the state’s tender and the opening of the Pomurje motorway. There has been predominantly an increase in interest from the markets of the former Yugoslav republics. An im-portant acquisition is the opening of a refurbished hotel in Radenci, the oldest hotel for the heart and veins rehabilitation in Slovenia, a symbol of the beginning of Raden-ci’s spa activity.
February 2010
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2�TOURISM
Ten years of Thailand in Portorož
Wai Thai Wellness Centre celebrates its tenth anniversaryLifeclass Hotels & Spa in Portorož are home to the unique wellness centre, Wai Thai, which has brought the exotic to Slovenia. Their rich of-fer of health, wellness and spa pro-grammes is unparalleled in this area. Wai Thai, one of the most successful wellness centres, has been active for the last ten years, continually evolving and progressing. At the very beginning, the leadership at the Morje hotels became aware of the fact that people are under more and more stress and thus need something more on their days off. The solution was a wellness centre that aimed to restore peace, har-mony and inner balance of their guests. No wonder it was accepted with such enthusiasm and has en-joyed great success ever since its opening in 2000. The centre offers traditional Thai massage in authentic Thai ambi-ence, as well as a variety of other re-laxation and wellness programmes and natural body and facial care. From the very beginning, the mas-seurs working here have all been professionally trained Thai mas-seurs, chosen in cooperation with the Thai Ministry of Labour. A few words on Thai Massage itself are in order. In Thai, it is called Nuad Bo Rarn, and it stemmed from a wish give pleasure to a loved one. It is based on the concept of ten most important energy lines running in the human body, along which acu-pressure points are dotted. These are tellingly called windows into the body, since they allow a fine-tuning of vital energy. Disruptions of the
energy-flow can result in a lack of vitality and encourage the devel-opment of various diseases. With proper massage, such blockages can be eliminated, and the flow of vital energy stimulated so that the balance is restored, and health and well-being improved.Traditional Thai massage should last for at least two hours because after the first 30 minutes the body’s energy canals open up, and af-ter 120 minutes the energy is bal-anced and harmony restored. Thai massage has several other effects, besides relaxation of the muscles: it enhances blood flow, decreases stress, eases pain, increases aware-ness, strengthens inner organs, re-stores vitality and balances body, mind and spirit.
Thai massage has a long tradition. It is over 2,500 years old and unites the knowledge of Indian yoga, Chi-nese acupressure and Japanese shi-atsu. It is truly a unique tool bring-ing a long and healthy life. Modern varieties of traditional Thai massage are especially aimed at eliminating and reversing the effects of modern lifestyles, such as stress, fatigue and obesity.At the Wai Thai Wellness Centre, only 100% natural essences of herbs, flowers, fruit and minerals are used, in accordance with origi-nal recipes from the Far East. This is complemented by high quality natural cosmetics. In the centre, five different massage oils are used, all of which are made of purely natural cold-pressed veg-
etable oils of jojoba, almond, coco-nut, apricot kernels and mixtures of essential oils. They are wonder-fully absorbent and do not cause allergies. The oils can be used for body care on a daily basis and can be purchased at the centre’s recep-tion desk.To conclude the wonderful journey through the Wai Thai centre, its of-fer goes beyond traditional Thai massage, guests can also indulge in Wai Thai massage, Thai mas-sage with selected essential oils or heated herbs, anti-stress back and shoulder massage, anti-stress facial and head massage, Oriental foot massage, Hawaiian massage, aro-matic steam sauna, solarium, vari-ous facial and body care treatments and relaxation packages.
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Slovenj Gradec is an administrative, economic and cultural centre of the Mislinja Valley. Situated between the Pohorje Massif and Mount Uršlja gora, the town is noted for its numerous artists and events. The town centre, intactly preserving its image from the past, is still the centre of cultural life. Moreover, ever since Slovenj Gradec has been a birthplace and hometown of a number of acknowledged artists: the composer Hugo Wolf, the sculptor Fran Berneker, the
painters Jože Tisnikar, Karel Pečko, Bogdan Borčič, Franc Berhtold, the writers Fran Ksaver Meško and Ljuba Prenner and others.
Javni zavod za turizem in šport Spotur Slovenj Gradec
Tourist information:Public Agency for Tourism and Sports SPOTUR Slovenj Gradec
TIC (TOURIST INFORMATION CENTRE) SLOVENJ GRADEC Glavni trg 24, 2380 Slovenj GradecPhone: 00386 2 8812 116, Fax: 00386 2 8812 117, Email: [email protected], www.slovenjgradec.si
Slovenj Gradec A Peace Messenger City
Numerous international events and exhibitions, some also UN-sponsored, have left a lasting imprint on Slovenj Gradec as a city of peace and international understanding with the title of the Peace Messenger City, bestowed on the town in 1989 by a then Secretary-General of the United Nations.
SightsSlovenj Gradec old town has preserved a characteristic medieval layout, whereas buildings’ exteriors date back to the 19th century. In the town’s core there is the Koroška Gallery of Fine Arts, the Koroška Regional Museum, Soklič’s Muzeum, the churches of St Elizabeth and Holy Spirit, the remains of the medieval town wall, a birthplace of the famous solos composer Hugo Wolf, and Rotenturn Manor.St George’s Church is situated on the Legen Plateau and presents a unique monument in the wider European area, having uniquely restored archaeological finds from the 9th century. St Pancratius’ Church, former Grad nad Starim trgom (Castle above the Old Square) has played an important role in the history of Slovenj Gradec, while nowadays acts as an outstanding
architectural monument of the early Gothic. In the surroundings of Slovenj Gradec, there are plenty of ethnological sights – typical hayracks (kozolci) of the Mislinja Valley, old farmhouses, chapels as well as a water-mill or a sawmill. Slovenj Gradec and its environs offer excellent possibilities for sports and recreation – skiing, riding, cycling, glider flying, hiking, climbing, etc. In the past few years, in the environs of Slovenj Gradec, the offer of short thematic tourist trails with ethnological, cultural-historical, and environmental themes has become particularly popular.The ski resort of Kope adorns itself with snow as early as November and remains covered with it, also due to snowmaking, until late spring. Changeable mountainous terrain provides ski-slopes for beginners as well as experienced skiers. A diversity of the land between Mount Uršlja gora and the Pohorje Massif offers a traveller cultural experience, peace and on many locations its primeval character. Moreover, in the Mislinja Valley, there are many paths and secrets worth of discovering.
Slovenj Gradec is known for a large number of events taking place in the town as well as its surroundings throughout a year. You are kindly invited to pay us a visit in the time of the following shows:13th and 14th February: MASQUERADE and the CARNIVAL
19th March: Traditional Jožef’s Fair (Joseph’s Fair)
16th April: 18th Biennial Exhibition of Arts and Crafts as well as the exhibiton of handicrafts by the Slovene handicapped societies.
6th June: MEDIEVAL DAY IN SLOVENJ GRADEC
June, July: SLOVENJ GRADEC SUMMER FESTIVAL
15th August: GRAŠKA GORA SINGS AND PLAYS
25th and 26th September: MEETING IN THE DWARFLAND
18th and 19th September: KOROŠKA’S OKTOBERFEST
17th and 24th October: PEACE FESTIVAL on the UNITED NATIONS Day
17th November: Traditional ELIZABETH’S FAIR
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February 2010
27LIFESTYLE
Masquerade: Fun or Faith?Wearing a mask is a tradition from the dawn of time and is as alive today as ever, but it has taken on a new meaning. By Vesna Paradiž
However, to be able to approach the spirits of natural growth and fertility, they had to be masked.
Masking is, therefore, a very pa-gan tradition. It was, of course, al-ways part of a faith that a world ex-ists above the one we walk on and (by that) actually a part of religion, but nevertheless a religion that Christianity wanted no part of. Over hundreds of years, they tried to exterminate the ancient tradi-tion but to no avail. Priests saw the mask as some kind of devil’s tool to steal a man’s soul, but they also saw it as an inconvenience that en-abled wild behaviour that was not as easily controlled as a quiet, sub-dued person who usually attended church services. At last, they had to confess defeat and accept it as a part of human being, too old and too primal to be exiled.
Slovenian Traditional Carnivals
Pust (Shrovetide) is a descend-ant of festivities in ancient Rome, which were held to celebrate both the New Year (February was the 12th month of their calendar) and nature’s spring awakening. This jubilation was preserved through time until today. The Renaissance reformed that tradition as “Carni-val,” a new perception of life glo-rifying material world instead of spiritual one, which fit perfectly into a masked celebration of na-ture’s rebirth. If we are particular, we can say that Pust and Carni-val actually mark one and the same thing, since etymologically they both mean the same: to leave or put away meat. This explains their placement a few days before the annual 40-day long fast. Pust’s days were originally Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, Saturday was added later.
Slovenia has preserved at least 150 traditional masks, although not all of them are characteristic for Pust. The most famous among them is Kurent, whose origins have several interpretations. The most common one is that he used to represent a god of boisterous joy, a Slavic version of Greek god Dionysus. Kurentovanje (which means Kurent’s carnival) is the biggest carnival in Slovenia, al-though its meaning has changed from bowing to nature’s magi-cal forces to a commercial folk-lore event. Even though Kurent is now merely a mascot, the people in the Štajerska region still deep-ly respect the tradition. Young boys transform themselves into Kurents; they put on sheep fur coats and a leather belts or a chains holding cowbells. On their heads, they wear an ugly hairy cap with a snout instead of a nose and a long red tongue. They have horns on
top of their heads and sticks with hedgehog’s skin in their hands. They go around in groups jump-ing and bouncing up and down; it is said that in the past different groups of Kurents used to fight so hard there were casualties (forbid-den nowadays).
In addition to his festival of Kurentovanje, there are many other smaller carnivals in differ-ent regions of Slovenia. Cerkl-janski lavfarji (Cerkno’s runners) are another very old tradition to-gether with their wooden masks. The central figure is Pust, who is a manifestation of winter and there-fore has to be killed. His clothes are made of moss and he carries a spruce in his hands. Around him are a number of other masks, the most popular being ta bršljanast (the ivy one), ta tirjest, ta star (the old one), ta kožuhast (the fur one) etc. On pustni torek (Mardi gras, as they call it in New Orleans), they hold a trial for Pust in front of the church and afterwards they execute him.
