Zavod Exodos Ljubljana
We connect two continents, many cultures, many artists and many voices.
ABOUT US
Exodos is an organisation that actively places Slovenian culture on the international stage.
For many years, we have been co-creating the contemporary cultural landscape in Slovenia, connecting established and emerging artists, producers and organisations at home and abroad. We develop international projects, create new productions, and open space for artist mobility, knowledge transfer, intercultural dialogue and long-term collaborations. We enable artists to present their work abroad, help mentors and creatives expand their competencies, and provide partner organisations with access to new networks, markets and development opportunities.
Our work has been recognised at the European level on multiple occasions – within the Creative Europe programme, we have successfully secured four international projects. Nevertheless, like many independent organisations, we remain heavily dependent on project-based funding, which limits operational stability and the further development of the potential we have clearly demonstrated. We are therefore seeking partners, supporters and investors who recognise the importance of culture as a driving force of society. By collaborating with Zavod Exodos, you support international connectivity, young creatives, innovative cultural models and the visibility of Slovenia in the world.
We invite you to a conversation about partnership, sponsorship or the joint development of future projects.
VISION
Our vision is to learn about our shared histories, confront present challenges and imagine a future we can create together, with an emphasis on including young and marginalised voices. Following decolonial motivations, we offer European and diasporic creatives opportunities to collaborate with peers on the African and Asian continent and vice versa. In close collaboration with communities, we will preserve cultural wealth and ensure its accessibility to the younger generation of artists.
We connect three continents, many cultures, many artists and many voices.
We are a distinctive cultural organisation that opens doors to other cultural spaces: we enable artists to present their work elsewhere, we enable mentors to transfer knowledge and expand their competencies, and we enable other Slovenian organisations to enter new networks — bringing new opportunities and development for them, for us and for Slovenian culture.
We want our many years of work to be recognised, and we want you to be part of it with us.
We are looking for organisations that dare to step beyond boundaries, build bridges between the worlds of business and culture, and through joint investment create change that opens many doors and reveals new possibilities for collaboration — with positive outcomes for everyone involved.
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KEY ACHIEVMENTS
Festival Exodos, currently on hiatus, was one of the oldest and most recognised festivals of contemporary performative arts in Slovenia and the region. From its very beginnings in 1994, it operated as a space and crossroads of European and world cultures, enabling Slovenian audiences to discover and engage with other cultures. Across twenty editions of the international festival, we hosted artists from almost every European country, Canada, North and South America, Japan, Asia and Africa — around 1,960 artists and 165 international guests.
In 2010, EACEA (European Education and Culture Executive Agency) recognised and confirmed Zavod
Exodos as a significant European cultural institution.
The organisation's director, Nataša Zavolovšek, served as a board member of the European IETM, Asociacija and the Balkan KOOPERATIVA — three associations of cultural organisations whose purpose is to connect with the aim of improving conditions for independent cultural organisations and artists.
With the goal of enabling Slovenian artists to present and operate abroad, the organisation participates, among other things, in SHARED SPACES, an informal network of artists and cultural organisations from all continents, encompassing North–South collaboration in the areas of production, touring, and capacity building and development of local cultural organisations.
Zavod Exodos is a founding member of the CEEC China Dance Union, through which, as members of the international Silk Road Festivals network, we organised 15 tours of Slovenian artists in China in 2017.
In addition to organising artistic productions and the Exodos Festival (until 2019), Zavod Exodos Ljubljana has for many years also been running support programmes in the field of performing arts, including training for technicians and stage workers, producers, artists, youth and communities. Through this programme we ensure the development of the performing arts, as without new knowledge and better conditions there will be no progress in this sector.
Due to our continued work in developing countries, we are also actively engaged in advocacy and cultural policy. The knowledge we have gained over the years — including through our involvement in Asociacija and Kooperativa (as co-founders) and IETM — we actively share and pass on.
Production of performances has been among the organisation's primary activities since its founding. We collaborate with both established (internationally recognised) national artists and young artists in whom we see great potential. We approach production in a comprehensive manner, seeking co-producers and touring opportunities internationally. We have created over 70 acclaimed productions, which have attracted tremendous interest from domestic audiences and international guests, with more than 150 tours across Europe and the world.
FEATURED PROJECTS
International project Share, the creative power of making (2020–2024) | executive producer, lead
International project East is Best (2022-23) | executive producer, lead
International project Corners (2014-18) | executive producer, partner
International project 1 space (2015-17) | executive producer, project lead
4 editions of the national Gibanice, Slovenian dance festival platform | founder and executive producer
EXODOS,festival of contemporary performing arts (1994–2017) |executive producer, lead
FEATURED MEDIA PUBLICATIONS
My Dearest Rituals: When different dance rituals connect through knowledge sharing in ajoint performance, M. K., 29. 2. 2024, MMC RTV SLO
Premiere of the dance performance Čipka/Lace, the first weaving of Lok, 24. 1. 2024, MMC RTV SLO
Gregor Luštek and Žigan Krajnčan with dance performances in Burkina Faso, N. Š., 1. 2. 2021, MMC RTV SLO
The twentieth Exodos is approaching, J. Krečič, 6. 4. 2017, Delo
The first performance of the international platform 1Space, D. Kolar, 5. 11. 2016, Mladina
FOCUS OF OPERATIONS 2020 – 2030
We are creating a platform:
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for connecting between the EU and Africa, and between West and East Africa
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for co-creation and presentation
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for learning about the past, present and future
Zavod Exodos Ljubljana has been working in the field of West Africa for many years. We began with the project En prostor/1 space, continued with the project Share, which we further developed into the currently active project Bridging/Prehajanja.
