International Symposium

Tuesday, 19 May 2026, 10:00–17:00, Museum of Architecture and Design, Ljubljana

Registration: izobrazevanje@mao.si

The symposium Is Nature Modern? accompanies the exhibition of the same title at the Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO) and is part of the broader international project Bauhaus Ecologies, conceived by the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, and MAO. The event explores how modernist design, architecture, and spatial practices have shaped evolving conceptions of nature, ecology, and the environment. It brings together researchers, curators, architects, and designers to examine the intersections of modernist thought, environmental history, material cultures, vernacular knowledge, and contemporary ecological issues.

Situated at the intersection of heritage, culture, and society, the symposium will address pressing contemporary issues from a variety of perspectives. It will not treat nature as a passive backdrop to human activity but will understand it as an active condition of architecture, design, and everyday life. In this sense, the Bauhaus Ecologies project will position itself within a broader historical arc: from modernist experiments in living, building, and production to contemporary debates on sustainability, coexistence, and environmental responsibility.

Is Nature Modern? invites a critical re-reading of modernity’s ecological legacies and asks how historical approaches to environmental thinking in architecture and design might be reconsidered today. At a time when the climate crisis demands new forms of attention and action, the symposium asks what can be learned from earlier experiments, materials, practices, and forms of knowledge, and how these lessons might help move beyond narratives of appropriation, control, and extraction toward more situated, reciprocal, and responsible ways of being in the world.

PROGRAMME

09:30–10:00 REGISTRATION AND COFFEE

10:00–10:05 WELCOME

• Maja Vardjan, director, Museum of Architecture and Design

10:05–10:30 INTRODUCTION: BAUHAUS ECOLOGIES PROJECT

• Cvetka Požar, Museum of Architecture and Design, Ljubljana
• Vera Lauf, Bauhaus Dessau Fundation, Dessau
• Vesna Meštrić, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb

10:30–11:30 SITUATED ECOLOGIES: HISTORIES OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL PRESENT

Moderator: Cvetka Požar

Lectures:

• Regina Bittner, Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, »The Bauhaus has Never been Modern”: Environmental Thinking as a Modernist Legacy?
• Pavel Gantar, Ecological Narratives in Late Socialism through the Changing Relationship between Nature and Modernity

11:30–11:45 COFFEE BREAK

• Robin V Hueppe, ETH Zürich, How Deep the Still Waters, How Tall the Silent Giants: Mass Housing Landscapes in Berlin
• Gaja Mežnarić Osole and Danica Sretenović, Krater, Land is Never Empty: From Planned Neighbourhoods to Feral Urban Ecologies,

13:00–13:30 Q&A

13:30–14:00 LUNCH

14:00–15:00 EXHIBITION AS DISCOURSE: GUIDED WALK

During the guided tour of the exhibition, guest speakers will engage the audience with presentations and reflections on the exhibited material and the broader theme of the symposium.

Moderator: Maja Vardjan

Contributions:

• Eva Gusel, The Vernacular as a (Modernist) Method
• Uroš Mikanović and Blaž Šenica, We Have Never Been Sustainable
• Peter Šenk, Pragmatisms/Ecoutopias
• Altan Jurca Avci, Architecture Between Self-Management and the State Apparatus: The 1951 Urban Plan for Kranj
• Kaja Kisilak, Katja Pahor, Self-sown
• Aljaž Rudolf, Ecologisation of Architectural Practice

15:00–16:30 EXHIBITION AS DISCOURSE: TABLE TALK

The Table Talk will bring together symposium participants and special guests for a joint reflection on the exhibition’s themes, materials, and perspectives. Rather than presenting a unified narrative, it will open a space for exchange among researchers, curators, experts, and the public. Set within the exhibition, the round table becomes a temporary environment for collective thinking that transcends disciplines, geographies, and scales, as well as frictions that emerge when nature and ecology are understood not as a backdrop, but as  active conditions of creative practices.

