Fight against the cultural bureaucracy, restrictive policy and cultural impoverishment in Slovenia

Sign a letter of support

We have a very special situation here in Slovenia where the government is in the process of adopting the state budget for the next two years (2016 & 2017). Budget spending for culture is the lowest in state history, while additional expenditure is planned in the future budget for the military and police.

The entire art and culture scene is on alert!

We have decided to react by showing our government that the continuation of irrational austerity measures will doom the entire cultural sector to collapse.

We have a case right now where Miha Turšič, a co-founder of the Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies (KSEVT), has started a hunger strike at the Museum of Modern Arts in Ljubljana, Slovenia because, over the past year, the Slovenian Ministry of Culture has been doing everything in its power to destroy KSEVT (the Herman Potocnik Noordung memorial room was physically destroyed).

Support Miha Turšič at his hunger strike against the cultural bureaucracy, restrictive policy and cultural impoverishment in Slovenia. He is on strike already since September 30th. His radical action of desperation and frustration is a symptom for the alarming situation for all the cultural activities and the lack of financial support in Slovenia, where individual artists and cultural workers are fighting for their bare life, as written by Mladen Dolar.

The claims of Turšič hunger strike are on:
jaccusesite.wordpress.com/2015/10/01/the-claims

You can follow the development of the hunger strike and the (non)fulfilment of the above claims (daily releases):
jaccusesite.wordpress.com/category/eng

His action points out the generic anomalies of the funding system (national and EU), the outdated notions of heritage and contemporary arts as provided by the cultural policies as well as the political rhetoric and budget cuts. We hope that the government of Slovenia will reconsider cultural field as an important development agent and will make further steps towards the raise/return of cultural funding to 2% of state budget.

We have decided to bring the attention of not only the Ministry of Culture but also the Slovenian government to this matter by showing them that destabilising us by cutting basic subsidies for art programmes also destabilises our European collaborations and partnerships. We want to remind them to take the European cohesion policy that they have preached about over the last ten years seriously.

Miha Turšič's hunger strike: press conference (Moderna galerija Ljubljana, 9. 10. 2015).
Photo: Sunčan Stone.

We also want to show them we are not alone in our fight!

If you decide to help us in our cause and Miha Turšič with his hunger strike, we kindly ask you to send your letter of concern (with subject Letter of support) to:

• the email address of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia (gp.kpv@gov.si)
• the Minister of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia (julijana.bizjak-mlakar@gov.si)

Please notice about your action as well Asociacija, Association of Arts and Culture NGOs and Freelancers in Slovenia (email address (info@asociacija.si).

Please find a template letter of concern below where you can add your name and institution.

We would be very grateful if you decide to support our cause, which may also help our colleague Miha to end his health-threatening actions!

Template letters:

• To Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia (docx)
• To Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia (docx)

[Published: October 13, 2015]