ABOUT THE EXHIBITION It was my great honour to accept the invitation and to take part in setting up the permanent exhibition ‘Beautiful Gorenjska’ on behalf of Verena Perko, curator-in-chief. We had successfully worked together on two other projects, ‘Iron General Janez Slapar (Pristava pri Tržièu, 1949). Between 1988 and 1990, he commanded the Gorenjska Territorial Defence. During the war for independence and until 1993 he was the commanding officer of the republic headquarters of the Territorial Defence. He became the first general in independent Slovenia. (National Museum of Contemporary History, photo T. Stojko)
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Thread’ and ‘Carnium Golden Age’, but ‘Prelepa Gorenjska’ offered the opportunity to meet other curators as well. The themes of this exhibition are complex and cover long periods of time, from archaeological eras to the present. The narrative and the context are closely linked with Gorenjska, Kranj, castle Khislstein, and ironworking. We also added at least seven layers of museological presentation. Classical and architectural displays are placed 131 within the setting of the exhibition, such as the medieval
France Tomšiè (Šmarca pri Kamniku, 1937 – Kamnik, 2010), engineer, politician, trade union activist. In December 1987 he organised a strike in the company Litostroj. He proposed the setting up of an initiative committee of the Social Democratic Association of Slovenia, an opposition party whose first president he became in 1989. Between 1990 and 1997 he was the leader of Neodvisnost, the first democratic trade union. (National Museum of Contemporary History, photo T. Stojko)
townhouses of Kranj and the pillars of the imaginative temple of Slovenian identity. The windows of the castle building and one of the niches in the wall also serve as frames for the displays. The niche, for example, presents a window from France Berjak’s store. The setting of the exhibition is enriched with jewellery and ceiling paintings from the parish church of St. Cantianus and companions. Human figures with exhibition objects are placed between classical pedestals. The original attic construction is also used as an element of the exhibition. The narrative is underlined by the symbolic use of colours, lights and sounds. Such a complex and demanding project as the realisation of the permanent exhibition ‘Beautiful Gorenjska’ was could not have been carried out without the expertise, sympathetic understanding and assistance of Branko Filipiè, manager of the RPS Company and his team. Željko Kovaèiæ, 2012