monokel project

Monokel and Tiffany are small LGBTQ nightclubs in Ljubljana. Resilience, hope, freedom and safety are intertwined in the walls of our community spaces. But because of the heated political environment, those places are endangered. That is why, for my final project, I created five stickers with augmented reality, for which I made five short, frame-to-frame animations. I have illustrated and animated the moments of shared memories that were distinctive in the spaces of our LGBTQ community in Ljubljana. The stickers will be exhibited in those spaces. They will connect our community even more, which is necessary in these unfitting times.

SLAMCA

In our time spent in Monokel, we all share the memory of somebody asking for a straw. At the beginning we didn’t know what they were up to, but we soon found out that the straw was a tool used for getting high. That fact, combined with our compassion for sea turtles, lead to the decision to ban the straws in the club. “A maš slamco?” translates into: “do you have a straw?”

FRIDAY NIGHT PHILOSOPHY

What is a Friday night without going out? Even though we like to say that we are going to Tiffany and Monokel, we usually spend most of the night in front of the club, talking and drinking. Once the night isn’t so young anymore and we all had a bit too much to drink, that’s where our deepest philosophies start. We are usually saving the world, debating on how we could overcome the obstacles in our society and how we could preserve the nature.

TIFFANY

Tiffany is another part of the club, where you can dance on a most popular songs of gay community. It is usually the most crowded space in the whole club. That’s where you go if you want to smell intense smell of sweat and feel the walls surrounding you. The crowd is so dense, that it is impossible to fall on the floor there. If you want to enter, you inhale, and hold the breath, lift your hands and try to find a piece of space to move in.

LUSTER

This memory is more personal, but I’ve heard the same phrase all around Monokel and Tiffany. My brother and I didn’t get along, while we were kids. He was against LGBTQ community, and I was afraid of how he would react to the fact that I was part of it. But once he found out, he accepted me as I am, and our relationship changed. One time, he decided to go with me to Monokel. We had a really good time, but the memory I will never forget happened in between Monokel and Tiffany. There is a colourful chandelier, and once my brother saw it, he stopped, his eyes grow big and watery and all he could say was a quiet: “kako je lepo” (“how beautiful it is”)

LEPLJIVO (Sticky)

Who can forget the sticky dancefloor? Sticky floor is one of the collective memories. I like to think that it makes you more aware of the gravity.