I have written this general overview in the manner of a genealogy, that is, in the manner of an eventful, situational and visionary history that evolves with time. The period it covers is the period of the last century, starting in 1978 and ending in the new millennium, when we witness the production in the fields of art, culture, technology and the social that suddenly and forever changed the entire space, and Ljubljana in particular, from an insignificant village to an urban place with its eyes open to the future. Everything that was built during these decades has left its mark: Urbanity, the protection of human rights, the coming out of LGBTQI+ communities, the anti-militarist worldview and the conception of technology as open source, and last but not least, the vision of anti-colonial and anti-capitalist struggles. In the new millennium, all this enables Slovenia to choose its own future anew.
The title makes a connection between the alternative or subcultural scene in Ljubljana in the 1980s, a time when Ljubljana was not the capital of Slovenia but the capital of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia as part of the former Yugoslavia, and the media world that today is permeated by social platforms, the intermedia world that is also a space that is more than just Slovenia. The subcultural or alternative scene of Ljubljana at that time, its progressive political, cultural and social stance in public socialist life, put Ljubljana on the map of progressive urban centers in the 1980s. The punk revolution (from 1977 to the transition to the post-punk world in the 1980s) was followed in 1984 by the coming out of homosexuals, this major breakthrough of the LGBT community, with the organization of the first public Magnus Festival under the title "Homosexuality and Culture" at the ŠKUC Gallery.
At the same time, these big events, punk and "homosexuality and culture," video subculture, visual culture, punk and post-punk images, marked a social and political upheaval of the idea of youth and sexuality. But it was not a coup or a desire to destroy socialism, but a determination to continue it step by step, precisely in that utopian dimension that manifested itself in the realm of rhetoric. For the socialism of self-management, pressured by real socialism (which was Stalinist in color), promised, if nothing else, equality and opportunity for all, the possibility of building a future for all, even if it had its dark and authoritarian, patriarchal and chauvinist dimensions, and the fear of all that was promised, which manifested itself only in its constant control over history and sexuality. The archive of the underground or subcultural or alternative scene in Ljubljana is a real indicator of its strength. This scene was not a bourgeois oppositional force, but a dissident post-Marxist theoretical and practical basis for the creation of a new culture for the future that powerfully incorporated class struggle, anti-discrimination in socialism, and the option for the future.
Ta celoten pregled sem pripravila na način genealogije, torej na način zavzete, situirane in vizijsko zastavljene zgodovine, ki se razvija v času. Čas, ki ga zajema, je obdobje prejšnjega stoletja, ki se začne leta 1978, pa vse do novega tisočletja. V tem času zaznavamo produkcijo v polju umetnosti, kulture, tehnologije in družbenega, ki je nenadoma in za vselej celoten prostor in še posebej Ljubljano spremenila iz nepomembne vasi v zavzeto mesto z odprtim pogledom v prihodnost. Vse, kar se je vzpostavilo v teh dekadah, je pustilo pečat: urbanost, zaščita človekovih pravic, coming out LGBTQI+ skupnosti, antimilitaristični pogled na svet ter pogled na tehnologijo kot odprto kodo in nenazadnje vizija pomena antikolonialnih in antikapitalističnih bojev. Vse to omogoča Sloveniji, da v novem tisočletju še enkrat izbere prihodnost.
Naslov poveže alternativno ali subkulturno sceno v Ljubljani v osemdesetih, čas, ko Ljubljana ni glavno mesto Slovenije temveč glavno mesto Socialistične republike Slovenije v sestavi nekdanje Jugoslavije in medijskega sveta, ki je danes prežet z družbenimi platformami, intermedijskimi povezavami, mobilno telefonijo in digitalno virtualno realnostjo sveta, torej tudi prostor, ki je več kot le Slovenija. Subkulturna oziroma alternativna scena Ljubljane v tistem času, njena progresivna politična, kulturna in družbena drža v javnem socialističnem življenju, je v osemdesetih letih postavila Ljubljano na zemljevid urbanih naprednih središč. Po punkovski revoluciji (od leta 1977 do tranzicije v postpunkovski svet v osemdesetih) je leta 1984 sledil coming out, ta veliki preboj LGBT skupnosti na plano, z organizacijo prvega javnega Magnus festivala z naslovom »Homoseksualnost in kultura« v Galeriji ŠKUC.
Paralelno so ti veliki dogodki, punk ter »Homoseksualnost in kultura«, video subkultura, vizualna kultura, punk in post-punk podobe, pomenili družbeni in politični prevrat pojmovanja mladine in spolnosti. A pri tem ni šlo za prevrat ali željo po uničenju socializma, pač pa odločenost, da se ga progresivno zapopade prav v tisti utopični dimenziji, ki se je kazala v retoričnem polju. Kajti samoupravni socializem, na katerega je pritiskal realni socializem (ki je bil stalinistično obarvan), je, če nič drugega, obljubljal enakost in možnosti za vse, možnost gradnje prihodnosti za vse, četudi je imel svoje mračne in avtoritarne, patriarhalne in šovinistične dimenzije ter strah pred vsem, kar se je obljubljalo, kar je bilo razvidno že samo v njegovi neomajni kontroli zgodovine in spolnosti. Arhiv undergrounda ali subkulturne oziroma alternativne scene v Ljubljani je resnični pokazatelj njene moči. Ta scena ni bila nikakršna meščanska opozicijska sila pač pa disidentska post-marksistična teoretična in praktična osnova produkcije nove kulture za prihodnost, ki je v svojo politiko povzela razredni boj, boj proti diskriminacijam v socializmu in z vsemi možnimi silami uveljavila opcijo prihodnosti.