Maribor launched the European Capital of Culture

Maribor has officially become the European Capital of Culture. With a spectacular opening ceremony with over a hundred performers, a laser show and a boy travelling with a light through all partner towns and, it stirred up the feelings of over 10,000 spectators. The common thread of the programme was the slogan “Let’s spin the person inside us!” Before us is a year of culture with hundreds of events taking place in six towns.

The opening weekend of ECC concluded on 15 January at the Slovene National Theatre, Maribor, with Kogoj’s “Black Masks” opera premiere, which was sold out, allowing the European Capital of Culture to reach one of its peaks at the very beginning. The Black Masks opera represents one of the best Slovenian opera works and belongs to the world elite of musical expressionism.

Opening events in partner towns are lining up. After Maribor, on 20 January, artists from the Koroška region opened the ECC in Slovenj Gradec. The event was characterised by activities for children and adults happening throughout the day. The town of Velenje followed the next day, Novo mesto will open the ECC on 28 January, Murska Sobota on 4 February and, as the last partner town, the European Capital of Culture will be opened by Ptuj. The opening in Ptuj will be merged with the beginning of the largest set of events within the scope of ECC in this oldest Slovenian town – the EtnoFest, ArtFest and KarnivalFest. The musical and theatrical performance of the story will be related to nine traditional carnival characters and the ethnographic tradition of this environment. This will be the first musical performance to the topic of traditional masks.

For easier monitoring of events, let us point out that events are divided into four programme topics:
- TERMINAL 12 brings top-quality art, with special emphasis on new approaches and on local creativity.
- TOWN KEYS will, through over 100 projects, pump fresh blood into the city centre and make its heart beat faster through various types of programmes, architecture and content. Several events and projects, conceived by both Slovenian and international artists, will be devoted to the theme of Maribor’s history.
- URBAN FURROWS, on the fringes of the society. Six projects will be built and upgraded under the roof of the Centre for alternative and autonomous production, which is in relentless pursuit of non-profitable activities and establishes the mechanisms to rival the acultural machine of capitalism.
- LIFETOUCH represents a multimedia place of reflection, from the events of the ECC through the city and the region to the wider European context.

Besides the four programme sets, the organisers have developed three programme entities. Among international activities, this principally includes CULTURAL EMBASSIES. The activities’ basic intention is to attract art and other cultural events in the spirit of diversity and wealth of expression of culture from Europe and the world. 24 countries worldwide (13 EU countries and 11 non-EU countries) will illuminate the diversity and richness of the European and world cultural heritage. Painters, writers, philosophers, photographers, musicians, dancers and architects will present themselves and engage in networking at over 100 events. You can check the February programme here.

Choose from a large number of events on the calendar being updated non-stop, at the website www.maribor2012.eu. February will be notably characterised by rich happenings in Ptuj – the EtnoFest, ArtFest and KarnivalFest.

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