KIBLA - Association for Culture and Education/Multimedia Center
Famous Australian artist Stelarc has said for KIBLA »this is the best cyber space in the world,« the great Eduardo Kac, who works at the Art Institute of Chicago, »something like this doesn't exist in United States« and Joseph Tabby, university professor and writer, »I came to visit Slovenia, because I've heard about KIBLA.« A title in Slovenian magazine Mladina: »To Maribor, because of KIBLA!« and in NeDelo (the biggest Slovenian newspaper, Sunday issue) Eda Čufer wrote: »Maribor Kibla is by its space possibilities and its conceptual structure, that combines gallery, spaces for performance, specialised bookshop and cyber café undoubtedly the most exemplary project of a kind.« In Romanian newspaper Clujenaui was written »KIBLA is the most important and the biggest multimedia centre in Eastern Europe.« Dr. Janez Strehovec, the leading Slovenian new media theoretician, stated, »Kibla is the main Slovenian centre for new media art (and theory).« Artist, scientist, researcher and professor on the University Caxias do Sul, Brazil, dr. Diana Domingues noted: »Kibla is a very impressive environment and you are the soul of this paradise in Slovenia.« Guru of the world advertising Dragan Sakan pointed out, »KIBLA stimulates reality, which is no longer traditional but multimedial. Also ideas are not local anymore, but global. The world needs fresh ideas. The world needs global institutions like KIBLA!« Franci Pivec, master of information sciences, claims, »KIBLA is big phenomena. For me it's one of the central institutions, which Maribor gained.«
Multimedia Centre CyberSRCeLab – MMC KIBLA was founded on the 4th of July 1996 as a project of Narodni dom Maribor and Open Society Institute Slovenia with the aim of training computer users from Maribor area, with free Internet access, information and advisory services on usage and data bases, and education consultations. From the 16th of June 1998 MMC KIBLA staff has legal status as an Association for Culture and Education (ACE KIBLA).
Through our concept we focus on the new (contemporary) educational, informational, advisory, cultural and artistic praxis, and scientific and, technological aspects connecting culture and technology, arts and sciences, education and research emancipating and demystifying new media as a creative tool. At the end of last century we wanted to draw a parallel between the reading-room tradition in Slovenia and Europe at the end of the 19th Century as a generator of education and culture, and the cyber reading-room at the end of the 20th Century and at the beginning of the 21st Century within the global village.
KIBLA programmes:
SRCe (Student Resource Center) – Info center for students about universities, studies, tests, grants, scholarships supported by a reference data base - the biggest on the Internet.
Cyber Lab – computer workshop, communication and information center with free access to the Internet.
Both constitutional programmes, from 4th of July 1996, are supplied with 12 free of charge public domain computers and became in 1999 officially a part of Maribor information and advisory network, which is a part of the Youth information and advisory centre Slovenia (MISSS), which is a part of the European Eryica network.
Graphical Studio KIBLA.TIF for paper and electronic publishing with workshops and training people who are interested, from 5th of July 1997.
Bookshop ZA:MISEL (FOR:THOUGHT) deals with humanistic and social sciences and arts (books, CD-ROMs...) with lots of reading matter available in the KIBLA cafe, from 6th of November 1998;
Space for art KiBela – exhibitions, performances, concerts, theatre, lectures, symposiums, fairs, workshops, adapted and reopened from 22nd of January 1999.
TOX magazine – time-table through 3000, magazine (from 1995) that grew into the KIBLA publishing edition (from 1998), made several catalogues and books, e.g. Eduardo Kac: Telepresence, Biotelematics, Transgenic Art, Vili Ravnjak: The Amber way, Aleksandra Kostič’s edited essays on Levitation, catalogues for Marko Jakše, Marko Črtanec, Mitjja Ficko, Theo Botscuijver, Shuzo Azuchi Gulliver, several CDs (Nino Mureškič, Vasko Atanasovski, Siti hlapci and CD-ROMs (for EU project European Multimedia Accelerator- EMMA) and DVDs (for EU project txoOm).
Mimogrede (By the way) – monthly newspaper with information about studying.
Reading room, from 1996;
Audio room and Projection room, from 4th of July 1996;
Information and advice centre about various topics from events to soft and hardware. It's included in Slovenian information and advisory network (MISSS), from 1st of January 1999.
Entrance hall – an extra programme space for concerts, exhibitions, projections, performances, information, from 7th of January 2000, with the electronic LED display for all information about KIBLA and programmes;
Sophy's lovers – independent initiative with humanistic vision, regular humanistic and social sciences lectures Evenings with Sophy, from 1998.
Videla – digital video editing and workshops, from 2002;
Days of Curiosity – How to become, yearly Festival of Edutainment (education and entertainment), from 1997, gathers schools, pupils, students, teachers, professors and professionals to teach and learn through direct conversation, how to become something that I’d want to be.
Hidden Notes (Skrite note) – music cycle, electro acoustic music, concerts, projections, lectures, workshops;
Iz(z)ven – international festival of contemporary music, which includes also international collaborations;
Kiblix – IT Linux Festival about Open Source consists of topics as mobile technologies, open source, security on the Internet, Linux;
KIT – communication and information point in the old Maribor Town Hall (Rotovž), Glavni trg 14.
Committee for Wine Service – degustations, education, information service, excursions.
Ladle – food preparing, tasting, inventing, creating, education, information service, excursions.
KIBLA is non-profit making organisation and institution, located in Maribor on two locations, in Narodni dom Maribor, Ul. Kneza Koclja 9, and in the old Town Hall Rotovž, Glavni trg 14., and based on the openness and collaboration with other institutions and individuals.
KIBLA is a constitutive member of the MBMina – Maribor Information Embasy (www.mbmina.org), which gathers 7 Maribor info and advisory points and of the Slovene Multimedia Centres Network – M3C (www.m3c.si), named The Net, which includes 16 Slovene multimedia centres and it’s the first of a kind in Europe and on the world and it also got the support from the EU Structural Funds – European Regional Development Fund from 2004 until 2006 (3 years).
ACE KIBLA has got since 4th of March 2005 a status Association in public interest on the field of culture by the Ministry of Culture.
Maribor was in 2007 nominated by the International Committee for the European Capital of Culture 2012. The winning application was made by KIBLA and it was chosen among 4 Slovenian cities (Ljubljana, Celje, Koper & Maribor) by the competition. Slovenia is in tandem with Portugal, where is fixed city Guimarães.