LJUBLJANA.- MUZA, Museum, Gallery and Academy, is opening with the exhibition Echo presenting the NLB contemporary art collection. The exhibition focuses on newly acquired works by contemporary artists from Southeast Europe. Their ideas, thoughts and representations expressed in works of art are proof of vibrancy, dynamism and lucidity of artistic production in this region. At the same time, the exhibition explores continuity. The new works are placed alongside those from the older Slovenian art collection from the 20th and early 21st century, imbued with historical and cultural significance, highlighting the impact and ability of art to sensitively capture even the most subtle changes in the society. Like an echo, a voice message fragmented by spatial and temporal distance despite its imperfection serves as an important signpost that helps us understand our own position in the vast expanse of space and time. Thus, the exhibition is also a play of echoes of various content and media nuances with older echoing in the most recent artworks, and vice versa. By its very nature, the echo contains only a fraction of the original message and invites you to personal interpretation and reflection. Similarly, this exhibition invites you to explore and connect different pieces that make up three sets of content in the form of artworks: landscape, community and identity. These key content starting points for understanding the world around and within us enable an intimate experience of various temporal and spatial dimensions of our Southeast region. Echoes are fragments of a greater human story that simultaneously resonate in our personal experience.

The setting highlights the fact that art, although often seen as a reflection of its time, transcends temporal and spatial boundaries and connects the past, present and future. So, art, as one of the reliable paths to knowledge, offers insights into potential truths.

This exhibition features new works purchased in 2024 and 2025, a selection of works from an older collection of Slovenian art, and two works commissioned, which are presenting themselves to the public for the first time. There are also artworks that won the international public call for young artists from Southeast Europe called At the Intersection.

With these new acquisitions and the new gallery, we are becoming the main partner and supporter of contemporary art and artists in Southeast Europe. The new gallery is becoming the home of the NLB art collection, which has been transformed from a national collection into an international collection of contemporary art with a new concept, structure and focus, accompanied by the entire programme that takes place in the Muza, as it becomes a public space for various art and museum projects from the region.

Our commitment to art and knowledge-sharing is based on sustainable development principles in Southeast Europe. With the art collection, its presentation and growth, just like the exhibition, we are establishing a much-needed dialogue in the society, promoting courage and individual choice, as well as the society that values justice and solidarity. May this echo across the region.

Artists: New acquisitions: Nika Autor, Jelena Bulajić, Jasmina Cibic, Vadim Fishkin, Hristina Ivanoska & Yane Calovski, Biljana Djurdjević, Vlatka Horvat, Ištvan Išt Huzjan, Nina Ivanović, Doruntina Kastrati, Staš Kleindienst, Andrea Knezović, Sanja Latinović & Ranko Djanković, Mladen Miljanović, Alban Muja, Nada Prlja, Nora Turato, Dardan Zhegrova

Commissioned artworks: Šejla Kamerić, Nataša Prosenc Stearns.

A selection of artists from the Slovenian Art Collection: Stojan Batič, Viktor Bernik, Andrej Brumen Čop, Riko Debenjak, Alenka Gerlovič, Herman Gvardjančič, IRWIN, Rihard Jakopič, Zmago Jeraj, Boris Jesih, Bogoslav Kalaš, Zdenko Kalin, Žiga Kariž, Tone Kralj, Metka Krašovec, Karel Pečko, Marij Pregelj, Gabrijel Stupica, Jakob Savinšek, Miha Štrukelj, Drago Tršar, V.S.S.D. (Alen Ožbolt, Janez Jordan)

Guests and winners of the International Open Call for Artists At the Intersection: Arijana Kadić, Marko Damiš & Dalea Kovačec

Curators: Mira Gakjina, Meta Kordiš, Tevž Logar.