The Maribor Project

“The Maribor Project” was part of the European Capital of Culture events in Maribor, Slovenia, in 2012 and took place at Umetnostna Galerija Maribor (UGM) over one and a half months. The project focused on the exhibition of some of Rebecca Horn’s most acknowledged works, chosen by the artist and comprising installations, mechanized sculptures and drawings. Horn also selected works by key contemporary artists—Matthias Deumlich, Ali Kaaf, Antonio Paucar, Jakob Schaible and Markus Wüste—to participate in an international dialogue at UGM. The event was accompanied by poetry readings by Rod Mengham, Tomaž Šalamun, Joachim Sartorius and Yang Lian, a roundtable discussion with Horn and Aleš Šteger, a concert by Hayden Chisholm, and a film presentation. For a moment, the intercultural and interdisciplinary approaches of both the exhibition and the Maribor Project managed to break down the divisions between disciplines and cultures. The artistic diversity, the specific political, social, and historical references to Slovenia, and the aesthetic relationships between the diverse works on display allowed visitors to explore the complex ways in which art deals with philosophical approaches to life and death, love and hatred, and the inner and outer worlds.