http://www.culture.si/en/Tovarna_Rog

Tovarna Rog
Trubarjeva 72, SI-1000 Ljubljana
www.tovarna.org
Region SI-1
Managed by Municipality of Ljubljana
Začasni uporabniki prostorov tovarne Rog
Socialni center (Social Centre)
soc.center.rog@gmail.com
http://www.njetwork.org
Urška Jurman, Second Chance Project Space
Tobačna 1, SI-1000 Ljubljana
urska.jurman@ljubljana.si
http://www.secondchanceproject.si/
Phone 386 (0) 1 241 2544
Meta Štular, Second Chance Project Space
meta.stular@mgml.si

Opened in 2006 within the 7,000 square-metre former premises of the Rog bicycle factory in downtown Ljubljana, Tovarna Rog is a cultural and social centre, organised as an open structure where space is used night and day by artists and cultural producers. Their activities were based on an innovative concept of the temporary alteration of the factory's purposes. Due to the municipal plans, however, the users' principle was replaced in 2010 with the claim for the reappropriation of the commons.

Rog thus still resists as a social centre, concert venue, skate park and production space with improvised studios and DIY infrastructure. Most of the production in Rog is independent, although some projects involve public funding.

A calendar of events, links to participating organisations, multimedia documentation on the initiative and latest news on the project are available at its regularly-updated website.

Background

The space has been left to decay since 1991. In 2000 two large scale exhibitions were held in the premises (Break 21, 4th International Festival of Young Artists and 17th Biennial of Industrial Design). In 2006 the informal interdisciplinary TEMP group decided to take the initiative and act. The change of the function from factory to cultural centre was achieved not through a classic occupation squat but in accordance with an original concept of a new, temporary production unit. The production of independent and non-profit cultural programmes started here in March when Antonio Negri became one of its first guests and lecturers.
Public programme and activities

The Rog Factory is open to all those working in the non-profit sector. To date the project has involved the co-operation and participation of hundreds of individuals and numerous cultural and social organisations.

The first festival in Rog was the Politically Incorect Film Festival (PIFF) in May 2006 followed by the Rog Festival organised by the users. In June the Open Rog final exhibition of the World of Art curatorial course was organised on the premises by SCCA-Ljubljana Centre for Contemporary Arts. Later this year Bunker Institute organised a round table on the artistic mobility on behalf of the Balkan Express Network and one of the Mladi levi Festival performances took place in Rog. For some time the power supply was ensured by the renown Slovene film director Franci Slak who filmed his Kakor v nebesih, tako na zemlji film on the premises (produced by Radio-Television Slovenia).

In 2007 R.O.G. Skatepark was opened and a group of independent new media and visual artists established Cirkulacija 2, an interdisciplinary platform for contemporary art. The Rogovila Festival of Sound with concerts ranging from experimental to flamenco and metal took place in the summer and was accompanied also by the acoustic and sound technical workshops. In 2008 it evolved in a multimedia set of events produced by the artists working on the premises. The major 2008 events were organised in support of the Rog activities due to the threats by the Municipality to close down the cultural and social centre (on the other hand Rog offered space for the intervention screenings by the Kinodvor Cinema which was temporarily closed down by the state). Regular contemporary dance rehearsals (organised by Fičo Balet in the frame of the Nomad Dance Academy) took place in Rog and culminated in the closing performance Homo Canis by Kire Gjorevski. 2009 saw the Freedom to the Worlds music festival with bands such as Nikki Louder, Golliwog and Doggy Stones as well as the traditional annual Open Door Rog Festival.

Since the beginning one of the most persisting regular activities in Rog is generated by the Rog Social Centre (SC Rog), a laboratory for global citizenship, which has organised numerous actions, lectures, symposia and informal public debates tackling the issues of asylum seekers and migrant workers (e.g. the IWW – Invisible Workers of the World and the Nomad University initiatives).
Development

Municipality of Ljubljana envisions the renovation of the degraded area (over 51,700 m2) in the context of the creative industries and has not yet seriously considered the findings about the needs for space by the Rog's temporary users. According to the municipal plans, based on a public-private partnership the main building is to be transformed in Rog Contemporary Arts Centre with exhibiting spaces (1,900 m2), production centre, studios and artist in residence programmes (3,400 m2), art shops, educational spaces and mediatheque in symbiosis with the commercial areas such as parking places, apartments, shops, bars, restaurants, hotel etc. The ratio of this symbiosis, however, tends to be in strong favour of the private commercial activities (80 % of the total area).

In 2008 Municipality of Ljubljana published a public tender for the renovation which was won by the MX-SI Architects from Barcelona (with former leading municipal urbanist Marjan Bežan in the team).

In 2010 Municipality of Ljubljana joined the Central European project Second Chance in which it takes the transformation of the former Rog factory as a case study, compared to Nueremberg (former AEG factory), Leipzig (HALLE 14 of the former Cotton Spinning Mill), Venice (the Arsenale), and Krakow (the tram depot in the St. Lawrence district). The project aims at developing innovative strategies and concepts to upgrade the former industrial site to a key cultural hub in the city.