Also famous are the škoromati from Brkini, the Fašanek from the Porabje and Prekmurje regions, Ravenski pustovi and others. There is a nice tradition in Prekmurje that demands that if nobody got married in the village the previ-ous year, they would have to hold a borovo gostüvanje (pine’s feast). The oldest unmarried man in the village must marry a pine tree and they have an entire wedding with parents and wedding guests (a girl that stands in as the pine).
The Death of the MaskThere are many more of those
masks and different traditional events but they all end in a simi-lar fashion. Pust is put on trial and found guilty, or they look for him and find him hiding under the ta-ble in one of local bars. Then he must meet his end; in some plac-es, he is shot, while elsewhere he is burnt or thrown in the river or simply buried. With Pust’s burial, the feasts are officially over and fasting begins.
With Pust, we can see that the masking tradition is still very much alive. People participate in festivals, eat, drink and dance until they are too tired to do so. Unfortunately, as many things change and lose value, this has also happened to this fine tra-dition. Celebrations of nature’s cycle of renewing have evolved into folklore events and serious and fearsome masks into ridicu-lous mascots without substance. Today’s festivities have little in common with what the masquer-ade was originally about. Perhaps that is why the ones that enjoy it most now are children.
Since ancient times, mankind has had the urge to wear a mask. “Masking” is one of
humanity’s oldest practices and its origins are tightly connected to our relationship to the metaphysi-cal world.
First, there was ritual masking, which meant reaching beyond the conscious world into the un-known and achieving complete identification between the bearer of the mask and supernatural be-ings the mask itself represented,
i.e. demons, spirits of the ances-tors, the dead etc.
After belief in this mythologi-cal world of ritual faded, people superstitiously kept the tradition of masking, both to celebrate the power of nature yet also to subdue nature to their wishes and goals. It was important to take part in nature’s regular revival. When winter turned into spring and the world blossomed, people greeted that change hoping to encourage natural forces to their own benefit.
The Slovenia Times
Ptuj Carnival
LIFESTYLE2�
Alongside the River Drava, the town Ptuj dates back to the Stone Age; it is the
oldest town in Slovenia. Locat-ed roughly 130 km north-east of Ljubljana and 30 km south-east of Maribor, Ptuj’s historical treasures provide much interest and enter-tainment for a great excursion. Rich stories of its history are re-vealed in its churches, monaster-ies, wine cellars, at the castle, the tower, the Orpheus monument, and many other places.
The Ptuj area derives additional charm from its exceptional eth-nographic heritage. Through the centuries, the oldest Slovenian town of Ptuj and its surround-ings have preserved and carried on their heritage and thus con-tributed greatly to the nation’s au-
thenticity. One unique and impor-tant element is Kurent (or korant), a unique Shrovetide character of our past and present. His primary quest is to chase away the evil and introduce the good.
In 2010, we are commemorating all those generations who have contributed to the nation’s authen-ticity through understanding the power and depth of its carnival heritage. At the same time, we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of organised procession of masks in the streets of Ptuj.
KuretovanjeOn Shrove Sunday, 27th Febru-
ary 1960, the first organised event, called Kurentovanje, was held in Ptuj, featuring traditional carnival
masks from Markovci lined up in a carnival parade. To the sound of music played by a local band, the ones to lead the procession were the dancing spearmen followed by ploughmen, rusa, a bear, fair-ies, cockerels and Kurents. The typical performance and customs of each traditional mask were ex-plained to the gathered crowd over loudspeakers.
The event was very success-ful and aroused general interest, which encouraged the organisers to continue. A year later, masks from Markovci were joined by ploughmen from Lancova Vas, log-haulers from Cirkovci and mourn-
ers coming from Hajdina. For the first time carnival groups present-ed themselves in the afternoon. In 1962, the event reached beyond local boundaries by inviting the laufarji (runners) from Cerkno and borovo gostuvanje (the mar-riage of pine) from Predanovci in the Prekmurje region.
However, the international di-mension was only acquired in the years to follow when local and Slovene traditional masks were joined by masks from Croatia, Ser-bia, Macedonia, Hungary, Austria, Italy, and many others. Thousands of spectators have visited this amusing and varied carnival.
A Rich and Vivid Tradition Behind Kurent’s Mask The largest carnival in Slovenia enters its 50th year with a series of spectacular events.
Interesting facts and figures• The Ptuj Castle museum displays a permanent collection of
traditional Shrove masks and can be viewed at any time of year.• The Ptuj Philatelic Society has prepared a special collector’s
stamp and an envelope to mark the 50th anniversary of Carnival.
• Kurent’s character appears in many situations as a part of protocol and promotional gifts. It is a symbol of Ptuj’s barracks. It appears in the names of many sport, humanitarian and other societies. Culinary specialties are also named after Kurent (sausage, soup, wine and others). A group of Kurents traditionally appears at major sporting events, such as the Planica ski flying competition. Kurent is also a huge inspiration for domestic and foreign artists: painters, photographers, poets, writers, sculptors, musicians. It appears on stamps, envelopes, postcards, calendars, badges, posters, play cards and even graffiti.
• The facade of an 1878 house at Jadranska ulica has ornaments resembling Kurent’s hat.
February 2010
2�LIFESTYLE
The main event of Kurentovan-je is the procession of traditional carnival masks and groups taking place in the afternoon of Shrove Sunday. For many years, part of the event was the presentation of individual traditional carnival groups, taking place either on Sat-urday or Sunday morning prior to the afternoon procession.
In 1999, the organisers intro-duced the Prince of the Carnival, who has since been chosen from among numerous active perpetua-tors of the masquerading tradition in the region of Ptuj. The enthron-ing of the Prince takes place on 11th November each year – on St. Martin’s Day – which has become an important cultural and enter-taining event in itself.
The idea of an organised car-nival event in Ptuj started in the 1950s, as the carnival masks spon-taneously formed processions on Shrove Tuesday, preceded by a band. That was how, in 1959, Dra-go Hasl and supporters proposed to the Historical Society of Ptuj that they take over the organisa-tion and the implementation of the carnival event; they also sug-gested that it should be named af-ter the most well-known mask in Ptuj – Kurent – so Kurentovanje began.
Drago Hasl, indefatigable or-ganiser of Kurentovanje from its beginnings to the 1970s, was strongly convinced that the organ-ised event could prevent the rapid extinction of carnival habits in the surrounding villages. Hasl also made a draft proposal regarding the content and outlined the ma-jor guidelines to be followed in order to transform Kurentovanje into an event of ethnographic sig-nificance, containing the unique carnival figures and habits from the Ptuj region, which could be joined at a later stage by other traditional Slovene masks, thus making the event grow into a fes-tival of masks. He also planned to expand the content of the event
Attractions of Ptuj
The first sight to behold upon entering the town is the Castle Hill. The famous Ptuj Castle is one of the most interesting ones in Europe. Estimated to have been built in the 9th or 10th centuries, it was a magnet for feudal lords who used it as a fortress due to its strategic hillside position. For those interested in the mystique of a secret religion, the five Mithras Shrines provide an interesting curiosity to explore. Each of the five shrines is located in a different place and has different features. Roman Catholics wishing to practice their faith will be awe-struck at Ptujska Gora, where the famous Church of the Virgin Mary graces the Haloze hilltop. Apart from enjoying a stunning panoramic view in all directions, visitors will be excited to see what has often been hailed as the most beautiful Gothic church in Slovenia. With
60,000 visitors annually, Ptujska Gora is a well known pilgrimage site. Though its history is unclear, written records show that it has existed since the middle of the 15th century. What better way to relax after a full day of sightseeing than playing a game of golf, taking a relaxing swim or pampering yourself with a well-deserved massage? Located close to Ptuj’s Old Town, the golf course is spread over 50 hectares and offers a challenging 18 holes to even the experienced golfer, due to its water obstacles and soil structure. Golfers can enjoy views of two lakes, lush greenery, Ptuj’s Old Town centre and the Studenica stream, which flows through the course. At a constant 39°C, the six pools (two indoor) of Ptuj’s thermal spa offers plenty of relaxation, hydrotherapy and various spa treatments.
by introducing contemporary carnival masks. The conjunction of these guidelines and efforts employed by the organisers has turned Kurentovanje into a sig-nificant event, confirmed by the admission of the town of Ptuj into the European Federation of Carni-val Cities (EFCC-FECC) in 1991.
This year’s Ptuj Kurentovanje takes place between 2 and 16 Feb-ruary. The jubilee of this massive Shrovetide event in the region is marked by a diverse cultural pro-gramme.
Major eventsKurent’s Jump (2 February) is the moment when the Kurents put on their bells, which repel winter and attract spring along with fortune and good crops.Artistic Animal Carnival (5 February). A musical event with re-nowned artists from Slovenia and abroad, featuring pianist Konstan-tin Bogino, Feguš Quartet, Jure Ivanušič and many others.The Ethnographic Parade (6 February at 11 am) is a display of typi-cal Slovenian Carnival characters. At this event, the mayor of Ptuj, Štefan Čelan, hands over his mayoral duties to the Carnival Prince.
Carnival of fifty Slovenian brass bands and majorettes (7 Febru-ary). The final act will be a group performance at the Ptuj stadium.Primary school pupils’ parade (12 February) and a parade of fifty groups of merry masks from Slovenian and Croatian kindergartens (15 February).The highlight of the happening is the Sunday’s International Carni-val Parade (14 February) with a flyover of the largest ever group of hot-air balloons.The carnival ends with the Shrove’s funeral (14 February).
Organizers
Ptuj, Slovenija, 6. – 16. februar 2010
Ptuj, Slovenija, 6. – 16. februar 2010
Ptuj, Slovenija, 6. – 16. februar 2010
The Slovenia Times
Features
ski school
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“Pohorje is the only city ski slope, which contributes to its special charm. I attended many races there, with the most memorable downhill runs from the Bellevue Hotel. This place offers a fantastic skiing experience, which can last well into the spring. The specific eastern Slovenian temperament is reflected in the particularly merry atmosphere. The slope is particularly well maintained and arranged.”
Jure Košir, multiple world cup slalom winner, Olympic medallist and Slovenian ski legend:
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The Home of the FoxA ski slope that literally grows out of the town of Maribor and boasts with over 10 kilometres of illuminated tracks.
Pohorje is a huge and very di-verse area, where everyone can find his or her optimal
place. From a children’s park to the challenging “old FIS” or the snow stadium, where competi-tions are being held, it offers much fun between altitudes 325 and 1, 327 metres.