Special guests:

• Sonja Dragović, researcher in the field of urban studies
• Gilly Karjevsky, urban curator
• Robin Winogrond, landscape architect and urban planner

16:30–16:45 FINAL REMARKS

The event at MAO, organized as part of the Bauhaus Ecologies project, will be followed by a conference in Zagreb:

ART, ENVIRONMENT, AND CRITICAL THINKING IN EASTERN AND SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

Wednesday, 20 May 2026, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb

We also recommend:

Festivities Under Siege

20–22 May 2026, Krater and its sister feral lands

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Direction and Concept: Maja Vardjan and Cvetka Požar

Coordination: Blažka Kirm

Graphic Design: AA + Studio Kruh

Exhibition Space Design: Manca Košir, Jan Kozinc

Public Relations: Maša Špiler

Technicians: Matjaž Rozina, Tadej Golob

In cooperation with:

Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, Dessau

Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb

The programme is supported by

This “OFF THE MAP” tour, which takes place as part of the Ljubljana Art Weekend, will take visitors to the Nove Fužine neighborhood, known for its modernist residential architecture, rich demographic variety, and strong community bonds.

The visit of the neighbourhood will start with the guided tour of the exhibition Is nature modern? Ecological Perspectives in the MAO Collection, 1930–1979 in the Museum of architecture and design (MAO) by its director Maja Vardjan. The exhibition explores modernistic architecture and design’s relationship to nature and their approach to ecological thinking.

Alongside the current exhibition the director will present the museum’s involvement with the local communities, including projects like Museum in Community, and other transdisciplinary sustainable practices, promoting a diverse range of events and workshops that encourage intergenerational collaboration between individuals and institutions.

In the same participatory manner the tour will be followed by the picnic with What Could Should Curating Do (WCSCD), educational program which serves as a testing ground for creating a collective learning site and a space to think about how to institute differently. Their collaborative approach has led to forming bonds with the Robida collective, who will join the discussion and present their unique way of operating. Jointly they will present the new WCSCD’s publication created in collaboration with Archive Books and Sok Cooperative, as well as the recent Robida magazine, centered around the orchard as a landscape and fruit trees as powerful metaphors and living archives of stories and memories.

The gathering will be activated through the presence of WCSCD program participants, curators, Sara Kecman, Giulia Gaibisso, Irene Coscarella and Marie Tatjana Niederleithinger, artist based in Novi Sad (Sok Cooperative member) Nemanja Milenković, Robida Collective, and curator and WCSCD founder Biljana Cirić.

If you would like to join the tour, please apply at hello@ljubljanaartweekend.com.

*There will be free transportation from Tivoli Park to Fužine, however visitors are welcome to join the programme directly at the Museum of architecture and design (MAO).

On the first weekend of June, as part of the European initiative Rendez-vous aux jardins (Meet Us in the Gardens), we invite you to visit parks and gardens in more than twenty European countries. This year’s theme is viewpoints. The initiative, which originated in France, aims to bring the diversity and richness of garden and park heritage closer to the public, highlight its cultural significance, and emphasize the positive impact of green spaces on people’s well-being.

Join us in the MAO park!

The park of the Renaissance Fužine Castle, home to the Museum of Architecture and Design, was arranged in the 19th century. It is characterized by old tree species such as plane trees and chestnuts, as well as landscaped paths along the river, creating a pleasant blend of natural and cultural environments.

At the event, we will explore different tree species, make leaf and bark prints, build a model of the park and the castle, and try out the role of landscape architects. Along the way, we will also discover interesting architectural elements, including the original roof turret from the Provincial Mansion (now the seat of the University of Ljubljana), and visit a nature-based playground created as part of the Museum in the Community project. We will explore a hidden pond, learn about urban beekeeping and the importance of ecological corridors, and observe birds and other park inhabitants.

The event is intended for children and young people up to the age of 15.

As part of the Rendez-vous aux jardins (Meet Us in the Gardens) initiative, when numerous gardens and parks across Europe open their doors to the public, we invite you to join a guided tour of the Fužine Castle park at MAO.

The Fužine Castle park represents an important example of the interplay between historical landscape design and contemporary urban space. It took on its present form in the 19th century, when Fidelis Terpinc, the then owner of the castle, transformed the grounds into a park. Plane trees, cypresses, carob trees, and other exotic trees and shrubs were planted. The park was renovated in the early 1990s. Today, it is a public space at the intersection of natural heritage, a riverside environment, and dense residential development. This layering raises a number of questions about its management, significance, and future development.

Through its historical context and transformations, the tour will present the park from the perspective of landscape architecture, spatial use, and contemporary environmental challenges. Special emphasis will be placed on biodiversity and sustainable management practices (such as mowing intensity, the role of urban beekeeping, and the identification and evaluation of wild-growing, including edible, plant species).

The guided tour will be conducted in collaboration with members of the Trajna association for the development of sustainable design.