The Miran Jarc Library, Novo Mesto, Slovenia

The Miran Jarc Library in Novo Mesto, Slovenia was founded in 1946 as a regional study library. Novo Mesto is a city in southeastern Slovenia, close to the border with Croatia. Miran Jarc (1900–1942), a Slovene writer, poet, playwright and essayist, was killed in combat during the Second World War. The Miran Jarc Library serves as a regional multimedia information and cultural center. It contains a 70-seat reading room and attracts over 350,000 visitors annually. The library’s special collections department preserves more than 100,000 manuscripts, books, pictures, photographs, postcards, pamphlets, and maps. Among these are the manuscripts of the noted Slovenian playwright Slavko Grum (1901-1949) who had a tormented life, due to drug abuse and emotional issues. Even so, Grum managed to earn a degree as a medical doctor and write works so memorable that today, a street is named after him in Novo Mesto, and elsewhere in Slovenia, elementary schools and a library are named in his honor. A Grum Award is also given for the best Slovenian play of the year.

The latest renovations of the Miran Jarc Public Library were completed in 2001, although the local library organization dates back to 1865. The eminent Slovenian architect Dr. Marko Marijan Mušič (born 1941), a vice-president of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SAZU), created an extension to two extant buildings in an old part of the city. Dr. Marko Mušič is a former student of the celebrated American architect Louis Kahn. In an article published in 2004 about the National and University Library in Ljubljana, another of his projects, as an intersection of time and cultures, Dr. Mušič observed:

As any important architectural work, the libraries from the distant past are vivid organisms that bear in themselves the biological, historical and humanistic experience. Those who live with, and use, such architecture feel its spiritual energy and its vital palpitation. The space accepts them and through symbols and rituals it passes on their idea; it passes on the situation today, however, this is performed from its yesterday’s and tomorrow’s position. Therefore, good library architecture does not follow changes in trends and fashion, but lives its own time in the continuum of historical consciousness, revealing the spirit and importance of its existence. In the architectural Renaissance taking place during the last years libraries became exactly the same as the important buildings throughout history used to be. They are prestigious architectural achievements that became the visual and symbolic signs of national pride, the cathedrals of our days.

Today, the Miran Jarc Public Library extends down to the Krka River. As a promotional video produced in 2013 by Studio Vrtinec, a company located in Novo Mesto, indicates, the library’s recent extension is for visitors who borrow books and other purposes, whereas the older buildings are for more concentrated researchers and students. Fans of architecture have especially admired the way that parts of the library extension design seem to echo some of the fortress buildings found at the entrance to the old city of Novo Mesto. The Miran Jarc Public Library’s two towers and central rotunda have become a tourist attraction.

Thailand and Slovenia

Thailand and Slovenia are associated in economic, cultural, and diplomatic ways. Last year The Independent newspaper recommended that tourists in search of an unexpected wine tasting holiday should consider Thailand and Slovenia, among other places. Wineries at Khao Yai National Park, as presented by Thailand Wine Tours and Wine Tours Thailand were mentioned. The village of Jeruzalem in northeastern Slovenia produces a white wine of outstanding quality, among other local growing areas that are also much appreciated.

Musical Exchanges.

Beyond wine-drinking, Thailand and Slovenia are associated with the World Saxophone Congress (WSC), a festival attended every three years by about 1000 saxophonists and other music admirers. The 14th WSC was held in Ljubljana, Slovenia in 2006, and the next one, in 2009, was in Bangkok. Among participating artists at both was the Thai saxophonist Krit Buranavitayawut. Ajarn Krit Buranavitayawut received a bachelor of architecture degree from Silpakorn University and has worked as a professional musician and architect for several years with a belief in the unity of all the arts, somewhat like the motivation of the Bauhaus German arts school. Ajarn Krit Buranavitayawut teaches jazz at the College of Music, Mahidol University. Among the CDs on which he performs is Music of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej. He performed with the Thailand Saxophone Ensemble at the 2006 World Saxophone Congress XIV in Ljubljana and currently participates in The Pomelo Town, a leading Thai jazz ensemble composed of Mahidol University faculty members. In 2014, more classical sounds were heard in an association between Thailand and Slovenia when the Slovenian flutist Alenka Zupan performed at Sala Sudasiri Sobha concert hall with the Thai flutist Chatchawarn Atthakijkosol and pianist Pana Yontararak. Chatchawarn Atthakijkosol, a graduate of Chulalongkorn University, played in the Thailand Youth Orchestra (TYO) before studying at the École Normale de Musique de Paris in France. Highly skilled in technique, he teaches at a private Studio Musical in Prawet, Bangkok. Alenka Zupan studied at the same school in Paris, after previous work at the Academy of Music at the University of Ljubljana and professional experience at the Orchestra of the National Opera and Ballet House in Ljubljana, in the Symphony Orchestra of the Academy of Music. Pana Yontararak, son of the well-known Thai pianist Nat Yontararak, won the Luigi Castellini Award for the most outstanding student of the Francesco Morlacchi Conservatory of Perugia, Italy. The concert by this trio benefited the Gift Of Life Foundation, providing medication to treat patients worldwide. The audience heard melodies by Mozart, Schubert, and other composers. Before the concert, Zupan gave a workshop and masterclass at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Srinakharinwirot University.

Diplomatic exchanges

Last year, H.E. Mr. Apaichart Chinwanno, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand participated in the first Thailand-Slovenia Political Consultation in Ljublijana. Topics of the discussion included bilateral relations between Thailand and Slovenia as well as regional, and global, and multilateral issues. Also last year, Slovenia took over from the Kingdom of Thailand as chair of the Human Security Network (HSN) for a one-year term. The HSN was established in 1998 to resolve international issues affecting human security. Its member nations include Thailand, Slovenia, Austria, Chile, Greece, Ireland, Jordan, Costa Rica, Mali, Norway, Panama, and Switzerland. Slovenia intends to focus especially on protecting children and guaranteeing gender equality during its stewardship.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and Librarybuildings.info)