Main exhibition, Ravnikar Year 2023

Edvard Ravnikar (1907–1993) defined the space of modern Slovenian society and state, transformed our understanding of the role of the architect, and opened architecture to creative doubt and incomplete design experiments. The significance of Ravnikar’s legacy and the question of the preservation of architectural heritage of the 20th century calls for its actualisation in the spirit of the 21st century. Ravnikar’s spaces have significantly shaped the process of independent Slovenia, as well as its social and political upheavals; and they raise questions of accessible public space, energy, programme, and the seismic retrofitting of buildings. These challenges call for responsible interventions combining the preservation of heritage with the adaptation of such to a social and environmental present that is fundamentally different from Ravnikar’s time.

These are the questions that the exhibition at MAO addresses. Based on detailed research of donations related to Ravnikar’s legacy from Ravnikar’s heirs and the Faculty of Architecture, the exhibition presents the complex development of some of Ravnikar’s key works rather than an overview of his entire oeuvre.  It was Ravnikar who redirected the development of Slovenian modernism towards a distinct and regionally inspired language, which was, however, constantly in touch with the global architectural scene.