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Slovenia, the guest of honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair – opening of three exhibitions

This year's Frankfurt Book Fair will be of special importance for Slovenia as its guest of honour. Slovenia is only the third Slavic country to feature as the guest of honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair, where it will appear under the motto "A Honeycomb of Words". Various exhibitions related to Slovenia and its literature and culture are also part of the rich cross-border programme. Three exhibitions were opened in the period between 14 and 17 September.

On Thursday, 14 September, an exhibition on the subject of France Prešeren and Slovenian Romanticism (France Prešeren und die slowenische Romantik), which is part of the accompanying programme of the Frankfurt Book Fair at which Slovenia is this year's guest of honour, was opened the German Romanticism Museum  (Deutsches Romantik Museum) in Frankfurt. The exhibition will be on display until 25 November 2023.

The exhibition was created in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture, the German Museum of Romanticism, the National and University Library (NUK), the University of Ljubljana and SKICA Berlin, and was curated by prof. Dr. Urška Perenič and Dr. Igor Grdina. The project not only sheds light on the life and work of Slovenia's greatest poet, but also highlights the importance of folk poetry in this period and presents the impact of other European literary traditions on the development of Slovenian literature. The NUK also participated in the project with Radio-Television Slovenia, which produced audio recordings of Prešeren's poetry, which can be accessed by visitors via a QR code. The director of SKICA Berlin, Saša Šavel Burkart, the exhibition’s spearheader, remarked in her address that, "the exhibition that we are opening tonight is the first such presentation of the period of Slovenian Romanticism in such an important institution in Germany, specialised in the Romantic period. In the West, the Slovenian Romantic period represents a blank spot on the map of this important period, which was actually a pan-European phenomenon."

A second exhibition entitled "Alma Maximiliana Karlin – Writer (Alma Maximiliana Karlin – Schriftstellerin) was opened on Friday, 15 September at the Rabanus Maurus – Haus am Dom Catholic Academy (Katholische Akademie Rabanus Maurus). The exhibition was created in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture, the Celje Provincial Museum, the Slovene Ethnographic Museum (SEM) and the Celje Modern History Museum. The exhibition was curated by Marija Počivavšek, Stane Rozman and Dr. Tanja Roženbergar.

The exhibition highlights the literary journey of Alma M. Karlin and its interconnectedness in time and space. The exhibition's title reflects the title on Alma's original business card, with which Alma introduced herself and reflects her principal goal in life, namely writing.  The exhibition builds on highlighted quotes from her literary works, in which she examines ever-topical issues concerning positions of power, the role of traditions, the issue of gender and social inequalities.

On Sunday, 17 September, the exhibition "Hello! Who's there?" Mobile phone stories from Slovenia and Germany (Hallo! Wer da?" Slowenische und deutsche Handygeschichten), set up by the Technical Museum of Slovenia (Postal and Telecommunications Museum branch unit) in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture. 

The exhibition "Hello! Who's there?" was created on the 30th anniversary of the birth of mobile telephony in Slovenia, which coincided with the year when Slovenia gained independence.  The exhibition was adapted for an international tour such that it sheds light on the connections between Slovenia and Germany, and highlights both the similarities and differences in their respective development of mobile phone technology, the protection of this type of (technical) heritage and the social aspects of the use of mobile telephony.