The Bridging/Prehajanja project is a proactive initiative whose goal is to foster transnational collaboration by connecting people, places and ideas. If in the Share project we were building bridges, in Bridging we are crossing them. With more than 30 activities — co-creation, residencies, workshops and seminars — we bring together five main partners (Pandolina (Croatia), Anasa (Greece), ElClimaMola (Spain) and Twoplustwo (Italy)), more than ten trusted associate institutions and numerous individual mentors and artists.
Our goal is to empower artists, youth, cultural workers and researchers to travel, experience, learn and create. Our approach is grounded in shared methodologies and practices that pave the way for digital transition. Through process-oriented presentations, we will shape a dynamic digital platform that evolves with every participant who joins the project.
We operate across 5 areas:
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performing arts (dance, theatre, music): workshops, production, festival (Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Senegal, Spain, Greece, Slovenia)
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residency programme (Gambia, Slovenia, Kenya, Ghana, Greece)
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research activities; past/present/future, history and art, collections, documentation (Senegal, Ghana, Croatia, Gambia, Greece)
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capacity building; workshop programme for artists, technicians and producers
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youth programme (Slovenia, Kenya, Italy)
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Some programmes are already underway within the project. Maske/Masks is a multi-phase international artistic project between Slovenia, Burkina Faso and Senegal, which explores emotions, identity and social roles through masks, music, movement and visual art. The first chapter, Ne ye, ne ye, was realised in 2025 in Burkina Faso and had its premiere in 2026 inMaribor, while the second chapter, Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, is being developed in partnership with the Grand Théâtre Dakar, the Druga Godba festival and the Ljubljana Puppet Theatre.
A second important pillar is Kijana, a platform for young creatives that connects artists from various disciplines through horizontal mentorship, residencies, community projects and sustainable practices. The pilot residency Connecting Spaces 2025, in collaboration with the Kibera Art District in Nairobi, brought together creatives from Africa and around the world anddeveloped the programme Beyond Clothing, which combined fashion, textile art, recycling, XR technologies and community creation.
Bridging/Prehajanja thus consolidates a new developmental phase for Exodos — from a festival platform to an international network of contemporary art, youth initiatives, sustainable practices and cultural collaboration between Europe and Africa.
WHO WE ARE
Nataša Zavolovšek
Team Lead, Producer
As an executive producer or project manager, she has completed: 60 theatre or dance projects with Slovenian and foreign artists, 20 festival editions (Moving Cake, Exodos festival, Transdance Europe festival), the organization of 158 tours in Europe and abroad, 1 en pravi park, Labirint umetnosti in Ljubljana. In 2012, she was also the executive producer of international projects in the Cultural Capital of Maribor 2012. She was the coordinating producer of the Corners project 2013-2018, the One space project 2015-2017 and was the producer of the 1st and 2nd summer dance camps in China 2015-2016. In 2017, she produced the first dance co-production between China and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, Zibka. In 2017/18, she organized 15 guest performances of Slovenian artists in China. In 2019, she started a new major international project Share; Creative powers of art, an educational art project between Europe, Africa and Palestine (2020-2024). Currently developing a new larger international project Bridging (2027-2030).
She was a long-time member of the Board of Directors of IETM and the Association, a member of the Civil Society Platform for Intercultural Dialogue, a co-founder of the Balkan Dance Platform, the Moving Cake Platform and KOOPERATIVA, a new NGO coalition with the aim of creating a long-term and sustainable framework for the cooperation and development of independent cultural organizations in the Balkans. She was also the co-director of the Dance Union (China and CEEC).
Her motto is The Impossible is Possible and she likes the African proverb: "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."
Borut Cajnko
Technical Director
Borut Cajnko is an experienced theatre practitioner, technical director and producer with more than 40 years of experience in the performing arts. Since 1985 he has been involved in numerous international projects as a lighting and sound designer, actor, organiser, tour manager, technician and technical producer.
Borut Bučinel
Mentor, Lighting Designer, Photographer, Choreographer,
Video Artist
Borut Bučinel is an interdisciplinary artist working in the fields of choreography, dance, photography, video art and lighting design. He is a multiple award-winning author, including a recipient of two Borštnik Awards for lighting design.
Jure Vlahovič
Sound Designer
Jure Vlahovič is a sound designer, director and music producer, active in the fields of concert, theatre and radio production. With more than twenty years of experience, he is considered one of the key figures in Slovenian contemporary sound art.
Luka Curk
Oblikovalec zvoka, svetlobe in videa
Luka Curk is an award-winning freelance sound, lighting and video designer and technician specializing in contemporary dance and performing arts. His work encompasses creative design, technical direction, and production and tour coordination for numerous domestic and international projects.
Inti Šraj
Artistic Director, Producer
Inti Šraj is a theatre and film actress with a strong focus on working with children and women. Between 2001 and 2022 she was involved in more than 40 theatre productions and appeared in 10 film and television projects, for which she has received multiple awards. She also works as a freelance translator and as a producer's assistant on the SHARE project, with a focus on Senegal and Burkina Faso.
Lana Skorohod
Producer
Lana Skorohod is a student of cultural studies with a focus on contemporary art spaces and African art. She has experience in the fields of cultural heritage interpretation, event organisation, artistic curation and pedagogical andragogical interpretation of culture.
Ana Škreblin
Public Relations Manager
Multidisciplinary artist working in the field of musical-performative creation and voice research. Over ten years of experience as a public relations manager and cultural communicator, specializing in organizational and communication management, public relations, text writing, and production.
EXODOS Ljubljana
Metelkova 6
SI-1000 Ljubljana
