Reception upon the presentation of the ECOC Maribor 2012 project

Ljubljana, 25.4.2012  |  press release

The Slovenian President, Danilo Türk, attended the reception at Ljubljana Castle upon the presentation of the European Capital of Culture Maribor 2012 and partner cities project. In his opening address as the project's patron of honour, he said that Maribor has always been a city of culture – a city of the art of painting, music and particularly the art of words.

President Türk pointed out that Maribor has also always been a proud city. In the past, this pride was associated mainly with the city's industrial power, which used to be considered the third most powerful industrial centre in the former Yugoslavia. With the transition to the post-industrial phase of development, Maribor found itself in a creative block in the search for a new identity that would be defined by culture, the President said, and added that the European Capital of Culture project is the most distinctive and noticeable aspect of this transition.

According to President Türk, Maribor's fate in many ways reflects the fate of Slovenia as a whole, which is also striving to find its new identity. It holds true for Slovenia that its new identity will, for the most part, depend on the culture of its nation and the state. As he explained, development is nothing more than the cultivation of our existence; and this cultivation is not possible without culture's most precious ingredients – science and art.

President Türk also touched upon the uncertainty created by the current financial and economic crisis. He stressed that we are capable of overcoming these worries, but only if we remain constantly aware of the importance of culture and cultural – particularly artistic – creativity.