Barbara Novakovič Kolenc, Director of Muzeum, Ljubljana, Slovenia

http://www.muzeum.si

Barbara Novakovič Kolenc
studied sociology of culture and history of art at the University of
Ljubljana and graduated in drama acting from the Academy of Theatre and
Film in Ljubljana. In the beginning of the 90's she acted in several
non-institutional stage and video productions and in 1996 established
the Muzeum non-profit cultural institution for art production,
distribution and publishing. During 1993-2004 Barbara Novakovič
conceived and directed the following performances - Cricket in the Fist
(visual arts), Viba Studio - St.Joseph Church 1994, Lo Scrittore
(space-architecture), Slovene National Theater 1995, Emilia
(word-drama), SNG 1997, The Girl and the Doublebass (time-music),
Slovensko mladinsko gledališce 1998, Paracelsus&Frankenstein
(movement-gesture), Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana 1999, a Muzeum synthesis
performance (Opera House Ljubljana), Racine's Berenice (Slovene
National Theater Dec 2000), Apricot Leave-s (Cultural center Izola,
Ljubljana 2001) and Project 5, Manifestations of Home (Ljubljana City
Theatre 2004). She wrote a libretto for "Little Nemo in Slumberland"
for the Puppet Theatre Ljubljana.

Since 2000 she was engaged as a producer of innovative theatre
projects. Project 1-5 was a series of performances conceived by the
authors coming from different fields - architecture, dance, theory,
light design, visual arts, who were involved for the first time as
stage directors. These performances were usually staged in a gallery
space, the 2004 production Rodin (dir. Boris Mihalj) was presented at
Museum of Modern Art Ljubljana, Likovni salon Celje and A+A Gallery,
Venice. Muzeum productions have been presented in Austria, United
Kingdom, Czech Republic, Mongolia, Croatia, Albania, Armenia and Italy.

Since 1999 the Muzeum's flexible strategy has resulted in some cultural
policy projects (Mobile Theatre Network - Strategies for Establishing
Distribution Networks for Independent Performing Arts in Central and
Eastern Europe and MTN Loops). In June 2005 Muzeum co-ordinated the
Ljubljana conference of The Gesture in the Cultural Heritage of Europe
project in co-operation with Fondazione Fabbrica Europa and partners in
Cardiff, Procida, Barcelona, Athens and Graz and conceived the
accompanying live exhibition and lecture programme.

In 2000 Barbara Novakovič curated Peter Greenaway's site specific
visual arts- sound and light installation at Ljubljana castle - A Map
to Paradise from Ljubljana with accompanying lectures and film
retrospective and edited a book of theory and a documentation
catalogue.

In 2002-2003 she conceived three installations under the title Theory
Open I-III - The Shirt of San Francesco (Museum of Modern Art,
Ljubljana), St. Lazarus (City Museum) and St. Teresa (Kapelica
Gallery). In 2003 a Re:construction Act explored the
visual-architecture-theatre of the Moderna galerija facade.