Graphics Collection of Primorska Artists
The 118 graphic pieces from Primorska and cross-border Slovenian artists that are exhibited in the Park hotel, represent an overview of the artistic oeuvre of twenty-two extraordinary authors who with their work helped shape the modern art in the Primorska and cross-border geographic area. This exhibition, which is being opened at the same time that the conurbation of Nova Gorica and Gorizia takes over the title of European Capital of Culture 2025, emphasizes also the importance of cross-border integration. In fact, art in this area is not only a historical testimony, but also a symbol of common values and of the identity of people living in the cross-border area.
The exhibition has been prepared by the Hit Company. Through its support and long-term engagement, Hit has been contributing to developing, maintaining and spreading the cultural heritage of Primorska. These works of art are in fact the expression of a rich cultural identity and cultural heritage.
We hope that you will feel inspired and that the power of graphic art will go beyond borders and connect people as well as towns.
The graphic collection of the Park Hotel, managed by the Hit Company in Nova Gorica, was created with great respect for the cultural heritage of the Primorska region during the late 1980s and early 1990s. This collection features an impressive selection of graphic prints by 22 artists from the Primorska region and neighboring areas. These artists represent different generations, styles, directions, and approaches, offering an intriguing overview of the region’s graphic art from 1951 to 1989.
In Slovenia, during the second half of the 20th century, graphic art was the leading and most recognizable technique for nearly three decades, both in terms of content and technical and technological sophistication. Its international recognition was solidified by generations of artists from the Ljubljana School of Graphic Arts, starting from the early 1960s, who introduced new trends and content.
Approximately 250 graphic works are displayed throughout the Park Hotel, with a newly reviewed and presented collection featuring 118 graphic prints. These works highlight the diversity and distinctiveness of each artist’s visual style, both in terms of content and form, as well as technological innovation. These artists have significantly contributed to the legacy of Slovenian visual creativity through their graphic endeavors.
Riko Debenjak, a native of Kanal and one of the leading graphic artists of the second half of the 20th century, who was also a professor at the Ljubljana Academy of Fine Arts and a prominent representative of the Ljubljana School of Graphic Arts and experimental graphics, eloquently summarized the significance of graphic art: “In graphics, there is much experimenting and risk-taking, much more than in painting and sculpture.” Generations of graphic artists have followed his words.
The history of modern Slovenian art has been resonantly, incisively, and innovatively shaped by the following artists from this region:
Avgust Černigoj (1898 – 1985), Lojze Spacal (1907– 2000), Riko Debenjak (1908 – 1987), Bogdan Grom (1918 – 2013), Vladimir Makuc (1925 – 2016), Miloš Volarič (1933 – 2010), Danilo Jejčič (1933), Pavel Medvešček (1933 – 2020), Zvest Apollonio (1935 – 2009), Rudi Pergar (1936), Nedeljko Pečanac (1938), Jože Spacal (1939 – 2020), Klavdij Palčič (1940 –2021), Franko Vecchiet (1941), Franc Golob (1941), Boris Zulian (1944 – 2013) Marjan Kravos (1948), Negovan Nemec (1947 – 1987), Lucijan Bratuš (1949), Janez Matelič (1950), Klavdij Tutta (1958) in Zmago Posega (1959 – 2009) .
Riko Debenjak, in whose work, as noted by Nace Šumi, “beauty and expression are characteristically blended, whether it concerns landscapes, figural scenes, or still lifes,” was one of the first in Slovenia to master the technique of color aquatint. He became familiar with this technique in 1957 in Paris, where he shared his knowledge with the renowned Johnny Friedlander and simultaneously learned about the characteristics and qualities of the influential Paris School.
Generations of students who trained under Riko Debenjak at the Ljubljana School of Graphic Arts carried forward and developed this technique. The school became a hallmark of Slovenian graphic art, synonymous with the technical perfection of etching and its various forms, offering exceptional opportunities for structural, relief, and color exploration.
