According to oral sources the village of Govce (or Golce) has been in existence since before 1400. Written sources refer to the hamlet of Goltz since 1529. At its peak more around hundred people lived on seven homesteads. The area was self-sufficient; the farmers sold their surplus in the valley below. The village community was able to maintain this lifestyle for hundreds of years, even during the Ottoman invasions. In 1963, the idyll came to an end when village was compulsory purchased and then demolished to mine for the high-quality coal below (Svato Krasnik, Dnevnilk, 21.7.1995).
According to Franc Napret, the guardian of the buried village, coal was not considered for home use. “It’s interesting, when we found coal while farming, we threw it away. Nobody thought about using it to heat their homes. The coal would give off an unfortunate and deeply off-putting smell.”
The village is now gone, the only remains are the memories of its past residents. The roofs of houses swallowed up by coal dust are represented by the exhibited hats. These can only be seen by peering through openings in the curtain. The hats are suspended between the sky and Earth; in memoriam of the past destroyed in the endless pursuit of sources of energy.
Under the auspices of this project, exhibited during the European cultural heritage days, the students Maša Brna, Eva Jež, Kristi Komel, Neža Knific, Neža Cigale, Albinca Podkrižnik and Sara Feri were guided by prof. Marija Jenko and mag. Mateja Golež, geologist and conservator from the Slovenian national building and civil engineering institute.
You are warmly welcome to the opening of the exhibition OdSTRTE Govce in Mitnica in front of the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering on Snežnska Street 5 in Ljubljana on Tuesday, September 25, 2018 at 1 p.m..