Maribor pohorje consists of three skiing sectors. The Areh area can be regarded as a family slope for its relatively wide, gentle sloping tracks. While advanced skiers can quickly find a lack of challenge in this area, the same cannot be said for the tracks at Bolfenk and the snow stadium area.
The FunicularThe history of this slope is
marked by its which was an amazing technological
achievement of the time. When it was officially started in 1957, the Habakuk – Bellevue travel
took 15 minutes in one of the 55 detachable cabins sliding on a steel cable at a speed of 2.8 m/s. After more than fifty years and 15 millions of passengers transport-ed, it has recently got replaced by a brand new funicular that takes take the spirit of its legendary
predecessor into the future by making the 705 metre climb no-tably shorter and greatly increase the passenger capacity.
Golden Fox The snow stadium, the lower
part of the slope facing the town of Maribor is a venue of the famous Golden Fox.
The Golden Fox Trophy is a fe-male world cup skiing competi-tion with a tradition of over 40 years and is one of the most well-attended sport events in Slovenia.
Apart from skiingSkiing is, of course, not the only
winter-time activity available there. Sledding and cross-coun-try tracks can not be regarded as something you wouldn’t get else-where, but what are special are exotic activities such as a pležuh ride (a sort of monoski with a seat), snowshoe walks, balloon rides or a giant adrenaline swing. Furthermore, this resort is, in fact, an extension of a large town which can offer you many pleas-ures from concerts and cinemas to pub crawling and shopping.
Pohorje offers abundance of lodging and dining options:
From a five-star Habakuk hotel to budget apartments. From fancy restaurants to fast food. The new Bolfenk apartments are the latest among many lodging choices and the pride of the resort. Roomy and comfortable with wooden interi-ors and a fireplace make the ex-perience even more complete. The complex features a wellness cen-tre offering massages, saunas and a thermal pool. There is no way anyone, skier or non-skier would get bored at Pohorje.
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Motel & Restaurant Lešnik
Slovenia’s qualif ication for the Football World Cup is a truly re-markable achievement, but in the terms of the promotion of the country beyond its football team, this event provides a wide range of opportunities. Slovenia, which continues to suffer from a lack of recognition on the global arena, views the guaranteed “270 min-utes of fame” as a wonder ful chance to communicate its eco-nomic and tourist potentials.Synergy between sport and tour-ism is not anything new, but only since the match in Slovakia, foot-ball has taken the lead. Dimitrij Piciga, Slovenian Tourist Board CEO says, “Our cooperation with the national football association has always been good, but the matches were more of a back-ground element; we were, for ex-ample, involved in hosting of for-eign journalists covering matches with Slovenia.”This changed when progress in the World Cup qualifiers reached its critical point. In Moscow, STO invited a group of Russian jour-nalists and tour operators to the Slovenian side of the stands. The decisive match in Maribor gath-ered the elites of Russian soci-ety, including Russian president Medvedev and the multi-billion-aire Abramovich.“From the promotional aspect, the draw for the World Cup was a jackpot,” Piciga comments, “The choice of opponents Slovenia will play represents good sources of tourists: Italy, Germany, Eng-land and the USA. England par-ticularly. At the Wembley Slov-enia-England friendly match, we could see what 65,000 people in the audience means as a tourist potential.”
Speaking of past experience, Piciga admits the tourist promo-tion within the football World Cup is being taken to a whole new level, “In Korea, we paid atten-tion primarily to our supporters and the good mood they bring to the environment, at the European Championship in Amsterdam, as well. Back then we didn’t focus on the opponent countries. Now we are taking advantage of the English team and its fame. They will attract much media attention and the message we want to put through is: This is a county you will challenge in football; find out about it, and come for a visit.“The immediate goal of this cam-paign would be more English stays in 2010. Let them be oppo-nents for a day, but else they are welcome guests.”Speaking of the particular types of people who might respond to such campaigns, Piciga says it is definitely not about football fanat-
ics with season tickets, whose in-terest is only in seeing the match. On contrary, they are not neces-sarily those who will go to South Africa. “Our aim is to attract older cou-ples, the so-called ‘empty nest’
people with grown-up kids, who may already know Slovenia, re-member it as maybe not being the cheapest destinations, but want to revive positive memories. They are educated and regard ecology highly. The other segment is ac-tive people; active in a sense of practicing spor ts themselves. They are younger, some with kids, who need a constant challenge in recreation. It is not a static all-in-clusive type of public.”Both these groups, whose aims and interests overlap in many as-pects, are envisaged in the “Bet On the Holidays” campaign. One of the campaign’s approaches is to promote active, sporting ways of spending vacations. The other is ecological, advertising a “green” product. The intersection of both as well is their interest in football are promoted. It is not about go-ing to Slovenia instead of South Africa. It is for those who can find the opponent’s country a holiday destination according to Piciga.
Slovenian tourist promoters are looking forward to this year’s Football World Cup in South Africa. Their goal is to extend the performance of the football team with the promotion of the Slovenia as an ideal tourist destination.
Slovenia vs Slovakia The promotion campaign in Slovakia is carried out in cooperation with the Slovakian national tourist board, with the main goal of increasing recognition of both countries among potential tourists, informing foreigners on characteristics of each country and spur them to consider spending holidays in Slovenia or Slovakia. The campaign is takes place between February and April 2010 via an online quiz, the topics being characteristics of both countries in the fields of sports, culture, tourism and general characteristics. All contestants, answering all the questions (presumably 10 – 20 questions) correctly, will qualify for a draw of two main prizes – a plane ticket from whichever European airport to South Africa and a 5-day stay during the World Cup, including a football ticket for one of Slovenia’s or Slovakia’s matches. The campaign is going to be promoted on Facebook and Twitter online social networks as well as media messages and other means of communication by the Slovenian and Slovakian tourist boards.
Bet on Slovenia
Minister of Economy Matej Lahovnik and STB CEO Dimitrij Piciga looking forward to promote the country at the Football World Cup in South Africa.
adve
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The Slovenia Times
DineFood type
Asian-fusion
Price range3-course daily menu for EUR 14.90
A-la carte 5-course menu EUR 35-55
Reservationrecommended
ShambalaKriževniška 12, Ljubljana
Tel.:+386 31 843 [email protected]
Open: 11am-11pm, Sundays closed
with style
Shambala
The Land of Asian Tastes
Over the past two decades, international food has persistently been breaking
the monotony of a land devoted to traditional gostilnas and the ever popular pizzerias. Despite the steady influx of relatively stand-ardized Mexican and Chinese restaurants, real gourmets still found it hard to come across a de-cent place for Asian food at its best – until Shambala, that is.
A family business A businessman trading with
the far east, his architect wife, two children (another architect and a designer)... all cosmopolitan, all admiring Asian culture, philoso-phy and especially the cuisine; all living in the same old Ljubljana house, with a spacious ground floor and atrium. Their property in need of renovation suddenly became a common project, spar-kling many creative intergenera-tional negotiations, but as a result turned into a stunning restaurant
interior. Finally, one more person was essential to join the team: they recruited a chef, already experi-enced in Japanese cuisine, who also travelled Southeast Asia to take courses from the indigenous masters of the arts.
As a result, Ljubljana’s culinary scene was enriched with a restau-rant offering the culinary herit-age of Asia. Call it “Asian food,” or “Japanese-Thai-Vietnamese,” or use the popular term “Fusion food,” after you try it, the name it-self doesn’t matter. But what does matter is that it takes you to an-other culinary world.
Special blendsKeeping the balance is far from
easy. On one hand, a guest should be offered more than the tradition-al “rice or noodles with chopped meat and vegetables in a wok” for-mula, while on the other hand be-ing too seriously Asian could well mean overly spicy food or other things unacceptable to a common
Main dishesThai curries
Vegetables stir firesLemongrass grilled biff steak
Fonda Grilled Sea Bass Soba noodles
Pho beef noodle soup
One trusted restaurant critic described Shambala as one of last year’s most pleasant surprises. Let’s find out why.
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February 2010
Top choice
Vila Bled RestaurantCesta svobode 26, BledTel: +386 4 575 37 [email protected], www.vila-bled.siOpen: Every day, 12pm – 10pmDelights of the French, Mediterranean and Slovenian cuisines.
Smrekarjev Hram RestaurantNazorjeva 2, 1000 Ljubljana centreTel: + 386 1 308 19 [email protected]: Every day, noon – 11pmA la carte restaurant in the city centre of Ljubljana
Grad Otočec RestaurantGrajska cesta 2, OtočecTel.: + 386 7 38 48 [email protected] Open: Every day until 11pm
Bled Castle RestaurantCesta svobode 11, BledTel : +386 4 579 44 [email protected], [email protected], www.zavod-za-kulturo-bled.siOpen: Every day, 8am – 8pm (November-April till 6pm)Special experiences for special occasions.
Fabula RestaurantBorovška cesta 100, Kranjska GoraTel : +386 4 589 20 [email protected]: daily from noon to 11 p.m.
Dvorec ZemonoPri Lojzetu RestaurantDvorec Zemono, VipavaTel : +386 5 368 70 [email protected] with innovation and creativity.
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Pantone 871 C
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Pantone 186 C
Calypso RestaurantKidričeva 7, Nova GoricaTel : + 386 5 336 31 [email protected]: Sun – Thu, noon – 3pm, 7pm – midnightFri – Sat (also on Italian holidays), 7pm–1am
In Issue 116
In Issue 117
Shambala, asian restaurantKriževniška 12, LjubljanaTel.:+386 31 843 [email protected], www.shambala.siOpen: 11am-11pm, Sunday and holidays closed.Fresh and spicy experience | Selected wines | Relaxed atmosphere
Top Eat & PartyTomšičeva 2, Ljubljana centreTel (reservations): +386 40 177 [email protected]; www.klubtop.siOpen: Wed-Sat, 8:30am – 5amDelights of the French, Mediterranean and Slovenian cuisines.
In Issue 118
Atrium RestaurantPot za brdom 55, Hotel MONS (main entrance), Ljubljana ring, Brdo exitTel : +386 1 470 27 [email protected]: Every day, 12am – 10pm
In Issue 125
In Issue 120
In Issue 121
In Issue 122
In Issue 123
BARVE:
PANTONE 194 U
PANTONE 401 U
PANTONE PROCESS BLACK
BARVE:
PANTONE 194 U
PANTONE 401 U
PANTONE PROCESS BLACK
In Issue 124
European taste. This challenge was dealt with extremely well and, as a result, the tastes – both familiar and mysterious – blend in a memorable harmony.