Internationally recognized as one of the pioneers of modern global reproductive graphics, Riko Debenjak created numerous coherent cycles over four decades. His work ranged from visual transpositions of folk elements to a new interpretation of wood, culminating in his final phase with the cycle Magic Dimensions. As Zoran Kržišnik wrote, these works “represent the closing of a certain circle” and are “an outstanding achievement, even from a technical perspective—the depth of blackness, flawless color gradients, and the interplay of shadow and light that the artist achieves border on the incredible.”
“Vehemently, with undiminished youthful vigor, yet with a sense of measure and order that reveals a mature artist,” as Zoran Kržišnik wrote, the Trieste painter and graphic artist Lojze Spacal addressed his audience through his graphic creativity even before World War II and for decades afterward. Throughout his prolific career, he increasingly focused on crystalline solutions closely aligned with geometric abstraction, characterized by harmonious lines and solid compositions, filled with pure, symbolic colors, light, and often a tactile quality. Spacal’s graphic cycles reflect his intense love for the Karst region. As Angelo Bertani noted, Lojze Spacal is considered “the greatest interpreter of the atmosphere, rituals, and myths of the Karst landscape, both harsh and captivating,” stretching from Prosecco to Komen, from Hrpelje to Lipica, and from Vremski Britof to Nanos.
From the late 1950s onward, Avgust Černigoj also dedicated himself to graphic arts. Known primarily for his most famous period, the Constructivist phase, he retained avant-garde ideas in his graphic works, never abandoning them. His work predominantly featured the female figure, reduced to basic lines and deconstructed in a post-Cubist grid-like manner. He simplified the body to almost a symbolic form, creating figures intended to shock the viewer. Černigoj loved the moment when a figure provoked and unsettled the audience, as provocation was always close to his heart, constantly challenging viewers with questions that demanded some form of response or stance.
Another notable artist from the border regin was Bogdan Grom, a painter, graphic artist, and sculptor. After relocating to the United States, Grom primarily focused on sculpture and tapestry. However, during the early phase of his career, he experimented with various techniques, dedicating himself mainly to classical painting and graphic arts. His work was primarily centered around the figure and landscape, which he reimagined through Fauvist simplifications. At the beginning of his creative journey, Grom was influenced by Impressionism, Expressionism, and Futurism. Later, he became captivated by the Karst landscape, which introduced warmth in his color palette and purity in his forms—qualities he carried with him long after moving to a new environment. In this new setting, he distanced himself from the themes that were prominent in his homeland and created numerous works for architectural projects, palaces, squares, sacred architecture, and more.
Painter, graphic artist, and sculptor Vladimir Makuc dedicated himself primarily to graphic arts from the late 1950s for over two decades. He became a distinguished and unmistakably unique figure among the great masters of the Ljubljana School of Graphic Arts, known for his original blend of abstract visual expression and a mimetic and symbolically reimagined figurative world. His work often carried a distinctive touch of naivety, sometimes romantically gazing at the decaying archaic world of the Karst, other times engaging with the issues and fragmentation of the contemporary technocratic world. Makuc’s “graphic development progressed along two parallel tracks: the formal and content-driven, while simultaneously advancing in technological aspects, all three being in strict interdependence and organically and logically derived. He experimented with several graphic techniques, initially focusing on woodcuts, then on etching combined with aquatint, and later on in-depth, high, and relief printing,” as I noted in 1985 during his retrospective exhibition at the Goriška Museum.
Three artists, Danilo Jejčič, Pavel Medvešček, and Miloš Volarič, who were generationally close and creatively inclined toward similar explorations, devoted themselves primarily to graphic arts during certain periods and lived and worked in their native environments.
Danilo Jejčič, a native of Ajdovščina, entered the Slovenian art scene in the 1970s with a notable departure from the personality-driven informel style. He focused on rational, geometric schemes and pure, unsaturated colors, presenting three-dimensional geometric forms that, as he described, were “defined and placed within the given space.” His work ventured into “allusiveness, resulting from the placement of abstract, imagination-born forms on the level of visually perceptible reality.”
