Opening of Ambassador Mak Grgić at “Beyond” Kirn Lectures National Exhibition at Georgetown Gallery page 2 & 3 > page 3 > page 6 >
NEWSLETTER
OCTOBER 12, 2012, VOLUME 8, NUMBER 38 Annual General and Honorary Consuls’ Meeting
As traditionally on Slovenian General and Honorary Consuls with Ambassador Roman Kirn and the fi rst Friday of October, Embassy staff in front of the embassy’s premises in Washington, D.C. the Embassy of Slovenia hosted the annual meeting the two countries and exchange Consul General in New York Dr. of general and honorary the experience with their Melita Gabrič and Consul General consuls of the Republic colleagues. in Cleveland Jure Žmauc met of Slovenia in the United Honorary consuls are of at the Embassy of Slovenia in States. utmost importance for Slovenia Washington under the auspices The gathering was since they are actively engaged of Ambassador Kirn, who on the an ideal opportunity for the in promoting Slovenia as a occasion expressed his great consuls to present their work business and tourist destination gratitude for their hard work. and endeavors to strengthen in their respective states. In his welcome address, economic, scientifi c, educational Honorary Consuls of Slovenia in Ambassador Kirn presented and cultural relations between the United States and Mexico, newly appointed Honorary
Embassy of Slovenia 2410 California Street, NW twitter.com/SLOembassyUSA Washington, D.C. 20008, USA T: +1 202 386 66 01 E: [email protected] facebook.com/SLOembassyUSA washington.embassy.si Consuls: Ambassador Yousif B. Ghafari for Michigan, and Mr. Miro Medved for Minnesota. The network currently consists of Mr. Thomas J. Brandi (California), Dr. Gregory S. Chan (Florida), Mrs. Barbara K. Nelson (Kansas), Dr. Lydia Mihelič Pulsipher (Tennessee), Mr. Paul N. Steinfeld (Georgia), Dr. John P. Vidmar (Illinois), Mr. Srečko Vidmar (Colorado), Mr. Richard B. Wilkens III (Texas), Mr. Ronald Joseph Zlatoper (Hawaii) and Mr. Ariel Lopez (Mexico), and is due to expand to Pennsylvania and New York. This year’s special guest speaker, Dr. Egon Zakrajšek, Consultations of the consuls. a Deputy Associate Director in the Division of Monetary and fi nancial situation in infrastructure and deepening Affairs, Board of Governors of the European Union (E.U.)) fi nancial integration in the E.U., the Federal Reserve System in and Slovenia. Dr. Zakrajšek while encouraging the reforms Washington, DC, presented his emphasized the signifi cance of undertaken in Slovenia. view on the current economic establishing functional political EVENTS Opening of the “Beyond” Exhibition by Michael Benson On October 4, 2012, the Embassy of Slovenia hosted the opening of “Beyond” – a spectacular photography exhibition of images from space by Michael Benson. A photographer, writer, fi lmmaker, book designer, and exhibitions producer, Benson has in the last decade staged internationally a series of increasingly large scale exhibitions of planetary landscape photography, mostly under the title Beyond. Prior to the Embassy of Slovenia, the photographs, taken in 2010 2011, were exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum. Ambassador Kirn opening the exhibition. Michael Benson’s work focuses on the intersection of art by editing, compositing and fusing currently beyond direct human and science. He takes raw data individual spacecraft frames, experience. The exhibition was from NASA and European Space producing seamless large format produced while Mr. Benson was Agency archives and processes it digital C prints of landscapes living in Slovenia.
