The exhibition was opened by the Slovenian Minister of Culture, Mr Anton Peršak. The exhibition, organized by the Slovenian Book Agency (JAK) and the Slovenian Culture and Information Centre (SKICA), was conceived by Metka Dariš. The event also featured a discussion with comic book artists and graphic novelists Zoran Smiljanić and Jakob Klemenčič and storybook writer Marijan Pušavec. The featured guests were interviewed by the director of the Caricature Museum in Krems, Mr Gottfried Gusenbauer. The merry round discussed the vibrant comic book and graphic novel scene in Slovenia. At the opening event, Jakob Klemenčič drew postcards with the caricatures of the interested visitors.
The saga Meksikajnarji (Mexicanos; art: Zoran Smiljanić, story: Marijan Pušavec) features five books and represents the most extensive Slovenian graphic novel series. The story revolves around the futile feat of emperor Maximilian I of Mexico (a member of the House of Habsburg and younger brother of Austrian emperor Francis Joseph I.), who attempted to conquer the Central American country of which he proclaimed himself sovereign and annex it to the Habsburg Monarchy. The story is narrated from the point of view of a Slovenian soldier, who fights in Mexico as a volunteer in the Habsburg Imperial Army.
Alma M. Karlin: Svetovljanka iz province (A Provincial Cosmopolitan Woman) (art: Jakob Klemenčič, story: Marijan Pušavec) is a story about world traveller and writer Alma M. Karlin, the first woman ever to have travelled the entire world by herself after World War I. Alma M. Karlin was born in 1889 in Austro-Hungarian Empire and died in Ex-Yugoslavia in 1950.
The exhibition is part of the preparatory activities prior to the project "Slovenia - Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair" and will be open until 16 November 2016. In 2017, the Slovenian Book Agency (JAK) and the Slovenian Culture and Information Centre (SKICA) will stage the exhibition at another Austrian venue and at the upcoming Leipzig Book Fair (23 - 26 March 2017).
Media coverage:
outsider.si/ko-mehika-sreca-slovenijo/
Homepage of the Literaturhaus Wien: www.literaturhaus.at