Pavel Medvešček consistently maintained a “continuity in motifs and iconography, alongside an interesting method of parallel cycles,” as Ivan Sedej noted. Elements of his later work, Karsika, began to emerge as early as the 1960s. His cycles, Fossils and the charming Baskets, continued into other cycles, all marked by a poignant lyricism in their search through the realm of magical realism, extending to whimsically geometric fantasies and updated historicisms.
Miloš Volarič, as described by Milko Rener, focused thematically on developing “motifs from the material world, particularly animal and human figures, abstracted to their characteristic basic features.” Volarič himself remarked on his artistic pursuits: “In my landscape, peaks do not display themselves as if posing for tourists… trees do not boast… even the presence of humans would contaminate it… The landscape hovers, diminutive in its marshland and in the small, bent blades of grass in the meadows…
“For the younger generational companions, Rudi Pergar, a painter and graphic artist, and Nedeljko Pečanac, a graphic artist, sculptor, and painter, it could also be said that they, in a way, originate from geometric abstraction, which was favored by some prominent Slovenian and Primorska graphic artists of that time, although they expressed this through their entirely unique artistic approach in both graphic and other forms, as reflected in the works within the Hit collection. Rudi Pergar experimented with Informel, gestural, and expressive abstraction, but spent a considerable amount of time exploring rational constructions of geometric compositions, focusing on the play of light and the mutual influences of different color planes that distinctly followed his new concept. He was particularly interested in the interplay of color planes and the refraction of light.
Nedeljko Pečanac, who, along with Slovenian and Italian colleagues, was among the initiators and founders of the international group 2xGO, was formally and thematically highly diverse, engaging in painting, graphic art, and sculpture. In his graphic work, he often used the silkscreen technique. His works in the early period are characterized by erotic figurative motifs, later transitioning to archetypal depictions of vegetative forms. He loved geometrized bodies and shapes that found their origin in the sphere.
Zvest Apollonio, who led a serigraphy workshop at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana in 1970, significantly influenced the younger generation and contributed to the popularity of silkscreen printing, which remained within the confines of ‘author’s graphics’ in our region. His works are defined by sensuality and playfulness, color harmony, and the abstraction of recognizable elements, along with a strong inclination toward the Mediterranean space. Over the years, his works have, in an authorially recognizable way, distilled his view on life, his creative credo, and his historical, civilizational, and cultural attachment to and belonging to this space. His works are a view from within, embracing the inspiring blue of the sky and the sea, the reddish Istrian soil shimmering in the radiant sun, the recognizable outlines of coastal towns, and the never fully comprehensible eroticism of the female body. They are an unforgettable reflection of his noble narrative of the eternally recurring motifs of landscape and figure, which year after year, in new dimensions, revived his artistic handwriting.
Jože Spacal, a painter, graphic artist, mosaicist, and set designer, from 1972 to 1994, in eleven graphic cycles, sang a re-experienced hymn to Karst, his native region, and to the chestnut, which was ever-present in various forms and colors, often barely perceived in the background. He sought to capture the gifts of Karst nature, including the rare wheat fields, in their variability and powerful expressiveness, in a never fully discovered spiritual dimension, and in the rich interweaving of life with stones, pines, junipers, sumac, Teran vines, walnuts, and chestnuts—the gifts of a landscape that he carried deeply within himself, wherever and whenever, re-experiencing and transposing them into changing symbolic combinations, transforming them into an artistic handwriting that mirrors the rhythms and melodies of Mediterranean feeling and sensibilities, a wide range of technological and thematic combinations, and the grandeur of a restless, sparkling, seeking, and noble spirit.”
The Trieste visual artist Klavdij Palčič passionately, provocatively, and evocatively moved between pure visual art and metaphor for nearly six decades, with an unusually eloquent blend of various artistic techniques and shocking combinations, boldly yet thoughtfully navigating between gloom and vibrancy, restraint and spontaneity. With great love, he brought to life unmistakably recognizable artistic narratives, touching and suggestive, sensuously aesthetic in their appeal. In his vividly colorful experiences, he opened a whole spectrum of intellectual and emotional responses. In his graphic techniques, he expressed himself with refinement, authenticity, and in a doubly shocking and dramatic vision, as his figurative work evolved in the interplay of abstraction and figuration, remaining distinctly expressive or increasingly symbolic, with a virtuoso drawing style that blurred yet remained recognizable.