No wonder the restaurant quickly gathered many devoted fans. According to one of the own-ers, “It could happen up to three times a week someone comes just for a certain curry. Or some other for the beefsteak.” Obviously with a reason: the menu offers the es-sential delicacies including coco-nut soups, soba noodles, oysters or crabs, which are available only in late winter/early spring. Yes, the menu changes seasonally and is updated with new inventions from the chef. Another hint: there’s no happier ending than the one with chocolate soufflé with mango ice cream.
All the food is essentially fresh. To meet this requirement, a special transport channel from the place of origin via Vienna needed to be established. As far the freshness is concerned, there are no excep-tions: fresh ingredients - essential to Asian food - freshly prepared.
The wine list is generous as well, with at least a decent representa-
tive from anywhere around the globe where a good vine grows - from Portugal to New Zealand. But still, when it comes to wine, a bit of Slovenian patriotism doesn’t spoil the Asian element. Beside the essential Slovene brands, a recom-mended set of open wines by re-nowned domestic producers make a sensible choice.
Shambala offers a la carte and a special set of daily specials, where you are free to combine three courses from a few different dishes in each round. The place also makes a perfect venue for the groups of up to fifty, in which case the food which can be served buf-fet style.
Behind a humble, discreet en-trance at Križevniška street next to the Križanke theatre, Shamba-la is a place of harmony. The in-terior merges the old thick-walled Ljubljana house with a stylish modern interior design, which shows some eastern mystique. The food follows this composition in reverse: It’s essentially Asian, in-corporating modern trends and a glimpse of what we are tradition-ally used to. In short - it’s the east-ern promises fulfilled.
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The Slovenia Times
Creativity at its bestFrom classical to modern – the strong soul of Festivalna Dvorana and Pionirski dom.By Petra Milič
Pionirski dom, with its leg-endary classic logo of boys and girls holding hands, has
come a long way. In this institution lies history and a fine archive of the most interesting and attractive social and creative events in the history of Ljubljana. For the last three years, Zavod Pionirski dom has been run by a former mayor of Ljubljana, Vika Potočnik, who de-scribes it as attractive, sparkling, playful and creative place.
Its main and emphasis is on children and their ability to ex-press themselves through lan-guage, theatre, music, dance, pho-tography and other areas of life connected to art and culture. It is a place where anybody between the age of two and ninety can en-joy and challenge themselves.
Children and youthFrom the former Pionir library,
Ms. Potočnik and her team created the first Art Centre for children in Slovenia, where every week 150 children attend a diverse variety of different workshops. She views it as a place where young people can evolve, encourage each other and search for their own potential. Ms. Potočnik proudly explains that many established artists in the field of fine arts or theatre got their start there, adding, “It will be wonderful to see some of these children attend academies later and become the next generation of Slovenian artists.”
Creative workshops, perform-ances, concerts, movie nights, ex-hibitions, science workshops and festivals are the heart of Pionirski dom, reaching out for even more. In April and May every year, four festivals take place: a video and
film festival, a theatre festival hosted by Mladinsko gledališče, a festival of young researchers and a music festival in which chil-dren participate with their own works and express themselves in ways we can only imagine. Ms. Potočnik is happy to note that one of their exhibitions was a part of an accompanying program at the 28th Biennale of Graphic Arts.
Children are the future and Ms. Potočnik is there exactly for this reason. She wants to contribute her own experience and knowledge, to help build a platform which will stimulate artistic impulses in people and help them appreciate art and cultures around us.
Dancing the night awayThe art centre is just one part
of Pionirski dom. The second is Dance Centre Jenko, named after the legendary Adolf Jenko, a mas-ter of dance. He not only taught more than 220,000 people how to dance, he also helped educate more than 100 dance teachers. This tra-dition has been preserved through the oldest dance school in Slovenia – Jenko Dance School. Today, this tradition is continuing in the Dance Centre of Pionirski dom.
Dancing has always been a ma-jor activity in Pionirski dom. What
actually marked it was and is Fes-tivalna dvorana, a hall which, in the words of Vika Potočnik, is a synonym for social life. It is known and remembered for the dancing activities organized by the City of Ljubljana in the 1950s and 1960s.
One of the things that make it special is that it was created by the renowned Slovenian archi-tect Jože Plečnik. The space itself holds more dance tradition than any other place in Ljubljana as well as memories of the dancing evenings and cultural events that
took place in it. It is a place where people used to meet and many of them found their life companions there.
Unfortunately in recent years, with all the new big high-tech spaces opening, Festivalna dvo-rana had some difficulties getting back on its feet. “But now it is time to wake up the sleeping beauty,” says Vika Potočnik. The Festival-na Hall has been partly renovated and now hosts a variety of social events, gatherings, cultural hap-penings and business events, as well as furthering the dance cul-ture of the Slovenian people. The beauty of the place now lies in the mixture of classical and con-temporary, where nostalgia and vision meet. It is not a place for huge crowds; it exudes a special charm, sophistication and intima-cy, although happenings such as alternative concerts still do hap-pen there.
It is a diamond that has just been repolished: glossy, special, filled with good old days, open to new challenges and always fash-ionable and in style. To not have it would be as if a part of the Slov-enian spirit were gone.
Ms. Potočnik says every bigger city in Slovenia should have its own Pionirski dom. Along with Festivalna dvorana, it is a treasure worth keeping alive.
Pionirski dom is a place where laughter, happiness and playful-ness is always present, welcome and encouraged through activities that take place 365 days a year.
The Capital
Vika Potočnik
February 2010
��CULTURE
Classical Music
ChopinmaniaWho does not enjoy hearing the joyful waltzes, splendid mazurkas and gentle nocturnes by Chopin? And who in fact was the man with the thin silhouette, the caprice for luxury, with polished white gloves and highly elegant manners?By Ana Šinkovec
The year 2010 marks the 200th anniversary of Frederic Cho-pin’s birth in Żelazowa Wola
near Warsaw, where he lived with his parents and three sisters until he was 20, when he left his belov-ed Poland, seeking international fame in Paris. Frederic, already recognized as a child prodigy at the age of seven, proved multital-ented as he wrote and sketched his own journal named “Pichon,” an anagram of his name. Against all odds, he was a prophet in his own country, and he thrilled en-tire Europe with his playing dur-ing his lifetime.
Nothing has changed: his mu-sic still delights entire world and opens doors to countless interna-tional cultural events. This year, multiple events, recitals, concerts, conferences and competitions are scheduled to offer audiences enchanting piano music. In this respect, we cannot overlook the
elite, traditional, 16th Chopin Competition in Warsaw starting in April 2010. Since 1927, the com-petition has launched the careers of some of the greatest pianists of the 20th century, among them leg-endary Marta Argerich, Krystian Zimmerman and even the disput-ed non-winner Ivo Pogorelich. It was postponed only once in eight decades, due to the Nazi occupa-tion of Warsaw during WWII.
Chopin Conference in Ljubljana
Slovenia will also not stay in the backstage and will take the inter-national lead in commemorating Chopin’s anniversary at the Euro-pean Piano Teachers Association four-day conference in October in Ljubljana, with the theme “Cho-pin in the Contemporary World.” Concerts, round tables, open dis-cussions and lectures given by the most prominent “Chopinists” will enable listeners from all over Europe, Canada and Asia to have special insight and understanding of Chopin’s music. The organisers hope to promote the attention to the piano, its music and its players in Slovenia, something that does not get the attention it deserves.
In addition, the Polish Embassy in Slovenia plans other types of events related to the beloved com-poser. There will be some jazzy Chopin heard, by legendary trio Jagodzinski, films, a Chopin rock love concert in collaboration with Festival Ljubljana and an exhibi-tion of posters related to Parisian Polish gentillhomme, a Polish art form that suddenly became very expressive in the late 1950s.
Disputed performancesWhile his artistic contempo-
raries played for royalty, Chopin played also played for the crowds. Today, it is not the question for whom to play but how to play and interpret. Is a good interpreter also an amazing performer, with flam-boyant expressions like Liszt, who is claimed to be the first great vir-tuoso performer in history? Or is it someone like the relatively shy, elegant and completely still fig-ure of Frederic, who never wasted
a drop of energy for anything else than pure music?
And what to offer on a recit-al menu for public of today? Do musicians really need modern arrangements making exquisite music more commercial?
Perhaps the lack of understand-ing and appreciation pushes pub-lic to expect “the impossible,” as in musical circles it is unacceptable and almost shocking to change anything, or play just a part of pieces to make it shorter, i.e. “not too long and boring.” Liszt himself once played Chopin’s nocturne with many additional thrillers, bass notes and other “decorations”; Chopin attended this performance and was highly insulted, so Liszt said he should play it. After hear-ing Chopin, Liszt approached him with tears in his eyes, apologizing
Frederic ChopinI left my heart in Warsaw: Although he was buried in Paris, Chopin’s heart was removed and buried in Poland according to his wishes.
A true romantic that hated romantics: Chopin had a seductively otherworldly air, and loved intellectual company and high society. He could also be cold, petty, and arrogant. In the cultural Mecca-on-the-Seine that was Paris, he rubbed elbows with Schumann, Rossini, Franz Liszt, as well with authors George Sand, Adam Mickiewicz, painter Eugène Delacroix, but deemed their art too aggressive and exaggerated.
In film: Chopin has been the subject of several movies: A Song to Remember (1945), James Lapine’s independent film Impromptu (1991). A Polish version of this story is Chopin: Desire for Love (2002).
In his own words: “Sometimes I can only groan, and suffer, and pour out my despair at the piano!”
for his egocentric and ignorant behaviour.
Chopin’s year will certainly prove whether classic piano mel-odies can equal match the expres-siveness of the flute, saxophone or other instrument. Experience them yourself, whether at home for relaxation or at exiting live performances.
The Slovenia Times
PEOPLE��
Slavko Avsenik
A True Legend, or One of Many?An innovative accordion master, who invented contemporary Slovenian country music, and made it appealing to the rest of the world, turns eighty.By Rok Podgrajšek
Slavko Avsenik is the most renowned accordion player and composer of popular
folk music in Slovenia. Many of the younger generation don’t re-vere him, as he was in the past. Nowadays, many people see this type of music as somewhat kitschy, so it seems prudent to ask ourselves how important this man really was. Was he just one of the many accordion players emerging at the time or was there something special about him and the other musicians around him?
