SLOVENIA IN TEN SNAPSHOTS
To be published in Politiken, Copenhagen

By Aleš Debeljak

1. Painting: Ivan Grohar: Sejalec (The Sower) /1907/

The painter, one of the four impressionist artists to sucessfully graft the aesthetics of pan-European modernism on to the national heritage, presented a symbolic figure of the sower. The latter continues to be associated with a rural tradition that shimmers with hopes for a good harvest. This iconic painting has been subject to several contemporary reworkings, notably by IRWIN art group, that were necessitated by the country's independence to make it suit a new purpose without rejecting the past.

2. Photo: Raising of the national flag in front of the Parliament of Republic of Slovenia on June 26, 1991.

A day earlier, the Parliament passed the constitutional act on sovereignity and independence. Raised flag at the proclamation of independence represents a singularly undisputed achievement in the Slovenian collective life. It was bouyed by the unprecedented degree of national unity that stemmed from a popular plebiscite less than a year earlier, where more than 90% of the voters supported a move for a complete independence from Yugoslavia.

3. Person: Edvard Kocbek ( 1904-1981).

A renown poet before WWII, an anti-fascist resistance leader, a Christian Socialist and a political dignitary-turned-dissident, Kocbek's life and work embody the two main forces that, in their ongoing conflict, shaped modern Slovenian character: Communism and Roman Catholicism. Having been the first to publicly expose the civil war that unfolded under the Naci and Fascist occupation, he was forced into internal exile and turned all of his inspiring talent into poetry of witness and vision.

4. Thing: Kozolec (Hayrack).

An invention of rural folk genuis, this utility construction was designed to stock hay which is placed on the many parallel racks under the slender roof. This elegant exemplar of vernacular architecture can be seen in all regions populated by Slovenians, making it a distinct marker in a cultivated landscape. Immediately recognisable shape of this "field harph" is both a monument to collective tenacity and a reminder of intimate bond the Slovenians have with nature.

5. Text: France Prešeren: Krst pri Savici (The Baptism at the Savica) /1836/

The founding father of modern Slovene literature and national consciousness, Prešeren, as befits Romantic poets, created an epic narrative in verse. It both dramatizes and mythologises the lost battle of pagan Slovenian ancestors and their subsequent conversion into Christianity in the 8th century. This resisted adaptation to new circumstances is a linchpin of Slovenian history and the actual waterfall Savica in the Julian Alps is a near-pilgrimage place.

6. Music: Vlado Kreslin: Vsi so venci vejli (All My Wreaths are White)

The most-frequently played product of Slovenian musical craft is a polka by the Avseniki band that won global popularity, but most characteristic may be a modern rendition of a folk song as performed by popular ethno-revivalist Vlado Kreslin. The song's melancholy melody carries whiffs of flatlands in the country's Northeast and its words intone the sorrows of a young woman whose weading wreath is still green, that is to say, not yet ready. It is this kind of perverse comfort of longing for unatainable that makes Slovenes rarely ready for momentous decisions.

7. Poem: Srečko Kosovel: Balada (The Ballad)

A poet who died at the age of 22, in 1926, imbued this poem with lyrical and political accents. Italian bird-hunters who customarily prowled the Karst, ethnically Slovenian territory in the Southwest, represent here a real threat of Fascism. No wonder that the vision of death hovers over the entire region which, together with the Adriatic coast, was anexed by Italy after WW I. The ballad suggests loneliness and powerlessness which historically recalled the condition of Slovenian community at large.

8. Food: Potica.

A filled and rolled cake (pronounced potizza) whose Slovenian word should remain untranslated, is a truly national dish that has a hard time escaping a stereotype. Yet, it is impossible to deny that it is baked and served in all the regions of Slovenia, with local variantions never departing from a basic recipe that developed about 200 years ago. Filled with either walnut or poppy-seed, honey or raisins, potica is cherished as a popular desert in town manors and in mountain huts alike.

9. Place: Triglav (Mt. Triglav).

The highest mountain (2864m) in the country is one of the paramount symbols of collective self-identification. Its shape of three heads (as is its literal meaning) is featured in the coat-of-arms and the national flag. There, Triglav is supported with a wavelines of the Adriatic to indicate the mutual dependence of Slovenian mountains and the sea. Myth about the three ancient gods, three heads, lodged Triglav into popular memory in the 19th century, when its vertical Northern Face saw the nationalist competition between Slovenian and hitherto dominant German alpinists.

10. Event: The Establishment of the University in 1919, in Ljubljana.

Never before has Slovenian been used as a language of instruction at an institution of advanced learning. Established in a joint Southern Slavic state, Yugoslavia, it legalised comprehensive use of the national language, doubtless the central pillar of Slovene cultural specificity. In this, it followed in the footsteps of Primož Trubar, Protestant preacher who gave Slovenes the translation of the Bible as early as mid-sixteenth century, and the Romantic movement with its peak in Prešeren's poetry.