Franko Vecchiet, who established a connection between the avant-garde constructivist and modernist explorations of his environment, drew on Černigoj’s legacy and opened up widely to both classical visual techniques and the most current media and approaches. For decades, he has expressed himself in various graphic techniques, most profoundly in woodcut. He is original in his search for roots, using different materials and artistic means, including various graphic techniques, without denying his inclinations towards geometric forms and pure visual planes, along with a carefully considered selection of colors in a highly simplified color palette. In his quest for dialogue with the viewer, he encourages understanding, feeling, and acceptance of his visual aesthetic solutions and artistic credo. As he sees it, art seeks to ‘maintain the connection between memory and the present, between tradition and innovation.’
Franc Golob, who is notably recognized for his work in watercolor, where his sensitivity to the play of light and color transitions flourished, also engaged in photography and graphics in his early creative period, alongside design. In his work, he did not follow a mimetic approach to the subject but subtly established a dialogue between object and subject. As he himself wrote, the indigenous, elemental nature placed him in a context of artistic reflection that demanded a pluralistic view of art, which he has consistently embodied over the decades, allowing nature to speak through various interpretations.”
“Boris Zulian’s (Zuljan’s) artistic expression spanned multiple mediums. He worked in watercolor, gouache, oil, tempera, drawing, and also in graphics using a wide range of techniques, including etching, lithography, and serigraphy. He predominantly created landscapes of the Karst and Istria, which he poetically depicted in a vibrant color palette through stylized, synthetic artistic interpretations with a post-Cubist foundation. Zulian employed a broad color range that was optically harmonious and diverse, coming alive in bold, sweeping strokes with a palette knife to achieve a soft, pulsating light effect. In recent years, figurative elements began to emerge within his abstract vision. In 1971, along with Trieste artists Kozman, Švara, Vecchiet, Volk, and Žerjal, he founded Grupo U.
Marjan Kravos, also known for his excellent work as a set designer, is among the Trieste artists marked by the influence of their teacher Avgust Černigoj. However, after completing his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana, where he learned from Riko Debenjak, Marjan Pogačnik, and Bogdan Borčič, Kravos developed his own distinctive style, which flourished particularly in intaglio printmaking. This medium allowed him to express his tendency towards abstracting visible reality with a strong emphasis on the precise rendering of individual details. For many years, he printed his graphic works in the studio of Emilio Vedova in Venice.
Sculptor Negovan Nemec was exceptional in his exploration of drawing, which served as a foundation for his work in other sculptural materials. His line was fluid, voluminous, each stroke continuous and smoothly guided on the paper. As Nace Šumi noted, his legacy includes ‘a whole series of drawings intended for the creation of various forms in different drawing styles. I am referring particularly to drawings with a simple ‘sculptural’ line that is characteristic of his creations.’ Drawing also formed the basis for his graphic works, which he focused on in his later years, exploring the expressive possibilities of graphics, particularly in the technique of color lithography, where the line was the main carrier of his message. This exploration was unfortunately cut short by his untimely death.
Lucijan Bratuš, a painter, graphic artist, calligrapher, and academic professor, joined the younger Slovenian generation in the early 1970s who understood the new figurative explorations that delved into the psychological interpretation of a new visual reality. This approach was evident in both his paintings and graphic works. His expressively conceived figures, which he developed into his own unique expression, show an affinity with the expressionist legacy of Marij Pregelj through his distinctive composition and the vigor of his hand, emphasizing the exploration of the relationship between the figure—constructed with a free interweaving of color patches and surfaces—and the undefined, planar background.
Janez Matelič also created an outstanding body of work in graphic techniques. He frequently collaborated with Zvest Apollonio and, besides serigraphy, often employed lithography and woodcuts. His work, characterized by a strong tendency toward expressive content, featured dynamic formal compositions that created richly structured narratives. A hallmark of his art is that each print, in addition to the main motif, is enriched with numerous details that appear as unusual visual flashes in the background, typically drawn from the artist’s direct perceptions of nature. His narration is vivid, humorous, and sometimes complex, filled with many bizarre elements that Matelič intentionally inserts into his intricate thematic world. His layered stories, which define most of his graphic works, are based on the interweaving of elements from both the real and imaginary worlds.
