In September 2019 we opened a new temporary exhibition entitled Photo House Pelikan 1899-1919-2019 in the basement of Pelikan’s House on Razlagova Street 5 in Celje.
This year we mark 120 years since photographer from Celje, Johann Martin Lenz, built an apartment house with an extension – a photographic studio with glass salon (in 1899). After his death, the building came under the ownership of photographer Josip Pelikan, who came to Celje a century ago (in 1919) and stayed and worked here for almost six decades.
The renovated glass atelier, unique in Slovenia and one of the few in Europe, has been an essential part of the Museum of Recent History Celje as Skylight photographic studio of Josip Pelikan for over two decades. In keeping with the remarkable Pelikan legacy, Museum has new plans – the construction of an all-inclusive complete cultural and museum complex, based on Pelikan’s photographic heritage from Celje and its connection to contemporary photographic production and activity, that would allow the visitor to stroll through the history of photography from the end of the 19th century to the present day in a completely authentic environment.
This temporary exhibition, set in the basement of Pelikan’s House on Razlagova Street 5, therefore not only illustrates an outline of its past, but also represents a symbolic beginning of its transformation into the Photo House Pelikan and is only the dawn of the major renovation of the house.
The basement of the Photo House Pelikan is more and more looking like a gallery for contemporary photography, and with planned walks through the apartment we want to present the living culture of a 20th century Celje’s citizen. Visitors will be able to take a walk through the house, through the Pelikan’s workrooms, darkrooms, warehouses and development facilities on the next two Wednesdays (18 September and 25 September) and Saturdays (21 September and 28 September) at 10 am, however only by advanced appointment at the museum.
Exhibition will be opened until end of June 2020.