Rise to fameSlavko Avsenik was born in
Begunje near Bled. In 1953, he formed Ansambel bratov Avsenik, which became famous throughout most of Europe, especially in Slov-enia and most German-speaking countries. In 1960, the band signed a contract with a major European record company, after which their popularity rocketed.
They played thousands of con-certs in many countries, most no-tably Germany, Austria, USA and Canada. They have sold over 30 million records worldwide and their music is embedded in the soul of many Slovenian people and is considered part of our her-itage. Not only that, Slovene emi-grants from USA, Canada, Aus-tralia and other countries think very highly of their music and if they’ve heard any bit of Slovene music, it’s most likely something penned by Slavko Avsenik.
It’s astounding to see how their popularity rose outside Slovenia. Slavko Avsenik and his fellow musicians were often featured on German, Austrian and Swiss tel-evision and several of their songs were translated into German as well, or at least the titles, perhaps most notably Na Golici (known as “Trompeten Echo” or “Trumpet Echo”).
The musicIt’s difficult to say with certainty
where the appeal of this band of musicians lies, but it might have
to do with their exploration of the Oberkrainer style, of which Slavko Avsenik was a pioneer. These well-crafted, yet carefree songs with simple but refined melodies and light themes have eased their way into the hearts of millions.
Over the years, Slavko Avsenik became a national symbol, an am-bassador of Slovene music, and he attracted some of the most re-nowned names in Slovene enter-tainment as a result. Thus he was able to get the great pop singer Alfi Nipič into their midst and he did the same with trumpet player and humorist Franc Košir.
No matter what fate brought, the music always stayed the same and true to its roots, with great hooks and memorable lines. The line-up was also quite consistent with accordion, brass section, gui-
tar and vocals. Slavko Avsenik al-ways managed to compose music that became instantly successful, spawning many eternal hits.
Crossover appeal and artistic integrity
Slavko Avsenik’s music is now such a significant part of the Slov-ene tradition that it is no longer considered just popular folk mu-sic, a style which is often frowned upon, but it has a lot of crossover appeal to fans of jazz, rock, classi-cal and even metal. This has to do with very solid compositions and arrangements, which have stood the test of time. Perhaps many young people don’t see his sig-nificance, but in this age of turbo folk, his music stands out more so than ever before compared to the
instant music of newer “erotic” acts like Atomik Harmonik, Turbo Angels and the likes. The music of Slavko Avsenik was real, albeit simplistic and light-hearted, but there was a great deal of crafts-manship involved in the making of this music. The music didn’t to be “sexed up” to be appealing – it spoke on its own accord and had its own merits.
Whatever people may think of the music of Ansambel bra-tov Avsenik nowadays, one thing is certain: Slavko Avsenik and many of his successors raised the appeal of this music, which was considered to be “peasant music” and so people of all classes, from towns, cities and villages enjoyed it. They put Slovene traditional music back into the hearts of the people. Slavko Avsenik is also one of the main reasons why accordi-ons were selling so well during the years when their fame was at its greatest.
Musical legacySadly, Slavko Avsenik is nowa-
days no longer in the limelight as much as he used to be, but this is to be expected of a man who has turned 80. However, his musical legacy lives on in his son, Slavko Avsenik, Jr. , who didn’t really fol-low in his father’s footsteps, but studied jazz piano and has collab-orated with the likes of Laibach, played in some jazz ensembles, composed soundtracks and mu-sic for the theatre among other activities.
Slavko Avsenik’s legacy lives on then. We must not forget that the man is a national treasure and comes to us from a time when eth-no pop wasn’t a dirty word. Not many artists have been able to contribute as much to the preser-vation of Slovene national heritage and culture as Slavko Avsenik and his music and –for that alone – he deserves our respect. It’s difficult to find another performer of pop-ular folk music who is able to com-pose such light-hearted yet unob-trusive music. Slavko Avsenik is indeed one of a kind.
Info blagajna 030 310 110 www.kinosiska.si
SATURDAY, 27. 02. 20:00
The Tiger Lillies (UK)“Live In Concert - A celebration of the Tiger Lillies 20th anniversary”.The London-based Brechtian Punk Cabaret trio again in full swing and their “Besf Of” edition.
The forefathers of Brechtian Punk Cabaret, THE TIGER LILLIES, were founded in 1989 and 19 years later their sound remains one of the most unique and original things one could come across. The TIGER LILLIES stood out immediately for their distinct sound and style and worked their way up from London pubs to the Piccadilly Theatre and buskers’ benches to the Sidney Opera House. Soon the TIGER LILLIES were touring the world giving concerts and participating in various art and theatre projects. A couple of highlights in their career was the Olivier Award they won for the cult hit musical ‘Shockheaded Peter’ and the Grammy nomination for their album ‘The Gorey End’. In 19 years the TIGER LILLIES have released 21 albums, participated in numerous shows and toured most of the world, never seizing to surprise, shock and entertain their audience with their inimitably deviant musical style.
Price: 20 € / 22 € (walk up)
The Slovenia Times
EVENTS��
Series of expositions
Fine Arts Critics’ ChoiceFeb 5 – 26, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, no admission
This is a cycle of visual expositions, selected by Sarival Sosič, while the artist is Pšena Kovačič. The expositions were done together with the Slovenian Association of Fine Art Critics.
Jazz
Vasko Atanasovski Sextet Feb 9, 8.30pm, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, EUR 11–14
Vasko Atanasovski is one of the most active Slovene woodwind musicians (soprano and alto saxophone, flute). He is becoming more and more respected in European jazz circles and the list of his international collaborators is constantly getting bigger. In Slovenia, he is perhaps most famous for his work alongside the legendary avant-garde composer, Bratko Bibič (Begnagrad). Last year he released a double album called Bohemia, where he presents his international Visions Ensemble, playing a concert at the Alpentoene festival in Switzerland and new studio recordings played with various line-ups.
Photography
EMZIN Photography Competition Feb 10 – Mar 9, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, no admission
An annual pan-Slovenian photo project establishing photography as one of the key elements of contemporary visual communication, this competition is one of those rare opportunities for presenting the diversity of artistic directions. An expert jury will award three prizes for original photography and a photo journalism award. Alongside the awarded works, the works of finalists will also be exhibited. This project was created in association with the Creative Production Institute Emzin.
A Meeting of Great Spanish Minds
The opening of the “Pablo Picasso: Bullfighting. Myth. Eros” exhibition was in itself an event not be missed. President Danilo Türk opened the exhibi-tion, while other prominent guests included the Minister of Culture Majda Sirca, Mayor of Ljubljana Zoran Janković, Minister of Defence Ljubica Jelusič and the Spanish Ambassador to Slovenia, Anunciada Fernandez de Cordova.
The exhibition features more than 90 prints follow-ing the cycles of development of Picasso’s style from Classicism to Cubism and his characteristic style of the later years. All works come from the famed collec-tions of Galerie Fetzer in Germany, which houses the work of many of the grand masters of European art.
During his lifetime, Picasso (1881-1973) created over 2,000 prints in various techniques. In the first decades of his artistic life, from 1904 until 1945, he mainly focused on etchings; for the following twenty years, he mainly focused on lithography, only to return to etchings in his later years.
With his growing popularity, Picasso received many of-fers to illustrate books, so the volume of his graphics increased considerably. However, for Picasso, the texts were often merely the inspiration of artistic inventions that he was already working on at a certain time.
His first major book project, also on display at Mestni Muzej, was to illustrate the short story “The Unknown Masterpiece” by Balzac. Even here, he ignored the direct illustration of the text; he rather focused on the theme that occupied him at the time: the relationship between artist, model, and artwork. These graphics are part of the Suite Vollard series, which art critics consider to be one of the most important series of the 20th century.
The exhibition also features the La Tauromaquia etchings, illustrating the art of the bullfight and the Metamorphoses of Ovid. Picasso finished all 26 plates used for La Tauromaquia etchings in one day.
Another part of the exhibition is the Sueno y Mentira de Franco etchings, showing the Spanish dictator, which are a harsh criticism of dictatorship.
The exhibition of Antoni Clavé’s (1913-2005) works at the Jakopič Gallery consists of 44 works set in premises reminiscent of a New York loft apartment – a perfect setting for a display of collages, cinema posters, theatre scene paintings and canvases. The works on view come from private collections and were assembled especially for this show, which has been organized in collaboration with the cultural association of Spain and the Spanish embassy in Slovenia.
Clavé developed his artistic education in Barcelona, his native city. His beginning as an illustrator in periodicals was outstanding, and he soon became a successful designer of movie posters. In France, Clavé discovered lithography and engravings, fields that would open the doors of the publishing world for him and that would turn him into a renowned illustrator.
In the 1950s, however, he decided to devote his time entirely to painting. However, he introduced to his work an archaic-like figurative iconography of convinc-ing plasticity: bearded kings, elusive queens and an-thropomorphic shapes of powerful significance. That was also a time of discoveries and recoveries of the material plastic for Clavé, who thus became an expert on textures, pigments and their visual derivations, subject to the light, which gave his work an ethereal atmosphere, always in formal opposition to pictorial rhythms.
The exhibition features examples of his numerous works from collages to cinema posters, from theatre scenes to some of the paintings from his most rel-evant period.
Some of the works are well known, like the kings and warriors Clavé introduced in his paintings from 1954. Other works on display are less known but equally in-triguing. Those include creations he produced during the first years of his training in Barcelona, before the Spanish Civil War, or other works like La Patronne, the portrait he painted of his mother in Paris, where he lived during his first years in exile.
Art lovers in Ljubljana are in for a double treat this winter. An exhibition of Pablo Picasso’s prints is on display in Ljubljana’s Mestni Muzej (City Museum), while Antoni Clavé’s works can be seen at the Jakopić Gallery.
Until 4th April (Picasso), until 28th February (Clave)
Antoni Clavé Pablo Picasso
EVENTS ��
February 2010
Pop
TabuFeb 10, 8pm, Kino Šiška, Ljubljana, EUR 17–20
Tabu is one of the more established names on the Slovene pop/rock scene. They became famous for the specific voice of their female singer, but a few years ago they switched to a female singer with a more straightforward approach to singing, but still retained their sense of melody. This show will allow you to hear their latest album 42 in its entirety.
