Milan Erič

A utopian monument to people driven by political and economic factors to escape to major Western cities, where they have a hard time adjusting or assimilating

mural, 2016

The mass migration of refugees to Europe has brought with it a wide range of reactions, from humanitarian compassion to resentment and hatred. Terrorist attacks have triggered xenophobic reactions and mobilized anti-refugee protests. The fear of terrorism, of a wave of refugees and their religious and cultural identity has strengthened extremist political forces in Europe opposed to such migrations; their demonstrative, aggressive outbursts threaten our very moral, ethical, and political values.

This wave of refugees is inarguably a great burden and a challenge for both the refugees and the host countries, but it is incumbent on the European countries to solve the problems arising from the new reality in ways that are best suited to all involved. How can the humanitarian disaster be solved?

To what extent can European nations balance peace and coexistence in a multicultural world rather than close themselves off behind barbed wire fences? Can the humanistic ideals of “liberty, equality, and brotherhood” help build a society grounded in core humanist values in the high-tech society of the future?

Will future society be based on humanism or barbarism?

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Milan Erič was born in Slovenj Gradec in 1956. He studied painting under Prof. Janez Bernik at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana, graduating in 1979. He also completed his postgraduate studies under the same professor in 1982. He worked as assistant professor of drawing and painting at the Department of Textile Design of the Faculty of Natural Sciences in Ljubljana between 1986 and 1994, then went to work for the Department of Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana, where he was made full professor in 2001. Erič works primarily in the field of animated film. Together with Zvonko Čoh he made the animated film Try to Wink Twice (1981) and the first Slovene animated feature film The Socialization of a Bull? (1998), for which he received the Prešeren Foundation Award in 1999. His work in illustration and cartoons is based on caricature. Since 1980 he has shown his paintings and drawings in solo exhibitions in Ljubljana, Maribor, Koper, Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Belgrade, Tübingen and elsewhere, as well as in numerous group exhibitions in Slovenia and abroad.