OCTOBER 12, 2012, PAGE 2 Ambassador Roman Kirn, opening the exposition, expressed his delight with the embassy having the privilege of staging it. At the same time, he also welcomed More infor the general and honorary consuls, mation on and other eminent guests at the the work of Embassy of Slovenia to a relaxed Michael Ben evening gathering at the embassy. son can be The exhibition is open to found on: the public from Monday through http://www. kinetikonpic Friday (9:00 AM – 5:00 PM) tures.com/ at the Embassy of Slovenia in Washington, DC. PUBLIC DIPLOMACY Ambassador Kirn Lectures at Georgetown University On Tuesday October 9, country’s strategies to become 2012, Ambassador Roman Kirn more prominent in global joined students, faculty and guest affairs. Because of Slovenia’s participants as the guest speaker long history of being a small at the Georgetown University part of much larger entities, School of Foreign Service. the country is well equipped Ambassador Kirn discussed the to fi t in well with the European E.U. Challenges in a Reshaped Union, which safeguards cultural Global Order: Outlining the identity of small nations as Slovenian Perspective. The well as possesses democratic event was hosted by the Center instruments to manage diversity for Eurasian, Russian and East and respects democratic European Studies. sovereignty, Ambassador Ambassador Kirn’s Kirn explained. “The E.U. address highlighted the historical safeguards the best traditions context of Slovenia as well as the of democracy, complete with a Ambassador Kirn lecturing. respect for human rights and the implementation of rule of law,« he said. Ambassador Kirn also spoke of the challenges currently facing the European Union, stressing that economic realities are faster than political realities. Facing global challenges, Slovenia, he said, stands fully behind the move to a more integrated European Union. Lecture of the Ambassador Roman Kirn is available online at: http://www.youtube.com/watch The event took place at the McGhee Library. ?v=BdX2iJM8ILs&feature=plcp OCTOBER 12, 2012, PAGE 3 TOURISM Štanjel Štanjel, a small village in the karst region of Slovenia, overlooking the Vipava Valley, has been an important settlement since the Iron Age. The Romans turned the top of the hill into an ancient fort. In the Middle Ages, the settlement expanded over the hill and, in the 17th, century was enclosed by walls to defend it against In the narrow streets of Štanjel, the houses built in stone tell the story of Ottoman incursions. The village stonemasons, who portrayed their experience of the Karst through stone. of the 15th century. The church has two succursal churches: St. Gregory’s and St. Joseph’s. In the neighboring village of Kobdilj, Roman Catholic bishop Anton Mahnič and the famous architect Max Fabiani were born. In the 1920s, Fabiani created The Ferrari Garden, one of the best known landmarks of the area and one of the most visited. Commissioned for his friend Enrico Ferrari, a well known doctor from Trieste, the garden is located below the village, next to a villa, and houses a small pool with an Ferrari Garden. island connected by a bridge to was heavily damaged during prominent feature of Štanjel the shore. A tower with gateway World War II. is the parish church of Saint to Kobdilj became part of the The castle of Štanjel, Daniel, built in the second half Villa Ferrari in 1928. the most dominant feature of the village, was also built in the Middle Ages and was fi rst owned by the Counts of Gorica, then by the Cobenzls; later on, the ownership passed to many others. In the 17th century, it was rebuilt into a renaissance and baroque residence. Nowadays, the castle’s halls host a collection A very inter esting Karst of the recognized painter and house with graphic artist Lojze Spacal, who its ethnologi once lived in the village. cal collec Next to the castle, a tion.
OCTOBER 12, 2012, PAGE 4 CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE COBIK Centre of Excellence for Biosensors, Instrumentation and Process Control (COBIK) was established in the beginning of the year 2009 by four industrial partners and four Slovenian research institutions, as one of the best four year hi tech project proposals for improving European innovation competitiveness from Slovenia. COBIK is a privately funded research institution that employs highly qualifi ed researchers from the most challenging and COBIK’s Lab. promising fi elds of chemistry, biology, bioengineering, control On October 24, 2012, is research and development systems, precision electrical with the support of EN FIST, excellence, and deep market instrumentation, optics, Polimat, and BoundBreaker, insight combined with excellent and advanced new cleaning COBIK will organize COINVEST fi nancial engineering. processes in pharmacy. 2012, the fi rst regional high tech COBIK consists of six In only two years, COBIK’s investment conference, focused laboratories in Nova Gorica, researchers have created on connecting Southeastern Ajdovščina, and Ljubljana, with 27 innovations, developed and Eastern European high state of the art equipment, and 16 prototypes and put two tech spin offs with international currently runs twenty research patents into process. There are investors. The conference, to be projects. All laboratories also a multitude of excellent held at the Faculty of Economics, are horizontally connected achievements, including the University of Ljubljana, through the Laboratory for development of two unique Ljubljana, Slovenia, will also Open Innovation Systems, education programs, and a be attended by Silicon Valley which provides basic business number of research activities investors via videoconference. knowledge and sets a model of to be transferred to industry. One day later, on October innovations acceleration. The main advantage of COBIK 25, 2012, COBIK will host its third annual conference at the Faculty of Economics, Ljubljana. Traditionally, the conference is a juncture of innovative ideas and research discussions. It also highlights the responsibility toward scientifi c research and development projects that create new added value and help the recognizablility of Slovenia in international markets, which is also part of COBIK’s mission Dr. Matjaž Peterka, and its daily activities. For more Head of Laboratory information please visit: www. for Bio Analytics. cobik.si.
