{"id":26806,"date":"2023-10-16T12:38:54","date_gmt":"2023-10-16T12:38:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mao.si\/?p=26806"},"modified":"2023-10-16T12:38:54","modified_gmt":"2023-10-16T12:38:54","slug":"catalogue-universum-plecnik-between-workshop-and-myth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mao.si\/en\/catalogue-universum-plecnik-between-workshop-and-myth\/","title":{"rendered":"Catalogue Universum Ple\u010dnik: Between Workshop and Myth"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO) is excited to announce the release of the extended catalogue accompanying the recently concluded exhibition Universum Ple\u010dnik: <\/em>Between Workshop and Myth<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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The book elaborates on the architect\u2019s approaches to designing public space and focuses on the complex relationship between the teacher and his students to reflect on certain aspects of Ple\u010dnik\u2019s rich legacy that were previously only rarely discussed. Archival plans, sketches, and photographs reveal the architect\u2019s legacy of communal spaces that unfolds as a complex and holistic vision of a connected world.<\/p>\n

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Edited by Toma\u017e \u0160toka with Milo\u0161 Kosec, Natalija Lapajne, and Bogo Zupan\u010di\u010d, Universum Ple\u010dnik<\/em> expands on the articulation of Ple\u010dnik\u2019s heritage and highlights the lasting relevance of his designs, thereby opening the doors for further exploration of new sources. The book presents essays by members of the editorial board and exhibition designers Ana Kre\u010d, Jure Hrovat, Anja Delbello, and Alja\u017e Vesel, the latter two contributed also as catalogue designers, as well as a foreword by Acting Director General of the Directorate for Cultural Heritage \u0160pela Span\u017eel. In their reflections, the authors discuss different aspects of public space, the course of the collective process that led to the creation of Ple\u010dnik\u2019s designs after World War I, Ple\u010dnik\u2019s school, and the translation of the architect\u2019s urban approaches into the exhibition medium.<\/p>\n

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With its contents and design, the catalogue brings a contemporary reading of Ple\u010dnik\u2019s legacy, showing how a rich and comprehensive understanding of existing public space can grow out of a series of carefully thought-out approaches, focusing in particular on the architect\u2019s interventions in Ljubljana. Ple\u010dnik\u2019s Ljubljana is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as an exceptional example of human-scale public space design, and the catalogue also expounds on the importance of such an achievement, stressing that in the fragmented and privatized world of the 21st<\/sup> century we now, more than ever, need to be aware of the importance of preserving this world heritage, ensuring that it remains an open and inclusive public space accessible to all. The headings Plurality of Scale, Recollection of Fragments, The Word and the Syntax, Topography, and The State and the City explore the central attributes of Ple\u010dnik\u2019s approaches: the way he gradually built the city with limited means, interpreting the remains of the past and combining them into new ensembles rich in meaning and function, and, most importantly, designed to human scale. They are accompanied by archive materials and contemporary photographs by Czech architectural historian Adam \u0160t\u011bch.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWalking through his designs is like reading a manifesto for the alternative community space; the fact that they were not the result of one man\u2019s work but a collective effort that involved numerous individuals who worked with the architect in different ways and occasionally also lent a transformative hand, makes this historic manifesto a lively and dynamic case study for our present-day situation as well.\u201d(Milo\u0161 Kosec<\/em>)<\/p>\n

The chapter The Common Roof presents Ple\u010dnik\u2019s and his students\u2019 materials from the MAO collection. More or less previously unseen plans reveal a world full of loyalty, dissent, adherence, and explorations of generations of students who evolved into architects by their teacher\u2019s side. The selection also reveals the vitality of Ple\u010dnik\u2019s school in the teacher\u2019s late period \u2013 during and after World War II \u2013 which has long wrongly been considered the time of his waning creative power.<\/p>\n

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Today, we read Ple\u010dnik\u2019s architecture as a model of human-centred, sustainable, and inclusive public space. But this architectural heritage is increasingly overshadowed by the architect\u2019s commodified personality and the myths that have been spun around him. Now he has also become a tourist icon and indeed a brand. What\u2019s more, in recent years we have witnessed myriad new cases of misuse or poor renovation, even destruction of the legacy of the architect, who chose his epitaph on the fa\u00e7ade of Kri\u017eanke to read: \u201cYou are transient, it is your work that you will be remembered for.\u201d To go back to understanding, protecting, and learning from Ple\u010dnik\u2019s works, we should first lay to rest the myths surrounding his personality.<\/p>\n

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Colophon<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Editorial board: <\/strong>Toma\u017e \u0160toka (editor-in-chief), Milo\u0161 Kosec, Natalija Lapajne, Bogo Zupan\u010di\u010d<\/p>\n

Contributors: <\/strong>Toma\u017e \u0160toka, Milo\u0161 Kosec, Bogo Zupan\u010di\u010d, Ana Kre\u010d, Jure Hrovat, Anja Delbello, Alja\u017e Vesel<\/p>\n

Graphic design <\/strong>AA \u2013 Anja Delbello, Alja\u017e Vesel<\/p>\n

Exhibition design: <\/strong>svet vmes \u2013 Ana Kre\u010d, Jure Hrovat, Marko Kav\u010di\u010d, Amadej Mravlak
\nPhotographs<\/strong>: Adam \u0160t\u011bch<\/p>\n

Photographs of the exhibition and catalogue photos: <\/strong>Klemen Ilovar<\/p>\n

Publisher: <\/strong>Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO), Ljubljana 2023, 292 pp., Slovenian and English.<\/p>\n

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For more on the exhibition Universum Ple\u010dnik: <\/em>Between Workshop and Myth <\/em>see: https:\/\/mao.si\/razstava\/universum-plecnik-od-delavnice-do-mita\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO) is excited to announce the release of the extended catalogue accompanying the recently concluded exhibition Universum Ple\u010dnik: Between Workshop and Myth.   The book elaborates on the architect\u2019s approaches to designing public space and focuses on the complex relationship between the teacher and his students to reflect on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false},"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mao.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26806"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mao.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mao.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mao.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mao.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26806"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mao.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26808,"href":"https:\/\/mao.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26806\/revisions\/26808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mao.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mao.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}