Ethnic music
Klape v TivoijuFeb 13, 8pm, Hala Tivoli sports hall, Ljubljana, EUR 35
After last year’s sold-out concert Klape v Tivoliju ‘09 we will again see the return of the best Dalmatian ethnic vocal groups (also called klapa). Nine of the best Dalmatian groups will perform folk and authorial compositions. They will also be accompanied by guitars and mandolins. The wonderful singers will make us think of the seaside and will create a Dalmatian atmosphere. Performing as special guest will be two legendary Croatian singers Meri Cetinić and Tedi Spalato.
Pop/rock
Dan DFeb 13, 8pm, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, EUR 16–28
In the last years, Dan D have become one of the most popular Slovene bands. Their easy and light mixture of pop and rock has won many fans, especially with concerts like the one in Križanke, where they performed with a symphonic orchestra. This concert in Cankarjev dom will be performed to accompany the reissue of the group’s first two albums Igra and Ko hodiš nad oblaki.
Pop
Alenka GodecFeb 14, 8pm, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, EUR 16–28
Alenka Godec recently released an album entitled So najlepše
pesmi že napisane, where she does cover versions of some of the most famous songs, most of them Slovene. Her voice and romantic songs are ideal for this Valentine’s Day concert.
Photography
Saša Kos: ConcreteFeb 15 – Mar 14, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, no admission
Saša Kos belongs to the youngest generation of Fotoklub Maribor members who are faithful to the classical B&W technique. Kos’ initial documentary works have developed towards increasingly more abstract, minimalist photographs, favouring a distinct graphic, fine art expression. His photo series on concrete received the Primavera accolade from the Fine Artists’ Society Maribor (DLUM). This exhibition will be done in association with the Stolp Photo Gallery, Maribor.
Flamenco
Paco de Lucia, Feb 15, 8pm, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, EUR 50–60
Paco de Lucia is the king of flamenco and one of the greatest virtuosos of the classical guitar. He was born in 1947 as Francisco Sánchez Gómez, in the province of Cádiz, Spain. His stage name is derived from the name of his mother Lucia. He has won several awards for his playing and he has always been trying to play in his own style. He has always been interested in other musical genres besides flamenco and this culminated with the albums Castro Marin (1979), Passion Grace and Fire (1982) and Friday Night in San Francisco (1981), where he collaborated with such great jazz musicians as pianist Chick Corea and guitarists John McLaughlin and Al Di Meola. De Lucia has also composed music for films, but flamenco remains his greatest passion.
Alternative rock
Let 3Feb 16, 9pm, Kino Šiška, Ljubljana, EUR 10–12
Let 3 is one of the best bands to come out of the Rijeka new wave movement. Their entire career has been marked by scandal, with sexually-explicit lyrics and political and religious criticism. Let 3is still considered one of the most controversial bands from Croatia. They like to provoke responses by attacking religion, politicians and anything else they can think of. Nothing is sacred when these guys are concerned. For the show in Kino Šiška they promise a spectacle, both visual and musical. Whatever they do, it will surely not go unnoticed by anyone. The
supporting acts will be the Slovene band Carnaval and another new wave band from Rijeka Larve.
Experimental
Robert Jukič RadioFeb 16, 8pm, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, EUR 11–14
Robert Jukič is a Slovene composer and bassist, who is always interested in doing new things and combining them with the old. This time he will present Sanje, his latest project, where he again combines many musical styles. His band includes: Daniel Noesig – trumpet, effects; Tonč Feinig – organ, piano, accordion; Vanja Kevrešan – guitar; Wolfi Rainer – drums, effects; Robert Jukič – bass, effects and featuring Miles Griffith on vocals
Folk
Katalena Feb 19, 10pm, Štuk, Maribor, EUR 10–13
Katalena is considered one of the best Slovene bands. Their mixture of folk and some more modern approaches in unique, as is the
The Slovenia Times
�0 EVENTS
Jan Garbarek group feat. Trilok GurtuJan Garbarek, one of the most renowned saxophone players in Europe and the world, together with a great master of eastern and western percussion, is going to stop at Kino Šiška as part of his new European tour.
Nobody plays the saxophone like Jan Garbarek. In the decades of tireless creation his sound became the “trademark” of the famous sanctuary of European jazz – ECM Records.
The Norvegian saxophone player, who was born in 1947, was considered to be amongst the elite of jazz players very early in his life due to his intense collabo-ration with Keith Jarrett. His name appears next to the great names of American jazz and is mostly connect-ed to the birth of an original European sound in jazz.
In 1962 he won the title of best amateur jazz per-former, which enabled him to have his first concerts. In the 60s he worked in Norway, often as leader of bands and four years later even with the great George Russell. In the early 70s he started recording for the ECM record company and collaborating with Keith Jarrett’s European Quartet, which brought him fame and with which he also recorded the classics My Song and Belonging. In the 80s, Garbarek’s bands also included bass player Eberhard Weber and often the guitarists Bill Frisell and David Torn. In 1993 he col-laborated with the Hilliard Ensemble, a vocal quartet which sang renaissance music and recorded one of the more popular albums with them. In 1995, he re-turned with the album Visible World and four years lat-er he put out Rites. In April 1999 he worked with the Hilliard Ensemble again, on the album Mnemosyne.
Last year (2009), Jan Garbarek released his first con-cert album Dresden. It’s a double album recorded in 2007 in the German city of the same name. The mu-sic gives us ample proof of the intensity of Garbarek’s performance and his improvisational abilities. The expansive sound stretches from perfectly meditative
calmness to expressive outbursts. The music is both simple and complex at the same time.
This tour sees Garbarek play with exceptional musi-cians: keyboard player Rainer Brüninghaus, who has been accompanying Garbarek for a number of years, Brazilian bass player Yuri Daniel and the great Indian percussionist Trilok Gurtu. This excellent line-up promises an extraordinary concert experience, with the right balance between atmospheric music and tension.
The Slovenia Times Recommends
5 Mar, 8pm, Kino Šiška, Ljubljana, EUR 35–39
vocal styling of their female singer, who is certainly an acquired taste. They present folk music in a very original way and their concerts are almost always a treat.
Pop
ABBA The ShowFeb 20, 8pm, Hala Tivoli sports hall, Ljubljana, EUR 39–49
ABBA The Show is considered to be one of the best ways to experience the greatest hits by the Swedish pop music group ABBA. The cast of performers includes some of the members of the original accompanying band for ABBA. This spectacular musical show was conceived by Camilla
Hedrén and Katja Nord, both avid ABBA fans for many years and excellent music artists who have, since 1996, been performing in one of the most successful ABBA tribute bands, Waterloo, alongside the London National Symphony Orchestra under the leadership of Matthew Freeman, also known as an excellent film music arranger, and some of the members of the original accompanying band for ABBA. The show, which is currently one of the world’s most popular ways to experience ABBA’s music, was premiered in Norway in 2001.
Electronic
Frequency 7 aka Surgeon & Ben SimsFeb 20, 10pm, InBox, Ljubljana, EUR 15–18
It’s time to spice up this winter with a first class techno treat: we’re proud to anounce the first ever Slovenian performance of Frequency 7, an outstanding collaboration between London based Ben Sims and the father of Birmingham techno, Surgeon, who was the main predecessor and inspiration for the infamous Slovene techno sound of the 90s. FQ7’s performance is a journey through cutting edge and intelligent electronic music, combining elements of techno, funk, dub, house, hip hop, disco, industrial and more, whilst utilizing turntables, CD decks, FX and all the latest hardware and software technology. Now 4 years on, with headlining performances at Glade Festival, Monegros, Aquasella, Awakenings and many more, the FQ7 project is going from strength to strength, their sets are tighter than ever and they are established as the ultimate DJ duo. The guys are bracing themselves for a busy 2010 with studio productions, and a CD is already on the way.
Post rock
Mono Feb 20, 10pm, Menza pri koritu, Ljubljana, EUR 13–15
Mono are a Japanese post rock band in the tradition of Sigur Ros or Godspeed You Black Emperor. With their instrumental music they create meditative atmospheres and dramatic climaxes. They’re considered one of the best of the genre. They are currently on tour to support their last album Hymn To The Immortal Wind, where they played with a 28-piece orchestra.
Organ music
Naji HakimFeb 22, 7.30pm, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, EUR 8–19
One of the most prodigiously talented contemporary organ
www.pionirski-dom.si
You can hold an unforgettable business meeting, social event, seminar or diplomatic reception in the most beautiful hall designed by Jože Plečnik.
You can also spend a wonderful evening dancing every Friday at the Festival hall in Ljubljana.
Pionirski dom – centre for youth culture, Vilharjeva cesta 11, 1000 LjubljanaTel.: (01) 23 48 200, fax: (01) 23 48 220, [email protected]
Business and social activities in the Festival hall
�1EVENTS
February 2010
composers as well as an inspired improviser, this superb organist tinges his musical expression with the Oriental echoes of his Lebanon origins, thus reinventing the French organ tradition. Naji Subhy Paul Irénée Hakim studied at the Paris Conservatory and in this period received seven first prizes and subsequently won nine international organ and composition competitions. Hakim, who holds an honorary doctorate of the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, Lebanon, has written a series of chamber, symphony as well as vocal and instrumental works. At this concert he will be playing some Bach, Cesar Franck and some of his own compositions and improvisations.
Rock
Chris Rea Feb 22, Hala Tivoli sports hall, Ljubljana, EUR 42
The British singer and guitarist Chris Rea rose to fame in the 1980s for his original approach to pop rock. He wrote himself into the history of popular music with his hit songs On the Beach, The Road to Hell, Auberge and Julia. Over the years, Rea further developed his distinctive style, strongly influenced by blues and distinctively characterised by prominent instrumental parts, instantly recognizable deep vocals and melancholic lyrics. After recovering from a serious illness in 2002, Rea made a comeback with an even more blues-influenced style of music. His latest release is a greatest hits collection entitled Still Got So Far to Go: The Best of Chris Rea.
Metal
Warbringer, Wartune, War-Head, Affliction and Eruption Feb 22, 8pm, Gala Hala, Ljubljana, EUR 15–18
Warbringer are modern representatives of aggressive and fast American thrash metal. At the start of their career they played as a supporting act to a more
established thrash metal band. A big record company was there out of interest for the headliners, but they signed Warbringer instead because they were taken by the raw energy of such a young band. Playing with them this time will be Wartune, War-Head, Affliction and the Slovene band Eruption.