OCTOBER 12, 2012, PAGE 5 HONORARY CONSULS Dr. Debeljak at the Scientifi c Research Institutions in TN Between September 19 high level of public environmental research institute. Dr. Debeljak is and 24, 2012, Dr. Marko Debeljak, awareness of the meaning of also Associate Professor of Ecology senior scientist with the Jožef Štefan sustainability. at the University of Nova Gorica, Institute in Ljubljana, Slovenia, Given the complexity, Slovenia, and the University of gave a series of lectures at the nonlinearity, unpredictability and Ljubljana, Slovenia, and is an Adjunct University of Tennessee and at irreversibility of natural systems, Associate Professor of Forestry in Oak Ridge National Laboratories, public understanding is best the Department of Forestry, Wildlife, Environmental Science Division, U.S. aided by the organic approach, and Fishery at the University of Department of Energy. the successfulness of which was Tennessee, where he has taught His fi rst presentation, to demonstrated with the case of courses in ecology, systems ecology the Institute of Agriculture and to Slovenian forests. Dr. Debeljak’s third and ecological modeling. the larger university community, presentation, at Oak Ridge, was On Sunday evening, focused on data mining in service of titled “Inductive Machine Learning September 23, Dr. Debeljak was the ecological data analysis for forestry in Ecological Modeling.” The seminar guest of honor at an informal event studies. Moreover, “Sustainability gave an overview of supervised at the Slovene Consulate attended and Systems Thinking as Used in the induced machine learning where by scholars with particular interests Management of Slovenia’s Forests” patterns of interactions between in Dr. Debeljak’s research and was Dr. Debeljak’s presentation to data are given in a form of decision hosted by Dr. Lydia Mihelic Pulsipher, an undergraduate Honors Seminar. trees, decision rules, and equations. the Honorary Consul in Knoxville, He noted that since sustainability is The Jožef Štefan Institute TN, and her husband, Dr. Conrad a generally accepted goal of modern is Slovenia’s leading scientifi c Goodwin. society, it is necessary to develop a CULTURE Grgić at the National Gallery On Sunday evening, Guitar, and, October 7, young Slovenian in Slovenia, guitarist Mak Grgić gave a concert Piran Music at the National Gallery of Art in Nights and Washington, DC. He performed The Sounds compositions by Isaac, Kohaut, of Six Strings, Weiss, and Hagen in honor of Cankarjev Dom the exhibition Imperial Augsburg: in Ljubljana. Renaissance Prints and Drawings, Mak recently 1475–1540. took fi rst prize At 25, Grgić has been invited at the Pacifi c to a multitude of music venues Guitar Festival and Competition spotlight two rarely heard works world wide. These include, in the 2011 in California. At the moment, by Weiss in a fi ne performance of United States, Sandpoint Festival he is pursuing a Master’s Degree Renaissance and Baroque music with the Spokane Symphony, the at the USC’s Thornton School of on Sunday night at the National Allegro Guitar Series in Texas, the Music in Los Angeles, where he is Gallery of Art ... Grgic is a guitarist Newman Center for the Performing also a newly appointed teaching to keep an eye on.« Arts, Denver, in performance with assistant. In one piece, Grgić was the Assad Brothers and cellist Stephen Brookes of the joined on stage in a duo by Joshua Roman for Strings on Fire, Washington Post in his review Stephen Ackert, organist and Strathmore Hall in North Bethesda, stressed that »it was a treat to hear head of the music department at MD, and Portland Classical the Slovenian guitarist Mak Grgic the National Gallery of Art. OCTOBER 12, 2012, PAGE 6 ANNOUNCEMENT Consulate General in NY is Closing on October 31, 2012 At its session on May economic and other inquiries 30, 2012, the Government from applicants residing in the of the Republic of Slovenia following states: Connecticut, adopted decisions on the Maine, Massachusetts, New closure of 6 diplomatic/consular Hampshire, New Jersey, New representations of Slovenia York, Rhode Island, and abroad, including the Consulate Vermont should be directed General of Slovenia in New York. to the Embassy of Slovenia in The decision on the Washington, DC. The embassy closures came as a result of the can be reached easiest diffi cult fi nancial and economic through the general e-mail situation in Slovenia, which has address [email protected] required the Government to The Consulate General adopt austerity measures that of Slovenia in Cleveland will affect all spheres of its work, still be providing assistance including foreign affairs. to applicants from Colorado, The New York Consulate Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, will close its doors on October Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, 31, 2012. As of October 22, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. 2012, all consular, cultural, TO DO LIST