Sculptor Zmago Posega, who entered the Slovenian art scene in the 1980s with the Generation 82 and was the only sculptor who chose to explore and continue the modernist tradition, despite being deeply engaged in postmodernist pursuits, also expressed himself in graphic techniques. These techniques allowed his sculptural sensitivity for line, volume, and the interplay of artistic elements to stand out, emphasizing the sense of volume and the interweaving of forms that came to life in stone or other materials. His exploration of graphic art was also tragically cut short by his untimely death.
Klavdij Tutta, an artist from Gorizia who has lived in Kranj for decades, is full of inspiration and imagination, sensitive and vibrant, and steadfast in his personal vision of graphic and painting issues, characterized by a distinctive style and themes. Tutta’s work stems from an admiration for the beauty of the Mediterranean, Karst, and coastal areas, which he poetically transforms into his expressive credo using selected images and symbols, shaping them into an imaginary landscape that is magical and dynamic. Initially, his work was also enriched with gestural strokes that brought forth abstract forms saturated with color. Over the decades, his focus shifted to marine landscapes, with his strokes becoming increasingly serene.
Artists from the Primorska and border regions created works in various graphic techniques that required exceptional precision, consistency, and patience from the artist: each print needed a masterful hand, a keen eye, and a remarkable spiritual strength. The multi-color printing process, which they all perfected, demanded a comprehensive approach to both plate preparation and the printing itself. The collection from the Park Hotel’s larger fundus showcases artists who excelled in traditional graphic techniques, including drypoint, etching, aquatint, lithography, linocut, woodcut, serigraphy—screen printing, monotype, and mixed techniques with other media. A viewer’s attentive gaze will reveal numerous fine strokes and engravings in many subtly rendered color shades, blending into a harmonious interplay of artistic elements that create an extraordinary narrative about the aspirations, emotions, and thoughts that inspired the creative process. These works invite us to look closely, with an open heart and spiritual openness, as they speak to us about the artist’s inner world and the artistic explorations that marked the time and space in which they were created. The Hit company’s collection is of priceless value, as it speaks not only of the exceptional creators from this western region of Slovenia but also of Hit’s social responsibility and its commitment to the cultural heritage of the area in which it operates.
dr. Nelida Nemec
Imprints and Reflections
A Collection of Graphics by Littoral Fine Artists
If not now, then when?
I have always been sensitive to art and culture, which undoubtedly held a special place within the Hit Company. When I first entered the casino and hospitality industry as a trainee, it was not just the work that left an impression on me, but also the interiors, especially the artistic decor. Even during the monotony of accounting work, I always discovered something artistic—a unique bond with colleagues, small creative improvements, and above all, my studies at the Venice Academy. In my later years at Hit, working in the corporate communications department, I gained experience with gallery work—organizing exhibitions, creating catalogues, hosting events, and building relationships with artists and cultural professionals. Some of these are represented in the Park collection of graphics. All of this undoubtedly shaped and enriched my artistic path.
I realized that these works of art were the result of Hit’s policies, which supported not only gaming and tourism but also culture—this universal unifier and an important pillar of tourism. I also understood that the Hit Company contributed to the creation and preservation of the rich movable cultural heritage of Primorska, significant for the entire Slovenian cultural space.
Thus, now is the perfect time to uncover and present the Hit collection of graphics by artists from Primorska to the public. This will enrich Hit’s anniversary celebrations while also enhancing the visibility and appeal of the GO! 2025 European Capital of Culture project.
The final selection of graphics, displayed along the hotel corridors, is exceptional, showcasing works by 22 artists from the Primorska Region, including its cross-border areas. The collection includes 118 pieces of traditional graphics, created using techniques such as drypoint, etching, aquatint, lithography, linocut, woodcut, serigraphy (screen printing), monotype, and mixed media.
