PIRAN COASTAL GALLERIES – 50 YEARS OF CONTEMPORARY ART

Piran Coastal Galleries – 50 Years of Contemporary Art | 
Posters, catalogs, invitations, audio-video documents | 

Curated by: Tina Jazbec, PhD | 

Piran Civic Gallery, December 18, 2025 – May 10, 2026 | 
Opening: Thursday, December 18, 2025 at 6 p. m.

In 2025, the Piran Coastal Galleries celebrate 50 years of activity. The fifty-year history of the leading visual-arts institution of the Slovene Littoral, holding the status of a regional museum of visual arts, is marked by an exhibition of documentary and archival material.

In addition to organizing exhibitions, the institution’s activities include numerous accompanying events: symposia, round tables, professional meetings, pedagogic and andragogical activities, as well as publishing work. A significant part of its program is also represented by long-standing traditional events, organized independently or in cooperation with various partners: Ex-Tempore Piran, Forma Viva Portorož, and the Piran Days of Architecture. Today, its diverse and rich exhibition activity takes place in venues in Piran, Portorož and Koper, while in the past the institution also managed exhibition spaces abroad. Furthermore, the Piran Coastal Galleries conduct extensive work within the public museum service, including research, study, documentation and archiving of visual-arts heritage.

The exhibition will include promotional, documentary, bibliographic and other archival materials: posters, exhibition catalogs, leaflets, invitations, other publications and printed matter. It will also offer an in-depth insight into the complex process of the making of exhibitions, as well as into their reception by both the general and professional public. The central focus of the exhibition will be the posters that accompanied numerous exhibitions of Slovenian and international artists from the earliest years of the institution to the present day. This extensive material speaks of decades of work in the field of contemporary visual art while reflecting the stylistic imprint of its time.

Within the framework of the exhibition, meetings and round tables will take place, along with guided tours and workshops dedicated to understanding the processes behind creating promotional material for exhibition events. In the workshops, participants will design invitations and posters, defining content and motifs while creating the visual identity of the selected material. They will learn about the meaning and characteristics of graphic design and visual-identity design. At the conclusion of the project, a special leaflet will be published. The adult workshops and guided tours will be led by Tina Jazbec and Matic Bukovac, while the pedagogic workshops will be conducted by Ana Papež and Rihard Lobenwein.

The project is carried out in cooperation with: RTV Slovenia – TV Koper-Capodistria and Vojko Tominc.

The realization of the project is made possible by: the Municipality of Piran, Municipality of Koper, and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia.

The activity of the most important exhibition institution on the southern coast, which today fully embodies its role as a regional museum of fine arts, has been and continues to be rich above all thanks to the individuals who shaped it over five decades. On the occasion of the exhibition, we therefore wish to invite to the gallery speakers who, in various ways, contributed to the development of the Piran Coastal Galleries, or who, as part of the professional public and other interested audiences, followed this evolution. Above all, we aim to encourage reflection on the meaning of contemporary art yesterday and today.

Open and dynamic conversations will form the living core of the exhibition: our intent is to revive memories and share anecdotes related to the local context and beyond. Most importantly, we want to give space to contemporary art, which for half a century at the Piran Coastal Galleries has held up an uncompromising mirror to society, raising awareness and alerting us to the changes in contemporary life, art and the world.

The conversations will be recorded with the aim of creating a moving archive of memories intended for both the local community and broader audiences for study and research purposes. The programme will also include specialist guided tours of the exhibition and educational workshops for children.

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2026 PROGRAMME

• The January specialist guided tour with curator Dr. Tina Jazbec will take place on Thursday, 22 January at 5 p.m.;
• the next will take place during the cultural holiday, on Saturday, 7 February at 11 a.m.
• On Tuesday, 10 February at 5 p.m., the first meeting will be held with guests Marjanca Lenassi and Natalija Planinc. The meeting is organised by curator Tina Jazbec; the moderator will be Mara Ambrožič Verderber, Director of the Piran Coastal Galleries.
• During the school holidays, on Friday, 20 February at 10 a.m., an educational workshop for children will take place at the Civic Gallery, organised by curator-educator Ana Papež.

PRESENTATION OF THE GUESTS

Marjanca Lenassi is the former long-time director of the Piran Civic Library and the wife of sculptor Janez Lenassi. She has followed and contributed to the development of Piran’s cultural program for decades; she has been actively involved in numerous events, manifestations, and exhibitions, and is therefore an irreplaceable witness to key moments in the development of the Coastal Galleries of Piran.

Natalija Planinc is certainly one of the most recognizable residents of Piran and a key figure in the city’s cultural and tourist events in recent decades. As the long-time president of the Association of Lovers of Cultural and Natural Heritage “Anbot”, she has received numerous awards. She is also one of the most faithful attendees of the events organized by the Coastal Galleries of Piran and an excellent commentator on their activities.

The announcement of the upcoming events (guided tours, conversations with guests, dates, etc.) will be published shortly.