Afganistan (Un)Ordinary Lives in New York Stories of ordinary Afghans deserve to be both told and seen in order to remind us what the real images of war and poverty – of lives far from ordinary – look like. When: Ongoing October 20, 2012 Where: Gallery MC, 549 West 52nd St, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10019 More information: http://www.gallerymc.org/h/manca juvan/, www.unordinarylives.com
Kids’ Euro Festival 2012 A celebration of European arts for kids at the largest children’s performing arts festival in the United States with 250 free performances, workshops and fi lms! Slovenia’s FRU FRU Theatre will present a puppet show: Videk’s New Shirt (Kdo je napravil Vidku srajčico?) When: October 17 November 14, 2012 Where: different venues in Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia More information and schedule of the performances: www.KidsEuroFestival.org
Book Presentation - Marks Under the Skin/Stories from a Children’s Home Presentation and reading of a book by Zdravko Zupančič, who has devoted most of his professional life to teaching the art of speaking. Marks Under the Skin/Stories from a Children’s Home: Diary of a Teacher of Blind and Visually Impaired Children is a collection of stories based on his experience as a young teacher nearly three decades ago. A unique collection of poetic, heartwarming and often humorous stories that capture the complexity in the lives of bright young children living in perpetual darkness was also made into an audio book read by Erica Johnson Debeljak with music by Lado Jakša. When: October 29 at 7:00 PM Where: Bluestockings bookstore in New York City, 172 Allen St., New York, NY 10002 More information: http://bluestockings.com/
OCTOBER 12, 2012, PAGE 7 TO DO LIST
Beyond by Michael Benson A spectacular photography exhibition of images from space. When: Monday through Friday 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM Where: Embassy of Slovenia, 2410 California Street, NW, Washington, DC 20008 More information about the work of Michael Benson on: http://www.kinetikonpictures.com/
Embassy Series: Andrej Goričar, piano The Embassy Series and the Embassy of Slovenia present the pianist and composer Andrej Goričar, who will accompany a silent classics Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (director F. W. Murnau, U.S., 1927, 95 min) with his unique music. When: Wednesday, October 31, 2012 at 7:30 pm Where: Embassy of Slovenia, 2410 California Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20008 Admission: $55/buffet reception
Embassy Series: Caroline Calleja, piano In cooperation with the Embassy of Malta and the Embassy of Slovenia, the Embassy Series presents pianist Caroline Calleja from Malta. Program: Beethoven: “Waldstein;” Chopin: “24 Preludes.” When: Friday, November 2, 2012 at 7:30 PM Where: Embassy of Slovenia, 2410 California Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20008 More information: www.embassyseries.org Admission: $75/including reception. Order online or call (202) 625 2361
Slovenia - a Photographic Journey 2013 Live life to the fullest and explore the most beautiful and secret places of Slovenia, the hidden gem of Central Europe. From the spectacular rocky limestone peaks to the medieval towns, this ancient country includes castles, vineyards, glistening lakes, and offers amazing photo sessions. Assistance by professional photographer Hank Miller. For more information and to receive your sign up forms, please contact Cosmopolitan Adventure Tours Tel: 415 924.4627 / 800 569.6228 [email protected] or www.cosmopolitanadventuretours.com
Discover Enchanting Slovenia Zoya D. Pinto, a native of this little known and enchanting scenic part of Europe, will take you on an extended video tour of Slovenia, a country reach in beautiful art, architecture and a long history infl uenced by the Roman Empire, the Republic of Venice, and the Austro Hungarian Empire. This video by Zoya D. Pinto, will introduce you to Ljubljana (the vibrant political and cultural capital of Slovenia), Ptuj (a town dating back to the Stone Age), the dramatic Julian Alps, the year round resorts of Bled and Bohinj lakes, the mysterious caves of Postojna, and the charming Adriatic Sea resorts of Koper, Piran, and Portorož. You will also learn about some traditional festivals and much more. This DVD is a perfect gift for anyone wanting to learn about the country of his ancestors. It is also a nice gift for American or Canadian friends who like to enrich their lives through the experiences of other travelers. For a one minute trailer click on http://svn.amebylon.net/blog For any additional info or for the order form sent email to either [email protected] or to [email protected] . More information and request for order form: [email protected]
The weekly Embassy Newsletter, produced by the Embassy of Slovenia in Washington, is available on: www.washington.embassy.si. Send us your comments or request for a subscription on: [email protected], Editor: Nuška Zakrajšek
OCTOBER 12, 2012, PAGE 8