On 10 May 2026, we are marking the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ivan Cankar (1876–1918), Slovenia's premier novelist and playwright. Between 1896 and 1909, Cankar lived in Vienna, where he wrote a large part of his works. In the 1990s, a broader German-speaking audience came to know him through a series of translations as a chronicler of the Viennese suburbs, especially Ottakring, and as an author who consciously distanced himself from mainstream Viennese modernism. In recent years, the Austrian publishing house Heyn, in translations by Erwin Köstler, has brought out new editions of the novels The Ward of Our Lady of Mercy and Madame Judit, followed this year by From the Suburbs and Krpan’s Mare.

On the occasion of the anniversary of the writer’s birth, the Slovenian Cultural and Information Centre SKICA Vienna, in cooperation with the Institute of Slavic Studies at the University of Vienna, the Slovenian Institute in Vienna, the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Vienna, the Centre for Slovene as a Second and Foreign Language at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana, the Government Office for Slovenians Abroad, the Chamber of Labour in Vienna, the Institute for Historical Social Research, and the Slovenian Book Agency, is organising the Cankar Days, which will take place from 4 to 7 May.

PROGRAMME
4 May
19:00 Das Haus der Barmherzigkeit – adaptation for piano based on the novel The Ward of Our Lady of Mercy by Ivan Cankar (in German); Künstlerhaus Factory

5 May
16:30–18:30 “Then Vienna took me into its embrace …” – literary walk starting at the Maria Theresa Monument

6 May
9:00–17:30 Critique of Life as the Content and Purpose of Art – international symposium (Marietta-Blau-Saal, Universitätsring 1)
Participants: Stefan Simonek, Mateja Pezdirc Bartol; Krištof Jacek Kozak, Alojzija Zupan Sosič, Mojca Nidorfer, Alenka Jensterle Doležal, Erwin Köstler, Janja Vollmaier Lubej, Andrej Leben, Wolfgang Maderthaner, Elena Messner, Marija Wakounig, Amir Muratović and Ravel Kodrič

7 May
18:00 Screening of the film Cankar by Amir Muratović (Top Kino, Rahlgasse 1, 1060 Vienna)