Kibla


Kibla or KIBLA is the first presentation and production institution in Slovenia dealing with multimedia and intermedia art and a yearlong cultural programme. Kibla incorporates pure classical media but in a different context, using various media to support historical continuities in visual arts and a larger aesthetization and integration of electronic media. Kibla supports principles that lead to complex systems of multimedia presentation. Kibla also produces and coproduces cultural artistic projects and publishes in various media formats, printed and digital.

History of MMC KIBLA

Multimedia Centre CyberSRCeLab – MMC KIBLA was founded on the 4th of July 1996 as a project of Narodni dom Maribor and Open Society Institute Slovenia with the aim of training computer users in the Maribor area, with free Internet access, information and advisory services on usage and data bases, and education consultation. Since the 16th of June 1998 MMC KIBLA staff has also had legal status as a Slovenian Association for Culture and Education.
Kibla presents, distributes and promotes the work of the Multimedia Centres Network of Slovenia in sixteen multimedia centres in different regions. Kibla operates in the field of visual and intermedia Slavic culture and art and is part of the Slavic Culture Forum.

Ace Kibla programmes

Cyber offers a free internet access and free courses about the use of internet through website structures, programme and hardware equipment, together with audio and projectional infrastructure for musical, online, video and other presentations.
SRCe – Student Resource Centre offers information about study possibilities, national and foreign scholarship foundations, publications and mediates requests with the help of the large database on the internet. SRCe is incorporated into the Slovenian Resource Network.
KiBela, space for visual and intermedia art; ambiental presentations of contemporary multimedia art, KiBela is also a multipurpose place suitable for seminars, presentations, lectures, round tables, press conferences and rich cultural programme.
Hidden Notes - is a musical programme that introduces electroacoustic music, concerts, projections, lectures, workshops...
IT@K – IT at Kibla –informational technology as a social event
Graphic studio for the making of printed material, CGP...
Online and multimedia lab for the execution of websites, CD-ROMs, video, audio, internet transmissions in real time life, etc.
Videla – digital video processing, educations, courses, presentations and workshops.
Za:misel bookstore for sociology and humanistic studies with regular programme of book presentations and literary evenings; with a reading room equipped with national and foreign literature, newspapers and periodics.
Mimogrede – bimonthly with information about studying abroad and in Slovenia.
LED display for all information about MMC KIBLA and programmes;
TOX magazine – time-table through 3000, magazine that grew into the KIBLA publishing edition, made several catalogues and books, e.g. Eduardo Kac: Telepresence, Biotelematics, Transgenic Art, Vili Ravnjak: The Amber way, Aleksandra Kostič's edited essays on Levitation, catalogues for Marko Jakše, Marko Črtanec, Mitjja Ficko, Theo Botscuijver, Shuzo Azuchi Gulliver, several CDs and DVDs for EU project txoOm.
Communication-information point KIT in Maribor City Hall , Glavni trg 14, where thera are eight computer terminals and a multimedia classroom with ten computers and additional IT equipment.
;Festivals:
;Special programme:
KIBLA is based on openness and collaboration with other institutions and individuals. KIBLA has organised several events and festivals and produced various events e.g. International Festival of Computer Arts, Days of Curiosity – How to become, festival of edutainment, Internet radio MARŠ, Festival of visual communications Magdalena, Linux Install Fest, International Peace School, World congress of cyclist Velo-City, Festival Lent. Frequently KIBLA collaborates with the Association of Architects and host their exhibitions, lectures, debates, and workshops. KIBLA prepared the artistic programme for the Hermes SoftLab Company 1998 New Year's reception, and for the opening ceremonies of fairs, e.g. Electronics, Informatics. KIBLA collaborated on the Virtual museum project on the Ljubljana Castle, first Slovenian virtual environment, together with the City of Ljubljana, Festival Ljubljana, City Museum Ljubljana, Tobačna Ljubljana and Pristop.
In 2003, for the 7th anniversary of the MMC KIBLA and 5th anniversary of the ACE KIBLA KIBLA accomplished KIPNIK, the first time ever cyber picnic in Slovenia. On the mountain Pohorje KIBLA connected computers to the Internet with wireless link and performed a multimedia programme with real-time live transmission from the Lent Festival.
Project MMC KIBLA, located in Narodni dom Maribor, Ul. Kneza Koclja 9, is non-profit making. Our visitors include students, high-school kids, the deaf and dumb, unemployed, refugees, Small People Association, Handicapped People Association, groups of teachers have workshops, whole classes of pupils use our infrastructure – from computers to lectures and art programs – as an extra learning opportunity. We’ve hosted Walfdorf teachers, Student Cultural Association, faculties, universities, The American College of Management and Technology.
Kibla is connected on inter-city and inter-state levels with Ljubljana, Celje, Slovenj Gradec, Koper, Murska Sobota, Tolmin, Graz, Vienna, Linz, Laafeld, Belgrade, Zagreb, Sarajevo, Skoplje, Prague, Usti nad Labem, Bratislava, Trnava, Athens, Budapest, Gyor, Brussels, Rome, London, Chicago, San Francisco, New York, Avignon, São Paulo... In cooperation with Ljubljana and Koper we carried out international project hEXPO – festival of self-organised cultural forms, which crossed whole Slovenia in a month and planted a seed for the Slovenian digital communication and information platform with the ambition to raise into the Slovene civil society network, that would join European and global network.
In 2004 KIBLA also received the support from the EU Structural Funds for the project of Slovene Multimedia Centres Network, named The Net, which now includes 16 Slovene multimedia centres and it's the first of a kind in Europe and on the world and KIBLA initiated it. The M3C multimedia centres are: ZAVOD LOKALPATRIOT, Novo mesto, MLADINSKI CENTER KRŠKO, Krško, LJUDMILA at KUD FRANCE PREŠEREN and ZAVOD K 4-6 – KIBER PIPA, both Ljubljana, MLADINSKI CENTER PRLEKIJE, Ljutomer, KID PINA, Koper, KID / MMC KIBLA, Maribor, KULTURNI CENTER MOSTOVNA, Nova Gorica, ZVEZA MLADINSKIH DRUŠTEV, Tolmin, MAT KULTRA, Zagorje, MLADINSKI IN INFORMATIVNI KULTURNI KLUB MIKK, Murska Sobota, ART CENTER, Prosenjakovci, MLADINSKI CENTER SLOVENJ GRADEC, Slovenj Gradec, ZAVOD O, Škofja Loka, DRUŠTVO HIŠA KULTURE, Pivka, and MLADINSKI CENTER VELENJE.

