“Metelkova Mesto – one the largest, and arguably most successful, urban squats in Europe. Sprawled across 12,500 sq m of an abandoned army base, the self-proclaimed city has become the leading centre of underground music and art in the region. Vivid, cracked-tile mosaics adorn the walls of the complex’s galleries and studios; rusty sculptures, fashioned from broken bike frames and upturned oil drums, cover its concrete gardens. And at night thousands of students and artists congregate to revel in its streets and bars.”

 

ON THE EDGES … From the major art movements of the 20th century, as interpreted by Slovenia painters and sculptors and WWII partisan propagandists in Lubljana’s Museum of Modern Art, to the artistic inventions and expressions played out in a neighborhood that sprung up organically at the end of the Tito regime in 1991, here are some of my own impressions of edgy Ljubljana … Wherever you turn, there is yet another surprise.