MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART - METELKOVA 22

Metelkova 22, januar 2010




Metelkova 22, december 2009

From the Instrument of Constitution:

(1) Moderna galerija/The Museum of Modern Art is a national museum that works, in accordance with its mission, in the fields of modern and contemporary art.

(2) As a museum of modern art it systematically explores, collects, and presents the art of modernism and its traditions. It deals primarily with Slovene 20th century art since the beginnings of modernism around 1900 and also with contemporary artists who continue in the tradition of modernist trends.

(3) As a museum of contemporary art it attends to contemporary practices in the field of the visual arts. It presents new contents in and new ways of expressing, exhibiting and interpreting contemporary art. By regularly purchasing works by Slovene artists it is building a permanent collection of 21st century art, and by purchasing works by foreign artists it is adding to the international Arteast Collection 2000+.

In 1994, Moderna galerija was allotted the use of one of the buildings in the former Yugoslav Army barracks complex at Metelkova, as a way of solving its problem with insufficient space. In 2000, during the time of the Ljubljana edition of Manifesta, Moderna galerija used the not yet renovated building for the first public presentation of its Arteast Collection 2000+, which focuses predominantly on Eastern European art based on the traditions of the avant-garde. This presentation was also a harbinger of a new museum of contemporary art that was to evolve on the basis of the collection.
More specifically, it was the allotment of a new building that suggested the division of the Moderna galerija into a Museum of Modern Art (to remain in the existing Moderna galerija building) and a Museum of Contemporary Art (to be housed in the allotted army barracks building at Metelkova). The principal reason for this division is the lack of space, and when Moderna galerija was faced with the fact that it would have to plan its future activities and programs in two buildings, the division between modern and contemporary art appeared the most reasonable.

The History of Metelkova 22

Exhibitions That Promoted The Nascent Museum of Contemporary Art

Public Discussions About The Concept of The Museum of Contemporary

Arteast Collection 2000+ - international tours and loans of individual works: 2001 - 2006