“My Name Is Janez Janša is a fine mixture of documentary, biography, essay, study and travelogue with a lively sense of irony and self-irony (…) It’s a documentary about a silent, slow, peaceful, permanent revolution – is cheerful, lively and optimistic; hence, it ends with a happy end.” – Marcel Stefancic jr., Mladina

“A proper name is a word that answers the purpose of showing what thing it is that we are talking about but not of telling anything about it”.  – John Stuart Mill in A System of Logic (1. ii. 5.)

A name. Everybody has one. Individuals, artists and academics from all over the world share their thoughts about the meaning and purpose of one’s name from both private and public perspectives. The problem of homonymy and other reasons for changing one’s name are explored as the film draws references from history, popular culture and individual experiences, leading us to the case of a name change that caused a stir in the small country of Slovenia and beyond.

In 2007 three artists joined the conservative Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) and officially changed their names to that of the leader of that party, the Prime Minister of Slovenia, Janez Janša. While they renamed themselves for personal reasons, the boundaries between their lives and their art began to merge in numerous and unforeseen ways.

Signified as an artistic gesture, this particular name change provoked a wide range of interpretations in art circles both in Slovenia and abroad, as well as among journalists and the general public.

Previously screened at  BWPWAP, Berlin, Germany, 2013; Festival Internacional de Cine de Punta del Este, Montevideo, Uruguay, 2013; 14th Media Forum, Moscow, Russia, 2013; Philadelphia Independent Film Festival, Philadelphia, USA, 2013; The Influencers, CCCB, Barcelona, Spain, 2013; Lo Schermo dell’Arte Film Festival, Florence, Italy, 2013.

Janez Janša is a conceptual artist, performer and producer living in Ljubljana, Slovenia. He is the author of numerous videos, performances, installations, and new media works which have been presented in several exhibitions, festivals and lectures around the world. He is the director of the film My Name is Janez Janša, co-founder and director of Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana and artistic director of the Aksioma | Project Space.

Marco Antonini is an active independent curator and writer. Some of his key curatorial projects have been produced by Japan Society, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC), ISE Foundation, Elizabeth Foundation, The Italian Cultural Institute in New York, Bevilacqua LaMasa Foundation, Venice, The International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP), FUTURA Center for Contemporary Art, Prague, CCE/G, Guatemala City. Recent curatorial projects include Welcome to The Real an exhibition curated for {TEMP} art space, an installation of artist Luigi Presicce’s Mistici e Maghi photo collection at SPRING BREAK and Richard, a large multi-authored project dedicated to a re-evaluation of readymade art in contemporary practice. Antonini’s articles, essays and interviews have been published worldwide on magazines, journals, catalogs and other exhibition-related publications, he has edited …Is This Free? a collection of interviews, published by NURTUREart in 2012 and currently working on a new book dedicated to the return of abstraction in painting.