A Tribute to Giants of the Slovenian Theatre

Portraits of the recipients of the “Borštnik Ring” award

On the program of the Maribor Theatre Festival.

Due to the deteriorating epidemiological situation, adopted measures and recommendations of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia and at the suggestion of the Board of Directors of Slovenian Theaters, the Maribor Theatre Festival, in agreement with the Ministry of Culture and the Municipality of Maribor, made a demanding decision that the festival closes on Friday, 16 October 2020.

A painter and a retired graphic designer Marjan Platovšek uses photographs to create portraits of popular personalities, so his paintings are, as the art critic Dejan Mehmedovič wrote, “like photos, although they’re not photos. To be more precise, they look like unusual photos that fulfil their documentary role in a special way, because they create mimesis, a transformation of the real, in a stylised form.” With his portraits – acrylic on canvass (80 x 90 cm) – the painter follows Andy Warhol as the typical representative of pop art. But with Platovšek, as Mehmedovič says, “it is not about the process of mimesis, but rather about a visual effect, which functions by using fundamental optical elements of visual arts, and with this abstraction portrays objective reality, concrete people, their faces.” The existing close-ups, in which the whole is formed through a careful layering of nuances, are the first series of portraits of the project that the author will continue in the next years with the faces of the laureates who received the highest lifetime achievement acting award in Slovenia. After the festival, the paintings based on the photos by Marko Modic and other photographers will be permanently exhibited at the Turjak Castle.

Opening: 21. October 2020 at  17.00

Project authors, design, set-up, public relations Marjan Platovšek, Tjaša Platovšek

The exhibition of portraits will be open for viewing throughout the festival.

Project partners
Slovenian Theatre Institute – Theatre Museum
Maribor Theatre Festival, SNT Maribor
Municipality Velike Lašče
Castle Turjak
Mart, Turjak
Marjan Platovšek, Tjaša Platovšek

Patrons of portraits
Municipality Velike Lašče
Family Petrović, Gradež pri Turjaku
JUB d.o.o., Dol pri Ljubljani
Tjaša Platovšek, Ljubljana