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MFRU

Kiblix is younger than MFRU, and soon after its creation, it specialized thematically by focusing on a slightly more specific area within intermedia. This decision seems healthy in a city with two such festivals. The focus on open source, which seemed to us then, and still seems, the most important for the development of the network, led to the birth of the Linux Festival. This event started in 2002 and was dedicated to the most pressing topics in the field of pioneering information technologies, their use, and their relationship with art. We explored technology with, but not limited to, an artistic dimension. In its first edition, the festival addressed Internet security and telephony security. We raised awareness, informed, and educated the interested public on how to approach the World Wide Web, speculated on the future of mobile technology, and discussed the harmful effects of radiation, among other topics. Turning back to Linux, it is the only generic European software available free of charge and is within the domain of a large spectrum of programmers worldwide. I am highlighting the contrast with the current state of the Internet, the majority of which is owned by multinationals, mainly located in Silicon Valley, United States. In the early days of the Festival, the situation was multilateral - much of the web was in the public domain, reflecting a mindset that programs should be generated for all equally, heralding a kind of online equality. The idea of open source represents a network structure, not a pyramid structure.

MFRU and Kiblix together – the idea was always there. At least two people, Marko Ornik and I, to be precise, shared the dream of the two festivals co-existing. When they didn't, it was mainly for legal-formal reasons, differences between public institutions and NGOs, which in turn led to differences in production conditions. Kibla as an institution was born out of the cybercafé, a space where the internet was accessible to everyone. Kiblix evolved into a Linux festival, where developers started to meet, and it grew into a festival of open source, an open system, also for artistic use. In its last phase, it adopted more general names, such as a festival of intermedia, or a festival of contemporary art. Sandra, as the main conceptualist of Kibla, has always advocated for the widest range of new media – transmedia, multimedia. MFRU still clings to the computer in an affectionate way, and with each generation of curators, there are discussions about whether we should perhaps rename it with more up-to-date terms. Suma sumarum. There aren't many conceptual differences; there's more in common.

MKC has many diverse activities; MFRU is just one of them – it's like a conceptual "mixed plate". Kibla, in this sense, had more focused interests, research orientations, and exhibition orientations. That's why there were many moments in history where synchronization didn't happen. If I add to this the Slovenian customs and habits in the field of cooperation and common good, I come to think that it's all a powder keg just waiting to explode. Let's remember what happened on the occasion of the biggest opportunity for intermedia art that the Slovenian art field has ever seen: the KONS and RUK projects. Maribor was again that phenomenal place where the two networks met, but the biggest players, together with the state at their head, failed to agree on building one common network. So we're not just talking about a divergence between Kibla and MKC, but on a larger, Slovenian level. The answer is certainly not only in the digital/computer paradigm; there's a whole anthropology behind it.

I decided to surround myself with all possible people, connect two festivals and two teams. I wasn't a native of Maribor myself, I came as a visitor and my goal was to surround myself with as many people as possible, as big a team of collaborators, supporters, advisors. This meant a bigger technical team, which is crucial with such a demanding technical aspect. The technician is the one who gives a professional opinion on whether a certain work would work in a certain space. There is also the editorial department, and the public relations department. In my opinion and in my experience, collaboration is not conceptual, it is a financial necessity. Or rather, an opportunity. You mentioned anxiety about technology. I believe that anxiety is simply caused by the fact that we don't get enough sun. Because MFRU, and Kiblix have always been big acts of love. Now, I would argue that everyone who has worked for 30 years to create it is filled with immense love. We were lucky if a great artist came to Maribor at all. Jože Slaček started the festival for close to zero financing and still works very modestly. He was a great mentor to me all the time, when I arrived I was still a beginner to all this. Marko (Ornik) was crazy, in the best sense of the word. And Miha (Horvat) as well!