World music
Mayra Andrade Feb 22, 7.45pm, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, EUR 14–24A preeminent recently-emerging Cape Verdean musician, born in Cuba in 1985, Andrade took the world by storm with her debut album Navega, a collection of songs that are as grounded in the traditional music from her homeland as they are nourished by different musical styles and colours. In 2009 she released a new recording Stória, stória (RCA Victor/Sony Music), where Cape Verdean music is present from beginning to end (morna, coladeira, bandeira, etc.) and a strong connection to Brazilian and Cuban rhythms is also felt. Her excellent voice, spellbinding performance and first-rate accompanying musicians place Andrade into the pantheon of world music.
Photography
Slovenia Press Photo 2010Feb 23 – Mar 18, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, no admission
Established last year and intended for photographers who have had their works published in the national media and are permanent residents of Slovenia, the competition was an astounding success and received rave reviews. Slovenian photographers and photo journalists have up-to-date knowledge and understanding of interesting and touching events, which is why the competition presents an opportunity to acknowledge the finest achievements of the previous year. Initially hosted by the National
Gallery, Slovenia Press Photo meets the highest scientific and organisational criteria, and involves an international jury as well as compelling accompanying events.
Jazz
Jessica Lurie EnsembleFeb 23, 8.30pm, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, EUR 11–14
Jessica Lurie (The Tiptons, Living Daylights, etc.) has recorded four albums with original music. All her recordings feature a true musical vigour, spiced up by various musical influences, from jazz, klezmer, Balkan music to American traditional music. Her outstanding new album Shop of Wild Dreams has stayed true to this style. Jessica Lurie plays jazz that loops, sails, and soars without ever losing the listener. An enormously prolific and talented composer, Lurie’s works are both groundbreaking and addictive. She reveals an astounding flair for the melody, a sensible use of horns in select songs and an inexhaustible supply of energy, equally invested into singing and playing.
Classical
WhiteFeb 25, 8pm, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, EUR 8–19
The fifth concert of the Chromatics subscription season will celebrate the music of Polish composers and will be a collaborative effort between the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra and the embassy of the Republic of Poland. We will commemorate the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Frédéric Chopin with the performance of both of his piano concertos. Appearing as soloists will be two Slovenian pianists selected by an international panel as the winners of the competition, “We love Chopin!”. The central part of the program will be complemented by compositions by two other Polish composers of the 20th Century. Little Suite, composed by Witold Lutosławski on order from the Polish radio, was conceived from folk melodies from the area of Krakow. All compositions will be performed under the expert guidance of the Chief Conductor of the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, En Shao.
The Slovenia Times
EVENTS�2
Pop
Plavi OrkestarFeb 26, 8pm, Hala Tivoli sports hall, Ljubljana, EUR 29
Plavi orkestar is one of the most popular bands from ex Yugoslavia. The band was founded in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1983. They have produced hits which the whole of Yugoslavia was singing at the time, like Suada, Bolje biti pijan nego star, Goodbye teens, Ako su to samo bile laži, etc. They’ve recently reunited and are again performing to ecstatic crowds.
Punk
The Tiger LilliesFeb 27, 8pm, Kino Šiška, Ljubljana, EUR 20–22
Live In Concert - A celebration of the Tiger Lillies 20th anniversary. The London “Brechtian punk cabaret” trio is again playing concerts. The band has been around for twenty years, but their sound still remains one of the most unique and original things you can ever hope to hear. They went from playing in pubs to playing in large theatres mostly because of this characteristic. They have won several awards and also composed songs for a musical called Shockheaded Peter. They have released 21 albums, taken part in many performances and they still continue to surprise us.
Opera
WertherFeb 28, 5pm, Slovensko narodno gledališče, Maribor, EUR 20
Werther is an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet based on the novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The story speaks of unrequited love and the consequent suffering. The compositions are full of touching, emotionally-charged moments and longing.
Alternative rock
New Model ArmyMar 2, 9pm, Gala Hala, Ljubljana, EUR 15–18
New Model Army are currently on a European tour and thus they will also be stopping in Ljubljana. The band was formed in 1982 and has been constantly touring and recording ever since. They like to experiment with various
styles and their music is most often characterised as intense, aggressive and sometimes even militant. Songs like 51st State brought them cult status amongst movements against American imperialism, but it also prevented them from performing in the USA. New Model Army will be presenting their 14th studio album, Today is A Good Day.
Piano recital
Craig TabornMar 2, 8.30pm, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, EUR 11–14
At the age of 39, one of the world’s most sought-after pianists and keyboardists has revealed himself an incisive composer and instrumentalists with a talent for the construction of sound and exploitation of the instrument to the greatest sonic advantage.
Rap
50 CentMar 3, 8pm, Hala Tivoli sports hall, Ljubljana, EUR 39
The stardom career of 50 Cent, one of the world’s most successful rappers of recent years, is a story of a criminal past, growing up in difficult circumstances and a sudden breakthrough into the world of fame. 50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis James Jackson III, became famous after being discovered by Eminem and Dr. Dre. His most successful albums Get Rich or Die Tryin’ (2003) and The Massacre (2005) have sold a total of 20 million copies. In 2009 he released his fourth album, Before I Self Destruct. One of the richest rap musicians has also become renowned for his successful appearances as a member of the famous rap collective G-Unit and, over recent years, a film actor.
Opera
Madame ButterflyMar 6, 7.30pm, Slovensko narodno gledališče, Maribor, EUR 20
Madame Butterfly is an opera in three acts (originally two acts) by Giacomo Puccini. Puccini based his opera in part on a drama by David Belasco. The opera was supposedly based on events that actually occurred in Nagasaki in the early 1890s. The story talks about an American naval officer who marries
Something RottenHamlet is coming to stage of Cankarjev dom, this time in a modern adaptation by the renowned Lithuanian director Oskar Korsunovas.
This Hamlet is not a historical performance restoring the spirit of an-cient epochs; its aim is to challenge our perceptions and to convey the spirit of the work to the present. The director describes his own gener-ation as “a generation living in a kind of eroticized illusion rather than the real world. It is calculating, well-adapted and satisfied with itself.”
Critics claim that Hamlet is the most uncompromising of all Korsunovas’ productions. The truths are shouted out here; it is cruel, explicit, bleeding. There is not even a dash of sentimentality, weak-ness or doubt.
Before the Lithuanian premiere of Hamlet on November 20, 2008, in the Arts Printing House, the performance had already been presented to audiences several times. The world premiere took place on 9th September, 2008 in Stavanger, the European Capital of Culture 2008, which together with Vilnius (European Capital of Culture 2009) is a co-producer of the performance. The creative team of the performance consists of Oskaras Korsunovas’ long-term creative partners among theatre artists.
20th February at 7:30 p.m., Cankarjev Dom, Ljubljana
a geisha in Japan. They spend some time together, she adopts the western way of life and then he has to return to sea. She is pregnant, gives birth to a son and waits for her husband to return. She waits for three years and when he finally comes back, he has an American wife. At the end, the geisha takes her own life. Giacomo Puccini fused his typical style with some oriental flavours, which makes this one of his most special works.
Comedy
Monty PythonMar 6 and 8, 8pm, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, EUR 14–18
Who hasn’t heard of the crazy antics of Monty Python’s Flying Circus? They were one of the most original, creative and funny comedy teams to ever grace the television screen. This is your chance to hear some of the songs from their movies and sketches. The piano will be played by Joži Šalej, the vocals will be handled by Nika Vipotnik, while the director of the show is Tijana Zinajić.
Theatre
February 2010
Is your inspiration to tell the story of Hamlet in a modern way a matter of lasting process, or did it come suddenly as a consequence of a certain (personal) experience?
Staging Hamlet is an ultimate challenge for any director. One always feels he’ll have to do it sometime, when the time is right. At the point I started rehearsing Hamlet, my own inner life was somehow parallel to Hamlet’s dramatic character. On the other hand, real theatre is a sort of an entity that originates from within itself, but it has to destroy itself to be reborn. It’s a perpetual strife with the past. And I’m not talking just modern theatre.
This becomes especially obvi-ous when we have Shakespeare in mind. There would be no point in staging plays if contemporary per-formances don’t address audiences about things that are relevant and significant right here right now.
If a person can discover himself through Hamlet’s character, then the play is as contemporary and modern as a play can be.
Your Hamlet is reflecting on the current situation of a numb so-ciety distanced from reality – that is actually your audience… Do you convey the message? What’s their reaction to it?
Hamlet is boundless, it has no interpretative limits – that’s the
Interview: Oskaras Korsunovas
Through Hamlet’s EyesThe director Oskaras Korsunovas explains the idea behind the adaptation of Shakespeare’s Classic.By Jaka Terpinc
CULTURE ��
brilliant side of Shakespeare. And the movement towards your inner self is borderless – that’s what we experiences while staging Ham-let. Contrariwise, we are trying to reach Hamlet through our selves, through our responsibility. It’s a situation all the actors are in: they are facing themselves, their in-ner reflection while looking at the mirror – one of the central images in our production
Convenient with the supposed tranquillity and repose of the time, society seemed to be shocked by the sudden crisis. Hamlet again became topical in every sense, in almost every phrase. Beginning with “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark,” and ending with the universal question “Who are You?” The values of Elsinore are changing, they can’t stay the same. And Hamlet is breaking the set of those values apart. The same rule applies to our times: we can’t live in the world of such financial, political and social lies. Not any-more. It is extremely painful not only to me, the performers, but also our audience.
Is there any difference in re-ception between different national audiences? The way they under-stand your message and the way they react to it?
I have to admit, we have very strong and long lasting traditions
of the director’s theatre in Lithua-nia. In the later times of the Soviet occupation, our theatre was a per-fect stage for resistance and elud-ing censorship, our directors had to master the so-called Aesopian language. You can say that our theatre was very suggestive as it tried to speak about the things that were officially banned and persecuted very metaphorically; it involved a second layer, so the audience had to educate itself and learn to read between the lines.
A theatre audience always takes interest in strange or extraordi-nary things. They are curious to find some experiences that might not always be so pleasant – but still they are quite curious. We have been travelling quite a lot with Hamlet and our other shows, and I can say that we have discov-ered that the audience’s response is more or less the same.
In this regard, what do you ex-pect from the Slovenian audience?
On one hand, having in mind a more or less common experience from a still rather fresh history, I expect your audience to be quite similar to the Lithuanian one: well-educated (both theatrically and socially), open-minded, anx-ious and curious, yet a bit wary.
