From September 20th to September 24th, in Bled, Slovenia, the final ceremony of this year's "Zhiva" prize for the best Slavic museum in 2017 was held (although we
probably did not understand well, because in the end, instead of SLAVIC it turned out that it was a choose of the best SLOVENIAN museum ). It was nice to participate in the competition of
23 museums from 11 Slavic countries in Europe (out of totally 13 members of the Forum of Slavic Cultures, since
Slovakia and Ukraine did not participate this year).
There were nice presentations (our
maybe was even the best, I say this just like that, subjectively), there was
mutual friendship, new acquaintances, meeting with old friends, drinking
Croatian wine that our new friends from Gradishka smuggled, but our friendly
hosts in the hotel charged us five euros per bottle just to drink it in the
hotel lobby and to use the hotel glasses, but we are an old Yugoslav school
(minus Slovenia), so we managed to screw them up, we paid for two, and we drank
three bottles of good Kutjevo wine!
The full-day excursion to
Radovljica, Mojstrana, Kranjska Gora, Planica, Bohinj Lake was also nice... And
everything was nice, the Slovenians gave the main prize to themselves, as it is
really right, and not like like we did it at Makfest, at the very
beginning in 1986, voila, the first prize to Helena Blagne, in 1988 to
Krunoslav Slabinac, '89 to Zorica Kondza, '91 to Pop Design! So, in the first
six years of the festival-four winners from the other fraternal republics of
SFRY and, what a coincidence, two of them from Slovenia!
And let me
return back to "Zhiva", it was as it was, rewards received the ones
who received them, but, which is most important, we all were at the gala dinner
at the villa "Bled", a former residence of our former lifelong
president, and they served us the same menu that was served in 1956 at the
summit with Georgi Dimitrov and company. The "Old Fox" knew what was
a good grub, but also and good drink (just as he possessed an envious knowledge
in women), and in the end we were sweetened with the famous cream cake, it was
good, although I have eaten even better in our "Corso" cake shop. I
took the menu as a souvenir, who knows, maybe sometime it will be worth
something at some auction, but it's маѕбе pretty much, it
looks as I watch “Storage Hunters” and “Baggage Battles” too much...
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Certificates, brochures, flyers, programmes...
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| From the cocktail in the lobby of the hotel "Astoria" after the ceremony of the official opening |
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| Part of the atmosphere at the ceremony of the official opening of the event |
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| The flags of the 13 Member States of the Forum of Slavic Cultures |
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Our stand was one of the richest and full of most diverse promotional materials
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| We behind the stand, ready to meet and exchange materials with our colleagues |
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| In conversation with a colleague from the museum in Gradishka, Croatia |
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| At the beginning of the presentation of our institution |
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| Video walk through our museum exhibitions and sites can start |
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| From the workshop titled "Visitors and Creativity" |
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| Moments of socializing and friendship with colleagues in the free time, here, for example with Petko from Sofia |
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| The table in the corner with the awards before being awarded to the winners |
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| In anticipation of the awarding ceremony in the hall of the villa "Bled" |
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| The atmosphere at the gala dinner in the restaurant of the villa "Bled" |
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| The island in the Bled Lake with the Baroque Church of the Assumption of the Virgin |
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| A view of Bled, the lake and the promenade around it |
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| View from my window to the church of St. Martin in Bled |
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| Hotel "Jezero" ("Lake") on the shores of Bohinj Lake |
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| A view of the Bled Castle and the snowy Alps in the distance |
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| From the official reception organized by the Mayor Janez Fajfar in the Bled Castle |
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| Group portrait of the participants in the Bled Castle |
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| Group portrait at the foot of the 99 steps leading to the church on the Bled Island |
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| Part of the atmosphere at the concert in the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin on Bled Island |
