State ceremony on Slovenian Cultural Holiday

SLOVENIA, February 6 - The Prešeren Prize is conferred upon artists who have permanently enriched Slovenian cultural heritage with their outstanding artistic achievements throughout their lifetime’s work. This year, this prize will be presented to sculptor Dragica Čadež and theatre director and performer Dragan Živadinov.

The Prešeren Fund Prize is conferred on artists for important artistic achievements that have been presented to the public in the three years prior to the award and that enrich Slovenian cultural heritage. This year, the recipients of the six Prešeren Fund Prizes are visual artist Nika Autor, design collective Grupa Ee, musician Tomaž Grom, writer Nataša Kramberger, theatre director Nina Rajić Kranjac and sound designer Julij Zornik.

The title of the artistic programme accompanying this year's event, Dreams are Written in the Language, designed by scriptwriters Dušan Šarotar, Tatjana Doma and Primož Ekart, who is also the event's director, is the starting point for the celebration's conceptual and performance design: the meeting of art and science is something necessary and inevitable, and art and science arise from the same foundation – language. Just wanting to speak in the language of science already transports us to the realm of poetry.

Prešeren Day is Slovenia's main cultural holiday, celebrated on 8 February, the anniversary of the death of the greatest Slovenian poet, France Prešeren. Prešeren Day has been a Slovenian cultural holiday since 1945, becoming a national holiday in 1946 and a work-free day in 1991.

According to the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, culture accounted for 2.8% of Slovenia's gross domestic product in 2022.