:: Muzej Novejše zgodovine Slovenije :: Zbirke

Permanent exhibition | Temporary exhibitions

Travelling exhibition

THE WORLD OF MUSIC IN THE 60’S – ON THE 90^TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE PHOTOJOURNALIST EDI ŠELHAUS

13th November 2009 to 10th January 2010, The Bled Festival Hall

The aim of the exhibition, The Music World of the 60’s – on the 90^th Anniversary of the Photojournalist Edi Šelhaus, is to celebrate the 90^th anniversary of one of the legends of the Slovene war and post-war photo journalism, cameraman on the Trieste territory between 1945 and 1947, writer of several books and donator of photographic material to the National Museum of Contemporary History. The Museum wishes to thank again Edi Šelhaus for his donation of an extensive photographic opus to the Museum in 2000 by presenting another important and interesting thematic section from his collection. The present exhibition is the sixth thematic exhibition which the Museum has prepared in cooperation with Edi Šelhaus since 2001.

The exhibition is conceived of two main parts and an addition – of the first part on the first Yugoslav jazz festivals, of the second on the festivals of popular songs in the 60’s with the stress on the festival called Slovene Popular Songs, and of an addition of some photographs of persons of note from the world of music. Four photographs from WW2 have been added to the special wish of Edi Šelhaus.

The part of the exhibition on jazz coincides with the 50^th anniversary of the first Yugoslav jazz festival quite by chance and so the exhibition is intended to mark this event, too. Edi Šelhaus is one of the rare photo journalists who has taken photos of the first Yugoslav festivals of jazz and popular songs. One of his specialities has been, as he has said, that he has recorded also the happening behind the stage, i.e. many motifs of interest during or even after the time of these music events. He has recorded on celluloid some photo stories as well, some of which are also included in the exhibition, among them stories about Louis Armstrong, Hellen Merrill, Ljiljana Petrović, Bojan Adamič, Dubravka Tomšič and Marjan Kozina. These stories from the world of music, too, are among those photo stories which Edi Šelhaus loves to recollect and has therefore presented them in his books (Fotoreporter / Photojournalist, 1982 and Fotozgodbe / Photo Stories, 1985) and in his various other contributions.

The photographs at the exhibition include persons of note from Slovene and foreign world of music – conductors, music groups, ensembles and orchestras, instrumentalists and singers. Among them we can recognise from the world of jazz the Ljubljana Jazz Ensemble, the Dancing Orchestra of Ljubljana RTV, Urban Koder, Jože Privšek, Ati Soss, Mojmir Sepe, Jure Robežnik, Aleksander Skale, Vinko Globokar, John Lewis, Hellen Merrill, Louis Armstrong, the Dixieland Ensemble the 7 Young, Dragutin Diklić Septet, the Belgrade Jazz Orchestra and others. Taking a look at the photographs from the world of popular songs, many will recall nostalgic memories of some legendary popular songs and singers from the so-called golden period of Slovene popular songs which cannot be compared to the present day – let us only remember the extraordinary texts of these popular songs written by the poet Gregor Strniša. Let us mention only some of the singers' names: Marjana Deržaj, Majda Sepe, Jelka Cvetežar, Stane Mancini, Beti Jurkovič, Matija Cerar, Nino Robič, Rafko Irgolič, Lidija Kodrič, Katja Levstik, Elda Viler, Lado Leskovar, Oto Pestner, Bele vrane / White Crows, Alfi Nipič and Alenka Pinterič.

The exhibition presents photographs from the first four Yugoslav jazz festivals at Bled between 1960 and 1963, from the first concert of Louis Armstrong in Ljubljana in 1959 and from the first festivals of popular songs – the one called Slovene Popular Songs which started at Bled in 1962, moved to Ljubljana to Gospodarsko razstavišče / Exhibition Grounds in 1964 and to Tivoli Sports Hall the next year (the exhibited photographs go up to 1971), and from Opatija festival between 1960 and 1961. Other photos of persons of note originate from the period between 1959 and 1971.

The exhibited photographs have been made from the original negatives of the photographic collection donated to the Museum by Edi Šelhaus, while some of them from an extensive collection of original negatives donated to the Museum in May 2009 by the newspaper company Delo with which, since its foundation 50 years ago, Edi Šelhaus started to be employed. Only a small part of the photographs from the collection could be selected for the exhibition, some more can be seen in a computer video projection which is supposed to give more impressions on these nostalgic music events. Some of the exhibited photographs have already been published in newspapers and other publications, the others are presented to the public for the first time.

Text: Jožica Šparovec

................................................................................................

List of the venues in 2009:

22nd June to 10th July 2009

Radio Slovenia - The first Yugoslav jazz festivals

10th July to 10th August 2009

Radio Slovenia - The festivals of popular songs in the 60’s with the stress on the festival called Slovene Popular Songs

13th August to 14th October 2009

Ljubljana Castle

26th October to 6th November 2009

Oton Župančič Library

13th November 2009 to 10th January 2010