2008 Winter Workshop | Designing House Names

With newly relaxed regulations of the real-estate market, buyers from various European regions became more interested in certain areas of Slovenia. The Soča valley thus witnessed an increased acquisition of older residential houses by German, English and Scottish buyers. The arrival of new owners is accompanied by introduction of new cultures in certain local areas. This gives rise to the question of how to retain bonds with local particularities, identities and traditions in such a situation.

In 2006/2007 schoolyear, students from the Department for Etnology and Cultural Anthropology joined a project taking place in Čiginj village near Tolmin, a project designed as one of the attempts to preserve the said bonds. The Nomen est omen project originated from the idea and initiative of Zdravko Duša and Myra Locatelli cultural association. The project's aim is to search and develop cultural identity elements in the village of Čiginj as well as in other villages on the right bank of the river Soča. Its purpose is to denote and consolidate the elements in names and stories present in the more or less solid village tradition on the brink of a more fluid era of alternating owners of different nationalities.

Within the scope of practical studies for Genesis and Economic Forms course (holder Prof. Dr. Janez Bogataj, executed by Asist. Katja Hrobat) students Ana Bezek, Ana Beno, Luka Klemen, Ana Lavrinc, Katarina Nahtigal, Špela Vidmar, Tına Palaič, Nina Plečko, Ana Plemenitaš, Andrej Žumer, Tanja Uršič, Katja Uran, Gregor Vellacher and Ana Pintar carried out detailed field studies of house and fallow names in Čiginj. Students Maja Dolinar and Ana Pintar collected records from archives in Gorica.

In 2007/2008 schoolyear the group worked on found records and field material in the process of preparing a book. All houses in Čiginj village had their names, explanations and meanings collected and analyzed. The same goes for fallow names.

In the next phase of the project participants of typographic workshop TıpoBrda Aljaž Vindiš, Ana Farkaš, Jure Kožuh, Jure Legac, Lucijan Bratuš, Miha Kosmač, Milica Pantelič, Nemanja Jovanovič, Peter Koštrun and Žiga Artnak by the mentorship of Prof. Lucijan Bratuš and Tomato Košir designed signs for each house name. The signs are to be hand carved by stone designer Marko Drpić into marble slabs sized 60 x 20 cm. These slabs will later be built into each house's front and thus enable newcomers an insight into the stories their houses lived before their arrival. In addition, members of TıpoBrda prepared a series of animated posters of the project.