Art Stays brings contemporary art to Ptuj

According to festival director Jernej Forbici, who conceptualised the festival together with Marika Vicari, last year's Art Stays - entitled No More Silence - was an adventurous journey into the world of sound, words and silence. This year's event reveals a desire to look at things from a different perspective.

"Structura was created with the desire to think less about the nature of the individual, and more about the interaction of different elements that are put together - be they people or artistic acts - and are able to survive the different conditions and metamorphoses of the world, in harmony, through transformation, or in profound dependence on other things, people, and our planet," Forbici said ahead of the opening.

The central exhibition will be on show at the Ptuj City Gallery and present Structura through monochromatic works of Duša Jesih and Julie Mangold. It will also include various Slovenian artists, Israeli artist Gal Weinstein, young Azerbaijani artist Faig Ahmed and Mohammad Al-Hemd from Kuwait.

The Dominican Monastery in Ptuj will host a sculpture exhibition featuring works by renowned Georgian artist Tamara Kvesitadze, joined by works by Sasha Frolova, Johannes Nielsen, Annalu, Tomaž Plavec and Milojka Drobne.

At Ptuj Castle, visitors will be able to see a selection of smaller bronze sculptures by Japanese artist Kyoji Nagatani, and medium to large inflatable latex structures by Russian artist Sasha Frolova.

The exhibition Sincron Gallery Reloaded at the Mihelič Gallery will be opened by Italian curator Afra Canali from Kanalidarte Gallery, presenting the beginnings of Italian constructivist art.

The Ivan Potrč Library Ptuj will host an exhibition dedicated to the structures, experiments and media of young international art, featuring young artists from three very different backgrounds - Slovenia, Singapore and Israel.

A baroque performance by Saša Frolova, conferences, workshops, a video mapping project by the Movimento Creative Label tandem, spatial installations in the city centre, various concerts and musical experiments are also scheduled.

The full programme, in English, is available at https://nomoresilence.si/.