The City of Ljubljana is issuing an

Open Call for Programme Ideas of Ljubljana European Capital of Culture 2025

Artists, organizations and individuals are invited to contribute to the development of a significant part of the programme for Ljubljana European Capital of Culture 2025 (hereinafter: LJECoC 2025).
In collaboration with the 25 municipalities of the Ljubljana Urban Region, the City of Ljubljana intends to compete for the title of European Capital of Culture 2025. The programme for LJECoC 2025 is being developed with the involvement and collaboration of a broad circle of experts from various fields, from culture and the arts to education, science, environmental studies, social studies, healthcare, economics and sports. The ECoC period refers to years 2021 through 2026, with a particular emphasis on long-term outcomes of the project.

Why participate in the open call?

Because the City of Ljubljana, in collaboration with the 25 municipalities of the Ljubljana Urban Region, wishes to create a developmentally ambitious programme that would leverage culture to address the challenges the region is set to face in the future and improve the quality of life of its inhabitants. Because LJECoC 2025 offers an opportunity to implement innovative developmental projects. Because roughly 50 ideas evaluated as best will be included in the LJECoC 2025 application and will receive a bonus of 10 points at LJECoC 2025 public tenders for public funding by the City of Ljubljana. The selected participants in the call will develop their projects in collaboration with the Programme Council and the LJECC 2025 Working Party.

What are the topics of the open call?

1. Which artistic breakthroughs carry a powerful message for today’s world? Which topics address the challenges that Ljubljana, the Ljubljana Urban Region, Slovenia and Europe will face in the following decade? Which topics make us uneasy and are consciously or unconsciously pushed aside? What are some daring and novel ways the arts, culture and theory can use to address them and thus give new meaning to their own methods? Are we satisfied with the existing relationships between culture and the economy and between culture and the education system? How can culture improve social inclusion, public health, involvement in sports?
2. Ljubljana is among the cities that are expected to be hit hard by global warming. The environmental challenges we face are considerable, and they require quick and sustainable action. How can we establish a new culture in our relationship with the environment, a green culture, and how can we raise awareness of the importance of the environment for the existence of humanity? A culture within the environment; a culture within nature; a culture of mobility; a culture of public spaces?
3. How can we use culture and the arts to integrate the Ljubljana Urban Region and improve the quality of life of its inhabitants? How can the region and with it the whole country become known throughout Europe for their inventiveness? Can we develop new, innovative ways of integrating, interpreting and presenting the extensive natural and cultural heritage of the region?

LJECoC 2025 is an opportunity to realize important strategic developmental objectives of the city, the region and the whole country; we are thus seeking daring, innovative and ambitious answers to the questions posed above. Do you have them?

How to participate in the open call?

The public call is open to everybody, to all organizations and individuals from Slovenia or elsewhere. You can participate by:

• using the appropriate form (form_LJECoC 2025) to describe your proposed idea for the programme, and
• submitting the form by October 14, 2019 to Mestna občina Ljubljana, Mestni trg 1, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia, with the heading: LJECoC 2025 call, or through our website at https://www.ljubljana.si/ljepk25/

Any questions you might have regarding the open call can be addressed to the ECoC Office of the Department of Culture of the City of Ljubljana at Ambrožev trg 7, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia, or asked by phone: +386 1 306 48 45, or email: EPK2025@ljubljana.si.

The proposals will be reviewed and evaluated by the LJECoC 2025 Programme Council. The Council will judge the proposals by their innovativeness and forward thinking, by their likelihood of fostering development and by their feasibility. About 50 ideas evaluated as best will be proposed for the inclusion in the programme of LJECoC 2025. The results of the public call will be published on the LJECoC 2025 website on January 3, 2020.