The Knight The Lady and The Dragon in the The Plečnik Award

Designed by Sanja Jurca Avcı, The Knight, The Lady and The Dragon exhibition is shortlisted at The Plečnik Award.  The award presents the most prestigious national award in the field of architecture. It was launched in 1972, to mark the centenary of Slovenia’s most acclaimed architect Jože Plečnik (1872–1957), and to highlight outstanding achievements in Slovene architecture. The Plečnik Fund, established a year later, annually issues a competition call for the Plečnik Awards.

Here is a note from the jury regarding Sanja Jurca Avcı’s design;

With the theme of the exhibition so mystical, so fairytale-like and so distant from the  real life, the question is: how to present this segment of one-time reality in a way that would be interesting and fair for the visitors of all ages and backgrounds? In a way that would enable a visitor to, after having seen the exhibition, to transfer the notions of knighthood times, life, origins and importance from the field of mysticism into the field of knowledge about our common past.

Sanja Jurca Avci, architect and set designer, author of many interesting exhibition designs in Slovenia and abroad (Lipica, Stična, Ljubljana, Dublin, London…) usually approaches the task by shaping a firm storyline that she then applies to the space by precisely measured architectural address. When shaping legible thematic units and logical flow of the visitors’ path she shows her mastery of architectural knowledge of spatial design, exemplary detailing, use of colour and light, sound and interactives. Despite unfavourable characteristics of the exhibition space the designer uses expressive architectural spatial elements to consistently create and separate the vistors’ path and the environments of spatial storyline. By using characteristic materials (raw metal and chainmail), refined lighting, choice of colour and sound background she creates a suitable atmosphere for immersion into this cruel yet magical world. The exhibition brings the visitors back to reality by inclusion of today’s understanding of knighthood principles and an example of contemporary knights – a commando. In this way the visitors are reminded that knighthood legacy is still alive around us.

The Knight, the Lady and the Dragon exhibition is an architecturally and structurally interesting presentation of this complex theme, that, besides presenting the likeable image of the knights, manages to expand our knowledge of this area of our common heritage.