OCTOBER – NOVEMBER 2026 PROGRAM
Nina Mršnik’s solo exhibition at the Loža Gallery in Koper
After more than a decade working on the projects Kobeiagi Kilims and Pečeno pohištvo, designer Nina Mršnik is entering a new phase of her creative practice. The exhibition entitled The Apartment at the Loža Gallery in Koper is a space for questioning and reassembly, raising questions about what it means to be a woman designer over forty in Slovenia’s post-industrial environment, where to position oneself after completing long-term projects, and under what economic conditions it is even possible to sustain a creative practice today?
The starting point of the exhibition The Apartment is personal, but it opens onto broader questions of dwelling, survival and the conditions under which creative work can become, or remain, a way of life. Reflection on design is therefore inseparable from the material and economic circumstances that enable, or restrict, a creator’s ability to devote time, space and perseverance to their work. The exhibition, featuring an original installation conceived by the artist, will open on Friday, 23 October 2026, at 6 p.m.
Photographic works by the IRWIN group at the Piran Civic Gallery
The exhibition IRWIN: Photographic Work presents a selection of photographic works created over four decades of activity by one of Slovenia’s most significant art groups on the international contemporary art scene, either as documents of artistic interventions, performances and temporary installations or as independent works of art. The Slovenian art collective IRWIN thus brings photography to the fore as one of the central, yet previously less prominent, strands of its artistic practice.
The exhibition, which was on view between May and September 2026 at the City Museum of Ljubljana, will reveal how IRWIN uses photography as a means of documentation, transformation and conceptual reflection, and how it places it in relation to the symbolic and political contexts of images. At a time of rising nationalism and distorted historical narratives, it will invite visitors to consider the images on display, and perhaps photographic images in general, as fields in which meaning is arbitrarily redistributed and rewritten, and the politics of representation is continually re-established. The project is a visiting exhibition organised through collaboration between Piran Coastal Galleries and MGML Ljubljana as part of the 2027 programme, and is carried out in partnership with the Projekt Atol Institute. A survey catalogue has also been published to accompany the exhibition and will be presented as part of the winter programme of accompanying events. The curator of the exhibition, which will open on Friday, 6 November 2026, at 6 p.m., is Hana Čeferin. It will be on view at the Piran Civic Gallery until 11 April 2027.
Eighth edition of Spekula at the Meduza Gallery in Koper
The eighth edition of Spekula is based on its own ideas and on a response to trends in collective thought, recognising the importance of developing an idea into a tangible material form. The title Non-objective Materiality expresses a set of ideas that moves beyond the realm of thought and becomes reality as a consequence of actions. At a time when the machine intertwines with human creativity, imagination and visions, scientists and developers of advanced technologies question their own actions and, in a sense, share responsibility with the wider public. In this spirit, the artists participating in the exhibition also present their visions and stagings: Ulay, Živko Marušič, Igor Andjelić and Tilen Žbona.
The exhibition Non-objective Materiality presents a series of artworks that invite us to examine the actions and ideas of the featured artists more closely and, in the spirit of Spekula, convey a wide range of artistic perspectives and different approaches to creative work. The exhibition, which we are preparing in collaboration with UP PEF VUO, will open at the Meduza Gallery in Koper on Thursday, 12 November 2026, at 7 p.m.
Piran Days of Architecture 2026 – 43rd International Architecture Conference, Piranesi Award and Exhibition 2026
One of the world’s longest-running international architecture conferences is organised by the DESSA Architectural Centre in Ljubljana in collaboration with Piran Coastal Galleries, Avditorij Portorož and the Municipality of Piran. The conference aims to assess current architectural trends and present the most innovative architectural ideas developed in Central Europe over the past two years.
This year’s invited speakers: Patrick Richard (United Kingdom), Kerstin Thompson (Australia), Francisco Cifuentes (Spain), Dinko Peračić & Miranda Veljačić (Croatia) and Nguyễn Hà (Vietnam), Mojca Gregorski and Andraž Keršič (Slovenia), will address the theme How Many Dimensions Are There to Architecture? at Avditorij Portorož on Saturday, 21 November 2026, presenting their projects, perspectives and visions. The conference at the Avditorij will be followed by the award and honourable mentions ceremony and the opening of the exhibition Piranesi 2026 at Monfort in Portorož.
Group exhibition Venustas – The Poetics of Architects at the Herman Pečarič Gallery in Piran
Architectural creation neither begins nor ends with designing buildings or shaping space. Behind plans, floor plans and models stands a creative individual whose way of thinking often transcends the boundaries of architecture and finds expression through fine art and other visual media. Drawing, painting, photography and other visual works are not merely accompaniments to architectural practice, but independent ways of exploring space, light, form, human beings and the world.
The exhibition, conceived by Uroš Lobnik and Robert Potokar and produced by the DESSA Gallery in Ljubljana, presents this less familiar yet essential part of architects’ creative work.
The series of two exhibitions presents a total of 10 practitioners working in architecture, landscape architecture and scenography. The first exhibition, which we will open on Friday, 20 November 2026, at 6.30 p.m. at the Herman Pečarič Gallery, features: Peter Gabrijelčič, Meta Hočevar, Uroš Lobnik, Tanja Simonič Korošak and Robert Potokar.
