The public interview, moderated by Tanja Lesničar – Pučko (translator and journalist) will be focused on artist and activist Marko Brecelj questioning his long term practice, especially projects that were exposed to censorships by politics, religion or legislation. Amongst them his so called soft terrorism actions. Marko Brecelj is Slovenian singer/songwriter, self-called youth, cultural and social worker. From 1991, he runs Youth, cultural social and multi-media center (MKSMC) in Koper and the Association of Friends of moderate progress. In 2010 the Association celebrated 20th anniversary. On this venerable anniversary, an exhibition was prepared, originally on display in the Regional museum of Koper, and can currently (until November 19th) be seen in Ljubljana Spanish Fighters Cultural Centre.
“How could we in retrospective condense biography of almost 50-years-old, who for years hasn’t been doing what he would have preferred, but what he thinks is the most urgent? In the seventies he acclaimed confirmation and was immediately in the prime of influence on generations of future artists. In the eighties he has devoted himself to his son less than to himself. He worked on the periphery of public life and, rarely but still, cancelled out those who tried to put him in oblivion with his excellent songs and continuous appearances. With his soulmate he ran into the nineties like in a tunnel with no end in sight, he fought for ‘liberated territories’: youth and cultural facilities, where generations, which will have to battle with defenders of social and civilization collapse, can flourish.” (from Marko Brecelj’s biography)
Soft-terrorist actions file its history since 1999. Pre-event of soft-terrorism has occurred spontaneously on reception of the Ministry of Culture followed by much better conceptualized and prepared actions, from performance to Anton and Pohorski bataljon (1999), the Šeligo’s P-tič award (2001), bombing of U.S. Embassy and the Slovenian Government (2001), to the bell silencing or Tapisirano vnebovzetje (2003), when series of soft-terrorist actions experienced its peak. Brecelj sais that “soft-terrorism is not over, but was never pulled out of time context. Life inspires soft-terrorism, soft-terrorism is not in focus, it’s just method, or tool. Artistic work and fight for it, that’s what’s important.” (source: Mehki terorizem. Interview with Marko Brecelj from Društvo prijateljev zmernega napredka. Written by Alenka Pirman, March 2006.)
Moderator Tanja Lesničar – Pučko studied literary theory as well as French linguistics and literature. She was among the founders of Fiction Production Company (Podjetje za proizvodnjo fikcije) female alternative theatre (1983–89). In 1987 she was employed by Dnevnik Newspaper Company, first as a translator, then as a journalist. She writes essays, interviews as well as literary, theatre and dance reviews. She translates fiction and non-fiction from French. In 2009 she has reviewed and published the columns that she began writing for Dnevnik in 2002, which results in a sharpened image: they read as timeless parables, they hardly leave you cold.
The public interview is a part of the project Let’s Talk Critic Arts (2009-2010) which examines the critical aspects of contemporary arts (round tables, public interviews), documents them, and archives them (online documentation, publication).
The project is conducted by the cultural portal SEEcult.org (Serbia) with the partners SCCA-Ljubljana / Artservis (Slovenia), Clubture / Kulturpunkt.hr (Croatia), and Forum Skopje (Macedonia). The partners are the members of the informal network of cultural portals inSEEcp. It was founded in 2006 with the aim of connecting the editorial boards of the portals and stimulating the international cultural collaboration in the former Yugoslave countries.
The project Let’s Talk Critic Arts is financially supported by European Cultural Foundation.