For this exhibition, I selected only the graphics by Primorska artists, arranged chronologically based on the creation dates of their works, spanning from 1951 to 1989. The remaining approximately 72 graphic works—either duplicates or pieces by other Slovenian authors—are distributed across hotel rooms. It is worth emphasizing that these are all works by internationally recognized authors of various generations and stylistic directions.
The collection also contains several rare prints reserved for artists, marked with “EA” (Épreuve d’artiste in French, Prova d’Artista or Prova d’Autore in Italian, and artist’s proof or trial proof in Slovenian). These are the first ten trial prints by artists such as Riko Debenjak, Vladimir Makuc, Avgust Černigoj, Boris Zuljan, Klavdij Palčič, Franko Vecchiet, Rudi Pergar, Pavel Medvešček, and Negovan Nemec. The details on the graphic prints—such as the sequence number, technique, title, artist’s signature, and year—can often be read from left to right. However, many pieces lack titles, dates, or technique markings, although they can still be identified through printed catalogues and online museum or gallery archives.
Traditional printmaking is truly unpredictable, and this unpredictability is what makes it special. Factors such as how the ink is applied to the matrix, the printing process itself, the material of the matrix (copper, wood, linoleum, etc.), and the paper all influence the final appearance of the graphic print. Each artist has left an authentic visual imprint, unique to each individual print! The boundaries of graphic creation are not always strictly defined, allowing artists to experiment and combine various techniques in their search for a distinctive visual language. For this reason, I kept a piece in the collection that features three cut-outs from paper (cut-outs) with imprints of a stylized Karst wall—a mixed-media work by Bogdan Grom.
All of Janez Matelič’s graphic prints are untitled, yet on the back of one, I discovered a printed poem—a fascinating fusion of poetry and graphic art! Original lithographs (stone printing) are characterized by precise, clear strokes, as seen in the works of Klavdij Tutta and Negovan Nemec, with his organic forms. Artists like Riko Debenjak, Vladimir Makuc, Avgust Černigoj, Negovan Nemec, Zmago Posega, and Klavdij Palčič (combining drypoint with etching) created works ranging from classic line drawings to abstract forms in dark or light tones etched onto plates. In aquatint, a variation of etching, Jože Spacal captured the wind’s undulating motion over wheat fields, while Lojze Spacal and Boris Zuljan expressed their love for the Karst and the sea with abstract woodcuts.
Klavdij Palčič’s vibrant imagery, Danilo Jejčič’s geometric abstractions, Lucijan Bratuš’s black-and-white figurative elements, Nedeljko Pečanec’s geometric landscapes, Franc Golob’s rhythmic compositions, Rudi Pergar’s symmetrical structures, Jože Spacal’s natural elements in drawings, Franko Vecchiet’s imaginative abstractions, Pavel Medvešček’s mystical narratives, Miloš Volarič’s storytelling, and Zvest Apollonio’s lively Mediterranean expressions—all achieved remarkable expressive possibilities through serigraphy (screen printing).
The collection’s oldest matrices, dating back to 1951, belong to Riko Debenjak, a leading figure in modern experimental colour graphics and a professor at the Ljubljana School of Graphic Arts (1950–1973). The newest graphics in the collection are aquatints by cross-border Littoral artist Marjan Kravos, created in 1989.
AUTHORS OF WORKS IN THE HIT GRAPHIC COLLECTION
Riko Debenjak (1908 – 1987)
Vladimir Makuc (1925 – 2016)
Avgust Černigoj (1898 – 1985)
Negovan Nemec (1947 – 1987)
Zmago Posega (1959 – 2009)
Zvest Apollonio (1935 – 2009)
Pavel Medvešček(1933 – 2020)
Miloš Volarič (1933 – 2010)
Jože Spacal (1939 – 2020)
Lucijan Bratuš (1949)
Janez Matelič (1950)
Rudi Pergar (1936)
Franc Golob (1941)
Nedeljko Pečanac (1938)
Klavdij Tutta (1958)
Danilo Jejčič (1933)
and Primorska Artists from Cross-Border Areas in Italy
Lojze Spacal (1907 – 2000)
Bogdan Grom (1918 – 2013)
Boris Zuljan (1944 – 2013)
Klavdij Palčič (1940 – 2021)
Marjan Kravos (1948)
Franko Vecchiet (1941).
