Žiga Valetič: Thirty Years of the Young

Žiga Valetič: Thirty Years of the Young

On Thursday, 13 Februar 2020, at 7 p. m., you are invited to MMC KIBLA to attend a presentation of the publishing house Grafični atelje Zenit and the books 80ta - Desetletje mladih (1980s – The Decade of Youth) and Sedma republika: pop kultura in razpad Jugoslavije (The Seventh Republic. Pop Culture in YU Disintegration) by Ante Perković, in Slovenian translation. Visitors will have a chance to meet Žiga Valetič, author, screenwriter, publicist, translator, graphic designer and publisher:

Link: https://sl.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%BDiga_Valeti%C4%8D.

Between 1998 and 2006 Žiga Valetič translated several books of mystical poetry. In 2013, his novel Optimisti v nebesih (Optimists in Heaven) was nominated for the Blue Bird Award of the Mladinska knjiga publishing house. He writes publicity texts from the field of popular culture and art (music, comic books, literature, environmental culture) for Slovenian magazines such as Bukla, Ekran, Odzven, and Viva. He is the author of documentary films about Slovenian comic books and the newspaper Pavliha, and the screenwriter for the motion picture film Štiri stvari, ki sem jih hotel početi s tabo (Four Things I Wanted to Do with You, 2015). As a graphic designer he designed the cover and/or image of numerous literary works from different genres, published by Slovenian publishers (UMco, Ciceron, Iskanja, Primus, Educa, Gnostica, Alpha Center, Zavod za šolstvo RS, etc.). He is an active member of the Slovenian Association for Suicide Prevention, and the author of Samomor – večplastni fenomen (Suicide – A Multifaceted Phenomenon).

1980s – The Decade of Youth

"There are many different, often opposing views on Slovenian popular culture in the 1980s. Some believe it was one of the most prolific periods, others feel this was a time when the ship hit the bottom, along which it continues to slide to this day, but everyone will agree that this was a period in which music production reached a peak like never before. Without passing too much judgement, the author has managed to include in the book all the significant authors, as well as the most relevant events and phenomena of the 1980s popular culture in Slovenia. We now have a book that thoroughly documents that period, and can serve as an excellent starting point also for future reflections on that clearly momentous decade of popular music."
Marko Vuksanović, Avtomobili

The Seventh Republic. Pop Culture in YU Disintegration

The seventh republic is a passionate tribute to high-quality rock music and its protagonists, both from the end period of the once common state, as well as from the decades that followed its disintegration and the establishment of new entities. However, the book is not an inventory of the works (although it does contain such elements); its primary focus is the question of how popular music can survive in a time of political and military terror.

Ante Perković extensively analyses that part of Yugoslavian pop-rock, which defined itself nationally and politically, and which through its actions began supporting and justifying war conflicts, territorial tendencies, nationalistic mythology, and the tie between politics and criminal. Of course on the other hand it depicts the challenging fate of that part of pop music, which, regardless of everything, stayed true to a supranational and pacifist idea of rock'n'roll. In it, Perković finds a drop of hope for an island, which he names in a Utopian fashion – "the seventh republic".

Kindly welcome. Admission free.

The discussion is part of the project Druge besede/Other Words, supported by the EU Program Creative Europe – Culture, and part of the cycle Literarni zdaj-trk, supported by the Municipality of Maribor and the Ministry of Public Administration of the Republic of Slovenia. With author will discuss Tonja Jelen.