Triglav

Mount Triglav, 1968

Zvezda Park, Ljubljana, Slovenia

On December 30th, 1968, Milenko (middle head) invited his two friends to sit with him on a ladder for a few hours, covered in plastic tarp, and pretend to be the nearby three-peaked mountain - Mount Triglav (meaning: three heads), the symbol of Slovenia. Unbeknownst to them, this piece that started off as a playful and humorous notion became iconic in the Eastern European reactionary art scene, and was voted by art students as the most significant art work in Slovenian History. “Mount Triglav” inspired generations of artists, rebels and re-enactors. A competition of the best Triglav re-enactments was held 50 years after the first “exhibit” at Slovenia’s Museum of Contemporary Art.

 

Milenko Matanovic and David Nez, two founding members of the OHO Group, recount memories from their iconic "Happening" Triglav in Zvezda Park, Ljubljana, Slovenia on the 52nd anniversary of the event.

I tried to tell anyone who would listen that the idea for Triglav—which means ‘three heads’—was simple: it was late December just before the new year, and traditionally people give gifts to each other at that time of the year, so I thought of offering the people of Ljubljana, especially those too feeble or old to venture into the mountains, a gift by bringing the mountain to the city. At home we had a sculpture of three heads, my two brothers and me, and I always thought of it as a ‘triglav.’ So it was perfectly logical to invite David Nez and Drago Dellabernardina, two willing colleagues, to sit on a tall ladder with me, covered with a plastic tarp for a few hours, pretending to be a mountain. We froze our butts sitting there in the cold, but it was fun - and well worth it.
— Milenko, from his interview with BETI ŽEROVC of Art Margins