SAKAN AND PIRAN –
Herman Pečarič Gallery |
Opening, Thursday, 14 May 2026 at 6:00 p.m. |
Curators: Lazar Sakan, Slavoljub Stanković.
PRESS RELEASE
On Thursday, 14 May 2026, at 6:00 p.m., the Herman Pečarič Gallery in Piran will open a commemorative exhibition dedicated to the renowned designer and advertising professional Dragan Sakan, entitled “Sakan and Piran.” The opening will be followed by a musical performance by TEO COLLORI & ERATO.
A psychologist by profession, he was a pioneer of advertising in Serbia and other countries of the region. He was a creative director, a man of vision and success, and one of the first recognizable figures of our business landscape. Sakan was deeply connected with Piran, a town that, thanks to him, was placed on the world map of creativity. It was here that ideas were born which marked his creative path: from his move to Studio Marketing Delo, to the development of the global Saatchi & Saatchi network in the Balkans, to the founding of the New Moment agency and the IdeaCampus festival.
In honour of his memory, the family donated a bronze sculpture to the Municipality of Piran in 2011, created according to one of his own ideas. It represents Piran as a cultural and creative town and is located on the seafront in front of the Tartini Theatre. This year, Piran once again pays tribute to him, this time with the exhibition “Sakan and Piran," created in collaboration with and with the support of the Embassy of Serbia in Slovenia, First Counsellor Aleksandar Gatalica, the Sakan family and his friends, with the support of the Municipality of Piran and the patronage of the Piran Coastal Galleries. Special thanks for their cooperation go to Marko Maršičević. The exhibition presents a selection of photographs from the early years of his creative career, from his first encounters with Piran, and from the period of his greatest successes shared with this town.
The curators of the exhibition “Sakan and Piran” are Lazar Sakan and Slavoljub Stanković. The exhibition will remain on view until 16 August 2026.
MORE ABOUT THE CONTENT OF THE EXHIBITION “SAKAN AND PIRAN”
Text: Slavoljub Stanković, writer and creative director
SAKAN AND PIRAN
Memorial Exhibition
Piran is said to be a unique town – an open-air museum, a jewel on the coast, the Slovenian Venice, a treasure chest of precious things… Small in size, yet infinite in its beauty; you can walk across it in just a few steps, and still discover it for a lifetime. It is also the birthplace of the legendary composer Giuseppe Tartini and the town of salt – and where there is salt, wisdom dwells as well.
Dragan Sakan was a creative director, a man of vision and achievement, one of the first recognizable figures in our business sphere. For him, advertising was not merely a profession, but a way of life. With his passion and drive, he shaped the advertising industry and gathered around him the finest creators from the former Yugoslavia. His life motto was simple yet powerful: to help people and companies shine in their full brilliance. He summed this up in the simple but famous formula ‘1%’ – just that much stardust is needed to transform the ordinary into the magical.
Global licenses, major clients, international recognition, glamour and elegance – everything that seems like a myth about advertising became reality in his case. With Sakan, we lived through our own Mad Men moment and, for an instant, tasted the life of Don Draper. The world-renowned American newspaper Advertising Age described him as a mythical personality – the man who transformed propaganda into modern advertising in the former Yugoslavia.
They say that the brilliant Giuseppe Tartini first dreamed his most beautiful melodies. Perhaps therein lies the secret of creativity. Sakan, too, first dreamed his ideas – and Piran was precisely the place of those dreams. Here, the concepts were born that marked his path: from his move to Studio Marketing Delo to the development of the global Saatchi & Saatchi in the Balkans, the founding of the New Moment agency, and the Idea Campus festival. Nothing was created until it had first been dreamed.
Piran gave Sakan the idea for Idea Campus, and Sakan gave Piran something lasting in return – by inscribing this little town on the world map of creativity. The town dedicated a monument to him on the pier: an image of Piran built out of idea-books, just as Sakan himself had imagined it. A vision that took shape.
Today, the town of Piran continues this magical circle. In cooperation with the Embassy of the Republic of Serbia in Slovenia, First Counsellor Aleksandar Gatalica, the Sakan family, and his friends, the exhibition Sakan and Piran was created. Its transfer to the Herman Pečarič Gallery would not have been possible without the support of the Municipality of Piran and the cooperation of the Piran Coastal Galleries. This unique display reveals selected photographs from his early creative years and from the first encounters between Sakan and Piran, as well as the period of his greatest achievements, which he shared with this town. It also encompasses the time when, as one of its residents, he hosted legends of world art and advertising here. A special place belongs to moments of inspiration – aboard the boat New and in Tartini Square, where, as they say, we see most beautifully with the heart.
Piran is said to be unique. An open-air museum, a jewel by the sea, the Slovenian Venice … And Sakan added to this fact his own inimitable percentage of magic. Thus Piran also became a town of ideas.
There are no two Pirans. Just as there are no two Dragan Sakans. When they met, love was born – between a man and a town. In such a bond, nothing is impossible. Least of all that they should meet again. Just as they are meeting again today.
