Almost two dozen arts organisations in Slovenia, including the Centre for Contemporary Art, face being made homeless after the government served them with eviction notices.
Alongside the gallery, the Center for Slovenian Literature, the Association for the Promotion of Women in Culture and Dance Theatre Ljubljana have also been told they must vacate a 12,500 square-metre complex of buildings in the centre of Ljubljana by the end of January as the Ministry of Culture claim they need the property for its own use. The eviction notice was served on 19 October, the day new restrictions were implemented to tackle a second wave of COVID-19 infections.
The buildings, built as military quarters for the army during the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and then used as regional barracks for the Yugoslav National Army, have been squatted since 1993.
The CCA has been at the Metelkova 6 address since 2002; it has since established an archive, library and project space there. The institution was founded in 2000 as the successor to the Soros Center for Contemporary Arts, established at another address in 1993 by the Soros Foundation.
In an open letter, signed by the various tenant organisations, they say the ministry has not offered replacement premises, nor has it entered into any sort of dialogue. They add that they will resist all attempts to move them, including refusing eviction orders.
The evictions come amidst increased hostility from the governing right-wing Slovenian Democratic Party against NGOs engaged in culture and human rights, media freedom and the environment.
The open letter states: ‘The organizations operating at No. 6 Metelkova derive from the heritage of the civil society movements that promoted the democratization and demilitarization of society in the 1980s, and thereby made a crucial contribution to the adoption of a democratic constitution after the country’s independence […] Instead of demilitarization, this government is forcing Slovenia to purchase a huge amount of weaponry, and instead of democratization, it is following the authoritarian example of Hungary and other Visegrad countries, where they have already dealt with non-governmental organizations in a way similar to what the Ministry of Culture is trying to do with us.’
‘We hereby inform the Ministry of Culture and the government of the Republic of Slovenia that we have no intention of leaving No. 6 Metelkova and that we will resist with all possible means these attacks on civil society, independent culture, and democracy.’