The collection of graphics by Primorska artists undoubtedly preserves, values, and interprets the creative past of our borderland. Artistic graphic art holds a unique place and role in the world of art, maintaining its relevance across time.
Revitalizing this part of our cultural heritage is a distinct way to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the company and represents a recognizable contribution by Hit to preserving the artistic heritage of this region. Our hope is that this collection of graphics, now accessible to the public—both residents and visitors, art enthusiasts, and connoisseurs alike—will not only reflect respect and admiration for the created works but also serve as an inspiration and source of creative energy for the future. Especially as Nova Gorica and Gorizia prepare to shine as the European Capital of Culture.
Special thanks go to the staff of the Park Gaming and Entertainment Centre, who advocated for the unveiling of these graphic artworks. Without their assistance, it would not have been possible to initially select and catalogue the graphic pieces based on photographs. Many works had already been installed in hotel rooms and corridors, while others, due to hotel room renovations in 2015, had been stored in the central warehouse. Only after this step could the process of organizing, identifying authors and techniques, selecting the pieces, and arranging them in the hotel corridors take place.
Thanks to the efforts of the Park team and Gorazd Prinčič, we transformed these unusual spaces for artistic activity into a true gallery. We are sincerely delighted with the outcome.
Nataša Gregorič Nabhas, M.A. in Art, Painter
Culture: The Enrichment of Humanity
Definitions of culture are abundant, as are its theorists, advocates, and critics. The same applies to corporate culture. When it comes to Hit’s corporate culture, we can confidently say that over the past forty years, it has been honed to a level many Slovenian companies would envy. Beyond its core service activities, Hit’s involvement in all aspects of life in the Goriška Region has cemented its image and character as a key driver of the communities where it operates and fulfils its mission.
This includes the cultural sphere. Evidence and traces of its impact abound. Hit has always been a staunch ally of culture—not merely as a sponsor of numerous cultural institutions, events, and publications, but as an active creator and provider of gallery activities and organizer of a wide range of cultural content in the Goriška Region.
Even without mentioning Hit’s contributions to other cultural domains (music, literature, theatre…), one of its most notable achievements in visual arts is undoubtedly the fifteen years of operation of the Hit Gallery Pavilion. Between 1997 and 2012, the gallery hosted 100 exhibitions, displaying 180 artists from 17 countries.
In 1997, Hit also left a lasting mark on the city through its collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and the Municipality of Nova Gorica, resulting in five sculptures by renowned artists—Matjaž Počivalšek, Jakov Brdar, Mirsad Begić, Mirko Bratuša, and Zmago Posega—that now enrich various locations in the city.
Photography found its home in the lobby of Hotel Sabotin, where numerous local and international artists have exhibited and continue to exhibit their works. Temporary exhibitions have also been organized in other Hit venues. A particularly memorable event was the exhibition of works by Zoran Mušič at Hotel Maestral in Montenegro.
Few hotels can boast rooms furnished with original and, above all, high-quality works of art. Hotel Park is one such rare gem. Thanks to this fact—and the dedicated work of Nataša Gregorič—a unique collection of graphics by the most prominent Primorska artists has been created there, representing the finest selection of both artists and their works.
A thought from Radio Študent in the distant 1980s still resonates today: Enrichment? Without a doubt. Proud? Certainly. Grateful? Absolutely.
Katja Kogej
KOLOFON Hitova zbirka grafik primorskih umetnikov (1951 – 1989)
Konceptualna zasnova, kuratorstvo in celostna podoba razstave: Nataša Gregorič Nabhas, mag. umetnosti
Postavitev razstave: Nataša Gregorič Nabhas, mag. umetnosti, Gorazd Prinčič, mag.umetnosti
Oblikovanje: Špela Lutman
Tehnična podpora: Gorazd Prinčič, Laura Bremec, Valentina Tobias, Nataša Tišma, Valentina Kristančič
Hit d.d., Nova Gorica, oktober 2024