International cooperation

In 1999 Kibla was covered in Leonardo and Flash Art and on numerous web-zines, i.e. California On-Line and in all-important Slovenian media, from newspapers and magazines to radio and TV and web.
Kibla is working on the EC-Culture 2000, FP5-IST and FP6-IST funded programmes and projects. kibla is also a part of the EUREKA multimedia umbrella and finished Leonardo da Vinci supported project Name multimedia, the Multimedia Tasks & Skills Database, researching and evaluating 26 different jobs and 96 operational multimedia tasks. NAME is presented in 9 languages, with a database of more than 650 companies from 11 countries.
In 2005 KIBLA was with other partners again successful on EU-Culture 2000 and we finished 2 new projects, e-Agora, which developed a virtual multimedia platform for innovative production and presentation of Performing Arts and will use the latest communication technologies in order to interconnect European theatres, cultural centres, and enhance their co-operation, and TRG – Transient reality generators, that focuses on the phenomenon of Mixed Reality and examines the potential of synaesthetic MR experience design, in which the art-works become all-encompassing art-worlds. KIBLA was 3 years in a row the most successful Slovenian cultural institution and organisation internationally.

Memberships and references

Australian artist Stelarc has said for KIBLA »this is the best cyber space in the world,« the great Eduardo Kac, who works at the Art Institute of Chicago, »something like this doesn't exist in United States« and Joseph Tabby, university professor and writer, »I came to visit Slovenia, because I've heard about KIBLA.« A title in Slovenian magazine Mladina: »To Maribor, because of KIBLA!« and in NeDelo was written: »Maribor Kibla is by its space possibilities and its conceptual structure, that combines gallery, spaces for performance, specialised bookshop and cyber café undoubtedly the most exemplary project of a kind.« In Romanian newspaper CLUJENAUI was written »KIBLA is the most important and the biggest multimedia centre in Eastern Europe.« Dr. Janez Strehovec, the leading Slovenian new media theoretician, stated, »Kibla is the main Slovenian centre for new media art.« Artist, scientist, researcher and professor on the University Caxias do Sul, Brazil, dr. Diana Domingues noted: »Kibla is a very impressive environment and you are the soul of this paradise in Slovenia.« Guru of the world advertising Dragan Sakan pointed out, »KIBLA stimulates reality, which is no longer traditional but multimedial. Also ideas are not local anymore, but global. The world needs fresh ideas. The world needs global institutions like KIBLA!« Franci Pivec, master of information sciences, claims, »KIBLA is big phenomena. For me it's one of the central institutions, which Maribor gained.«
President and curator of ACE KIBLA Aleksandra Kostič was invited to be a judge for The Webby Awards 2000 in San Francisco and she became a member of The International Academy for Arts and Technology including David Bowie, Laurie Anderson, Francis Ford Coppola, Matt Groening, Tina Brown etc.
Adviser of ACE KIBLA Peter Tomaž Dobrila was a member of Europrix jury – the leading European Contest in e-Content creation and is a member European Academy for Digital Media in the year 2005 he became adviser of the Ars Electronica festival, the preeminent international intermedia event.
KIBLA was invited to join the European Multimedia Forum, based in Brussels and we are actively participating on the European Multimedia Associations Convention as participants of the world multimedia summit Milia 2002 and 2003 in Cannes.
Kibla is a member of the International Federation of Multimedia Associations / La Fédération internationale des associations de multimédia, based in Montreal and we actively participated on the World Summit on Internet and Multimedia 2002 in Montreux.
KIBLA is a partner in The World Summit Award for e-content and creativity, which is a global contest for multimedia products and applications. The Award is organized in the framework of the WSIS – The United Nations first ever World Summit on the Information Society, which takes place in December 2003 in Geneva, Swiss, and in 2005 in Tunis.
Kibla was invited to join the Medi@terra 2001 International Art and Technology Festival in Athens, Greece, which is included in the Cultural Olympiad 2001–2004 and is among the cultural events, which are organised in the context of the Olympic games of 2004 in Athens.]
In 2003 Kibla worked with Harald Szeemann, on the exhibition Blood and Honey – The Future is on the Balkans, displayed in the famous Essl Collection in Vienna.