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10 October 2025 > 30 October 2025 Kindly inviated to the opening of "Holyburger" group exhibition, on Friday, October 10, at 8 p.m., at the Alkatraz Gallery, ACC Metelkova mesto. The exhibition is apart of Tinta Comics Festival.
Participating artists: Rikke Villadsen (DK), Lukas Verstraete (BE), L.L. de Mars (FR), Domen Finžgar (SI/SCT), Marko Kociper (SI), Andrej Štular (SI), Nika Erjavec (SI)
It all began with a book: Holyburger, the latest international anthology of Stripburger magazine. In a fresh and unorthodox comics form the book opens fundamental questions of human existence, the universe, interpersonal relations, and society. The project now expands into space, into the Alkatraz Gallery, where comics originals, sketches, and prints intertwine with wall paintings, objects, and multimedia installations. A group of seven local and international artists, who will also be present at the exhibition opening as guests of the Tinta comics festival, do not offer unambiguous answers, but instead invite reflection on art, (blind) faith, and elusive reality.
What is it that gives artworks their aura? By revealing the creative process, do we demystify art? Who are the new “saints,” and who teaches us the right and the false “faith”? Is art something sacred or something blind? And can we still believe in what we see at all?
The multimedia exhibition presents works that explore and question the place of art and belief in the structure of today’s world. Belgian artist Lukas Verstraete has created a special series of prints for the exhibition, showing who the new saints of art are, while French artist L.L. de Mars has explored works from the National Gallery as the holy site of Slovenian art, where the nation’s most precious relics are kept. Each of these works is surrounded by a colourful aura of feelings, which the artist will attempt to visualize in large-scale wall paintings at the Alkatraz Gallery.
The exhibition will also reveal works that show how Holyburger was created in book form and how the creation of something as sacred as art takes place. Danish artist Rikke Villadsen and comic artist and conceptual leader of the Holyburger project, Domen Finžgar, present works that ask: what exactly is a comics original, what is merely a sketch, and what constitutes an original comics page in the digital age, when many comics are created using tablets and computers?
The authenticity of an artwork is thus by no means self-evident, and neither is it always clear which is the “true” faith. What matters, however, is that one believes in it blindly, just as the people of Butale—noble folk who had everything except common sense—once blindly believed in the false faith that had spread to their lands. Slovenian comic artist Marko Kociper presents Butalci in Comics 3, based on the satirical stories by writer Fran Milčinski, where we can see for ourselves how false faith looked in Butale and how some of its greatest religious miracles came to be.
As is fitting for a sacred space, the gallery will also be filled with holy music. This will be created by the aforementioned Domen Finžgar, who is not only a comic artist but also a musician. Artist Nika Erjavec will present a light-kinetic-sound installation that explores the sonic effects of visual noise and disturbances which exceed the limits of our senses and venture into the intangible, almost invisible and imperceptible. All the more visible and tangible, however, will be the ready-made objects and assemblages with which versatile artist Andrej Štular will round off the exhibition, embellishing it with devotional themes and sacred iconography.
At the pedestal, however, will stand the book. The beginning of it all. Glory to comics!
Production: Stripburger/Forum Ljubljana
Coproduction: KUD Mreža.
Supported by: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, City Council Ljubljana, Flanders Literature, JAK – Slovenian Book Agency.
Thanks to: National Gallery of Slovenia.
