Exhibition view: Museum in the Street, Small Gallery, Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Commercialisation of Street Names was a proposal which concerned the urban development of the city of Ljubljana in its post-communist era. The proposal deals with the increasing role of private capital in the city’s development. Proposal: by defining urban, economic, and social structures, private capital has become a major contributor to the progress of the city. Therefore, private investors – like other important citizens or persons of great consequence – should be recognisable as such. The streets of the newly developed areas of Ljubljana would carry the names of these investors and companies, and the right to name a street would be acquired in exchange for a certain sum of money which would then be used solely for cultural development and the integration of Ljubljana’s new districts. I presented this to the mayor, Zoran Janković*. My proposal was rejected.

* In the 1980s and 1990s Zoran Janković was one of Slovenia’s leading businessman, and since 2006 he has been mayor of Ljubljana.

Commercialisation of Street Names was developed within the context of the Museum in the Street project, which was set in public spaces in the city of Ljubljana and was focused on the city’s characteristics and extremes.

2008

Proposal.
The presentation of the proposal: a video, a slide projection, written documents, paint.

Museum in the Street, Small Gallery, Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Curated by Zdenka Badovinac and Bojana Piškur.