OHO (1966 - 1971)
The OHO group was active from 1966 to 1971. Its first beginnings date back to 1962 when a group of secondary school students from Kranj (Marko Pogačnik, M. Ciglič, I. Geister) founded the Plamenica (Torch) school newspaper (published in 1963, it featured experimental texts, abstract drawings and an introduction by M. Pogačnik); a scandal erupted which brought the avant-garde orientated members of Kranj's cultural circles closer together. When the students moved to Ljubljana to pursue their university studies (1963; Pogačnik studied sculpture, Geister law and Ciglič film direction) they established contacts with the group of literati and theoreticians around Perspektive (Perspectives) magazine, the publication of which was banned and discontinued in 1964; hence they gradually began grouping themselves around Problemi (Issues) magazine and later on around Tribuna (Tribune) in which the OHO Manifesto was published on 23 December 1966 (that same year M. Pogačnik and I. Geister published a book entitled OHO, later followed by a number of other OHO publications). In its first period the group brought together visual artists (M. Pogačnik, M. Matanović, A. Šalamun), literati, filmmakers (their short experimental films are quite significant), critics and theoreticians (either as members of or sympathisers with the group), all of whom joined their respective fields in reist creativity employing various media (their art encompassed pop items, comic strips, happenings that are documented in films and photographs, and early installations). In late 1968 (the year in which the group started to exhibit in established galleries), Tomaž Šalamun, who contributed his direct experience of "arte povera" from Rome, joined the visual artists of the group while M. Pogačnik and I. