In the Museum of Modern Art (MG+), a new exhibition is now on view: a circular timeline with a selection of works that are an addition to and continuation of the permanent exhibition 20th Century. Continuities and Ruptures and a guide to same. Its focus is on the events related to visual art, with the exception of a number of events (primarily exhibitions) related to other fields whose general impact and importance could not be ignored.

Priority is given to developments in Slovenia, also due to space constraints, over those in Yugoslavia, or before that, in Austria-Hungary. (Almost) the entire history in one room? A lumber room of art, art history and Slovenia’s developing network of institutions? What did one believe in, in whom and why did one believe, and what was or is still valued? A cacophony of ideologies. The vampires of history.

In sculpture, a circular path (from the left-hand corner to the right-hand one) will lead you from Tone Kralj’s Glorified Jesus toward Lojze Dolinar’s sketch for the monument of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia, then to Tito’s bust, and lastly to new tendencies with neoconstructivism. In painting, the path starts with Rihard Jakopič’s Night Motif from Schwabing, then passes on to Hinko Smrekar’s caricatures, Miha Maleš’s work, then toward the horrors of war as seen in the work of Zoran Didek and Vladimir Lakovič, and then straight into postwar realism, including the bitter everyday life in Marjan Dovjak’s and Jože Tisnikar’s work. The path closes with works influenced by popular culture. At the very end one finds Laibach’s video for Geburt einer Nation (The Birth of a Nation). The century opens with a woman: Ivana Kobilca’s first exhibition at the Ljubljana Realgymnasium secondary school. It closes with Moderna galerija’s exhibition Slovene Athens 1907–1991. Moving through the Field of Slovene Art Like a Sower that was conceived in Yugoslavia and opened in the Republic of Slovenia.