URBAN LABORATORY |
13.12.2024 – 17.01.2025, Student workshops and exhibition |
Curator: Ass. Prof. Boštjan Bugarič, PhD, Coordination: Tatjana Sirk


Project in collaboration with first-year students of the Department of Visual Arts and Design of the Faculty of Education of the University of Primorska (UP PEF VUO).
Students of the 1st year of UP PEF VUO: Eva Dimitrova, Ana Đorđević, Maša Furtula, Kaja Hauptman, Maja Hrženjak, Taja Jenuš, Manca Klužar, Nina Kramar, Lucija Krapež, Julia Miroshnichenko, Marko Mladenović, Teodora Nikić, Eva Obreza, Tician Tenei Patafta, Aleksa Pavlović, Manca Pičulin, Lara Plevnik, Viesta Pryimark, Pavlina Ribaš, Luna Tjaša Rozman, Katarina Šavron, Paulo Šimonović, Lana Vojsk, Alana Uma Volčanšek and Danaja Stević.
The Piran Coastal Galleries have joined forces with the students of the 1st year of UP PEF VUO and their mentor and the author of the project Asst. Prof. Boštjan Bugarič and created the Meduza Gallery – Urban Laboratory project. Due to the renovation of the Meduza Gallery, the research project on the topic of responsibility in the design of community space, which was planned to take place in the gallery and outdoors in the city center of Koper from spring to autumn 2024, has been given a new format. With the reopening of the Meduza Gallery in December 2024, the project raises questions related to living in a modern city. The symbolic basis of this work in progress is based on the literary work of the writer Italo Calvino titled Invisible Cities (1972), which ranks among the gems of Italian travel literature, which repeatedly inspires creators and researchers around the world.
Between literary images and urban imaginations, the student's work of the passing semester will conclude with an exhibition or a work in progress, based on the utopia of creating modern content in the public spaces of the city of Koper. The Urban Laboratory presents a reflection on the creation of the city, where different ways of living are researched and thought about through four interconnected sections. The first section presents urban utopias and links them with the Calvin's Invisible Cities through sketches that analyze the public spaces of Koper. In the second part, a city of all cities is formed with a pictographic ground plan design, which, with the research documentary film of the third-year student of UP PEF VUO Danaja Stević, explores the subject of students’ needs for living in Koper. Insofar as the ideal city of all cities according to Calvin tries to teach the inhabitants of perfection, the third part questions the meaning of ideality applied to the way of living by installing the faces of the degenerate inhabitants of a perfect place, which Calvino precisely places in the story of this perfect city. In the fourth part, the poetry of the wall separates us, but constantly plays with the question of what is behind it, thereby opening the door to hope for life and living in a modern city.
All the workshops outdoors and in the Meduza Gallery take place under the mentorship of dr. Boštjan Bugarič. The project includes the presentation and exhibition of student works created at the aforementioned workshops, which will be on view in the Koper gallery from 13 December 2024 to 17 January 2025.
In January 2025, as part of the accompanying program, two more urban acupuncture sessions will be held with a reading performance and a conversation about Invisible Cities. We will announce more in the coming new year!