Zoran Mušič (born 12.2.1909)

Within the framework of the ECoC, five events are being organised in various venues and galleries dedicated to the great artist born on this day in 1909. 

Zoran Mušič was born on 12 February 1909, during the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, in Bukovica (Goriška), just a few kilometres from Gorizia. As a child during World War I, he shared the fate of many Primorska inhabitants who were forced to flee as refugees to Štajerska (Arnače near Velenje). At the end of World War I, in the summer of 1919, the Mušič family was forced to move first to Koroška (Grebinje) and then, after the October plebiscite, to Štajerska (Sv Ema nad Mestinjami, then to Maribor). He continued his education in 1920 at the school in Maribor, later transferred to the Maribor Teacher Training College, where he successfully completed all his studies in the autumn of 1928. In 1930 he enrolled at the Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts, where he graduated in the spring of 1934 under the tutelage of Professor Ljubo Babić. 

On the first of October 1944, he was arrested on the street in Venice and transported to Trieste to the bunker at the Gestapo headquarters in Trg Oberdan, where he was imprisoned for 24 days, then on 14 October he was transferred to Koroneje Prison, from where he was also taken one day to the Risiera, and since he was not on the list, he was taken back to prison. On 15 November he was deported to Dachau concentration camp and remained there until mid-June 1945. It was here that a collection of harrowing testimonies of Nazi atrocities was created, drawn on small pieces of paper, usually in pencil. He himself said that he had preserved about 35 drawings.

He moved to Venice in 1945 and lived between Venice and Paris from 1952. In 1991, his permanent collection of 134 donated prints was inaugurated at Dobrovo Castle in Brda.

Within the framework of the ECoC, five events are being organised in various venues and galleries dedicated to the great artist: a digital exhibition at Xcenter (Nova Gorica), an exhibition at the Lojze Spacal Gallery (Štanjel Castle) starting on 12 April, and an exhibition at the Attems Palace (Gorizia) on 23 May. Exhibitions are also being prepared at Dobrovo Castle in Goriška brda and in Bukovica, the birthplace of Zoran Mušič. 

Writen by: Nelida Nemec

Photo: archive of Nelida Nemec