Iztok Klančar

Photo: Jasna Klančišar

Studying Art History at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana had one great advantage: it gave me time to find my way around in other areas. Once in a while I would design a simple website or some printed materials. I was also starting to get interested in what was going on in my small hometown of Hrastnik in Slovenia, the country where I was born on 24th June 1980. I met a few students at the local student club Šoht (the name meaning shaft in Slovene, appropriate to the old mining industry there). Those people were anxious to do something to break the serenity of the proletarian town. After some time I started running the club. We were organizing just about everything - from creative events for children to concerts of local bands. The times were good, but organising just any student event ceased to be interesting after a while.

After leaving the club I went to check out what was going on in the wide world. So in 2004 I went for a study semester to Berlin, where my interest in photography and contemporary art started waking up. Back in Ljubljana I first had to finish my study - still an enormous task. While writing my thesis on Slovene homosexual photography, I was gaining valuable experience as a web author at Hipergo, a small web agency in Ljubljana. But finishing Art History was more important, especially because after presenting my thesis I had to take four overview exams of art in Europe and Slovenia. I decided to move to Utrecht with my partner, shut myself between four walls and studied, studied, studied for almost a year.

In the meantime I was taking photos. Of my friends, of different places I lived in and of our surroundings. A German photographer, Gundula Friese, told me that changing places and exploring how we respond to them can be a good thing. Jasna Klančišar (a Slovene photographer) gave me a hint how to play with my collections and assemble them into stories. Another good inspiration for me is music. Good songs tell us a lot about ourselves through vibrating emotions. And yes - I want to get consumed into photography and get more professional - also as an art critic.

So - now I am here in Holland. A so-called "EU citizen", who does not want to be looked at as "one of those Eastern Europeans who are taking all the jobs from us". And I am lucky enough to have found the right people at Frismedia in Utrecht who are pretty much patient with my stumbling Dutch.

Leave me a note if you like what I do. If you do not like something, leave me a note as well - I am simply curious about what you think. And if you are looking for my official CV, you can find it on your upper right.