On the other hand, Slovenian theatre-goers have different cul-tural and theatrical traditions, so we may as well be surprised.
Regarding the number of pro-ductions currently on stage, you can be described as hyperactive. Is it difficult to cope with such out-put? How do you manage?
Right now, I’m rehearsing Kurt Weill’s The Silver Lake in Stock-holm, and then I’m going to the Alexandrinsky Theatre in St. Pe-tersburg to stage Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. Unfor-tunately, I work outside Lithuania more than I do in my own theatre. I’ve got even more foreign projects planned in the future. But it is es-sential to find more time for my theatre in Lithuania, so we de-cided to make a kind of experi-ment past December. While on a tour in France for a whole month with Hamlet, we were actively rehearsing The Lower Depths by Maxim Gorky. We have already shown a primary version (or rath-er a sketch, a work-in-progress) of the play in Vilnius and plan to present the premiere by the end of March.
When establishing the OKT/Vilnius city theatre in 1999, we strived to function as a theatre with a rich repertoire. So far, we somehow managed to succeed – while not having a permanent stage or steady funding for more than a decade, we can proudly say that now we have 10 performanc-es in our repertoire and continue to plan new ones. That is why we have to tour a lot to survive and at the same time we desperate-ly strive not to desert our home audiences.
Basically, I like to say that the name of my very first play from 1990 “There to be here” was somehow prophetic: while being “there” we somehow manage to stay “here”.
The Slovenia Times
SPORTS��
Alpine Skiing
We Have Another Hero
Tens of thousand of specta-tors and the TV audience couldn’t believe their eyes
when Šporn, 28, crossed the fin-ish line in first place and fellow competitors, with the exception of Cuche, were one by one drop-ping behind the little-known na-tive of Kranjska Gora, whose pre-vious best result was a 13th place in Val Gardena. According to in-siders, this was a surprise only to the general public, while the competitors knew very well that Šporn’s success was only a mat-ter of time.
Šporn was ecstatic, exclaiming “Being on the podium feels fantas-tic! I finally made a run without a major mistake. It was not perfect and that is the difference between me and Cuche. The last part was faultless. So far, I have been able to do it in practices but not during the race.”
He admitted that Kitzbühel was a special place, “It is really crazy when you are speeding along the finish straight, in front of 50,000 fans.” Together with Jerman’s two wins, a second and a third place, Šporn’s second place has taken the tally of Slovene podium finishes to five.
With Šporn, Slovenia will have two weapons at the Olympic downhill race in Vancouver, tak-ing place on 13th February. Down-hill racers tend to emphasise that you can only be successful if all the little pieces fit together, so it is difficult to count on a medal. In addition, Šporn concedes that Kitzbühel was the race of the sea-son for him, but nevertheless he set himself the goal of finishing in the top ten.
At the same time, Burkhard Schaffer, the downhill team’s Aus-trian coach, warns against eupho-ria, saying, “The latest results are admirable but let’s not forget that the North American part of the World Cup was a disaster and that the season is still long.”
Hard work pays offUntil recently, Šporn had never
been seen as a serious contender, even in Slovenia, and few people recognised him. For most, he was
just a skiing hopeful, similar to dozens of others.
However, now it has all changed and previously unknown facts have begun to surface. Janez Šmitek, his former coach, was full of praise for his former protégé, saying, “It makes me happy that his incredible determination and hard work has finally paid off. There are very few people as hard-working as him. I still remember him making up to 27 runs in one training session, which was un-thinkable for others.
“In one season, he won four na-tional junior titles and one second place. He probably lost count him-self, how many national titles he won.”
Šporn began his career as a sla-lom racer but his dream was al-ways downhill. With his father, a former downhill racer and mem-ber of the national team, skiing and speed are in Andrej’s blood. However, it took him longer than expected to put the pieces together.
“Longing for success, he was often making unnecessary mis-takes. He had a few excellent in-termediate times but they were always followed by a slip,” Šmitek recalls.
Despite being 28 years old, time is still on his side. Cuche, for ex-ample is seven years older and it is a known fact that downhill racers are at their best between the ages
of 30 and 35, when they can use all the experience they have gained over the years.
Times changeIn the pioneering times of the
late 1970s and early 1980s, it was unthinkable for Slovenia to have a successful downhill team. With the legendary Bojan Križaj scoring his best results in slalom, young kids were dreaming about poles, not speed. Even officials put it down to natural conditions and the lack of long slopes in Slovenia. There were some isolated attempts in the mid-‘80s and ‘90s, but un-til the arrival of Andrej Jerman, there was no significant success. Things couldn’t be more differ-ent now, with the technical team struggling and the downhill team enjoying great successes.
Šporn’s second place was also a milestone for the Elan team, Šporn’s ski supplier. To date, the company has only one downhill world cup victory (Bruno Kernen, 1983). When Šporn joined the Elan family, he was given a pair of ten-year-old skis and they spent the following eight years to reach to-day’s level.
“The equipment is definitely competitive and I would never change my ski supplier,” says Šporn. The fact that he was the fastest on the finish straight in Kitzbühel with a top speed of 140.6 kph speaks for itself.
At the end of January, many Slovenes made a pilgrimage to the famous Austrian ski resort of Kitzbühel for the traditional downhill event to witness another star performance by Andrej Jerman; he had won in Bormio a couple of weeks earlier, sparking “Andrejmania.” Instead, another Andrej – Andrej Šporn – stole the show when he finished second, only behind Didier Cuche. By Simon Demšar
Phot
o: B
OBO
Cross-country skiing
Silver for Petra in Tour de SkiSlovenian cross-country skiing star Petra Majdič won the second overall place in the ten-stage Tour de Ski series by finishing 2nd in the last race in Italy’s Val di Fiemme. Starting at the first place, Petra was overtaken by Pole Justyna Kowalczyk during a grueling climb towards the finish line. Majdic Petra is already excited and in good form before her appearance in the Winter Olympics.
Football
Over 1,000 Will Cheer in South AfricaMore than 1,000 Slovenians will cheer the Slovenian football team at the World Cup in South Africa. Out of over 3,000 tickets for the matches with Algeria and England and over 5,000 for the match with the US that were reserved by the Slovenian Football Association, fans bought around 1,000 tickets for the matches with England and the US and around 500 for the one with Algeria.
Skiing
Tina Maze Second in Golden FoxKathrin Zettel of Austria took first place in the women’s World Cup slalom event in Maribor, while second place went to Slovenia’s Tina Maze, who gained seven places with a blazing second run. Zettel had produced a near flawless performance to overtake Maze, who was the surprise of the second run.
February 2010
HISTORY ��
Aviation
The Wind Beneath One Hundred WingsFew months ago Slovenia celebrated 100 years of the country’s first ever flight, which saw the name of Edvard Rusjan being forever immortalised on the list of aviation pioneers. By David Aleksander
Slovenia regards Edvard Rus-jan with that special awe and admiration that can only be
reserved for someone of excep-tional talent and courage, and whose abrupt and premature end turned his life into something of a legend. He is that central historic figure which on the all-time avia-tion pioneer list sits comfortably on the 12th spot of chronologically successful flight-attempts, just six years behind the world’s first ever flight carried out by the Wright brothers.
Soaring to the skiesIt had been just four years since
Edvard Rusjan, born Trieste in July 1886, through reading profes-sional literature fell in love with the idea that man could fly and ex-perience freedom never before im-agined that the first ever Slovene flight occurred on 25 November 1909 in Male Rojce near Gorizia, then under the Austro-Hungar-ian Empire. A year before the Rusjan brothers had made their first plane out of bamboo sticks and cardboard, naming their in-vention Trapola de carta (Paper trick), yet it soon became evident that to tackle any kind of serious aviation they would have to step up their game. Two and a half months prior to the first ever flight Edvard Rusjan attended a meet-ing of aviation enthusiasts near
Brescia in northern Italy where he purchased his first engine from a Frenchman Louis Bleriot, who had earlier that year crossed the Eng-lish Channel, and set on a collision course to greatness.
Having just purchased a 25-horsepower engine Edvard Rusjan could now turn to some serious planning. The plane EDA I, which he built in collaboration with his elder brother Josip and their sister Luiga Gigia helped sow the linen for the wings, was a biplane meas-uring 12 meters in length and 8 meters across the wings. The first ever Slovene flight, just six years behind the world’s first flight by the Wright brothers and 12th over-all, was well underway with EDA I on 25 November 1909, the date which would later become the first
milestone in the history of Slovene aviation. And although Rusjan’s second flight just four days later was much longer and at a higher altitude, the significance of the first ever flight culminating in 60 meters in length and flying at the height of two meters will always be looked upon with that special type of veneration.
Unparallel geniusWhat sets the Rusjan brothers so
remarkably apart from the rest of the immortal crème de la cream of flying lies not in the specifications or the duration of their flight, but rather in the fact that they them-selves were simultaneously the designers, the constructors and the pilots. Making their achieve-ments even more noteworthy is the fact that they did not have the host of patent protections at their disposal as the Wright broth-ers had, and they also were not backed by the financial resources of the Frenchmen Louis Bleriot. It simply was the love of flying that drove the two brothers beyond every conceivable obstacle.
IcarusThe life of one of Slovenia’s most
daring sons came to an abrupt and premature halt on 9 April 1911 in Belgrade, Serbia. Rusjan was fa-tally injured in an aviation meet-ing after his plane had been struck by a massive gust of wind, forcing the plane to crash at the foothill of
the Kalemegdan Fortress. Rusjan died on route to hospital and was later buried in Belgrade among other great figures of the Serbian history. His funeral was attended by 14,000 people, including a rep-resentative of the Serbian royal family.
The municipality of Nova Gor-ica decided to devote this year to remembrance of the first ever Slovene flight by organising vari-ous events and holding a special celebration event earlier this Sep-tember during which a monument at the airport in Nova Gorica was erected in honour of the Rusjan brothers. Yet Rusjan’s name was not always revered in these parts. At the beginning of the 20th cen-tury Gorizia was considered an important cultural and economic part of the Austro-Hungarian Em-pire, but the booming years were abruptly cut short by the outbreak of WWI. A 25-year period ensued in which Rusjan’s achievements were glossed over and this senti-ment endured even long after the end of WWII. Today Edvard Rus-jan has the Maribor airport and an asteroid discovered in 1999 named after him.
13.- 21.2.2010
330 km in seven daysPo Planotah Slovenije
Slovenia X - country ski tour
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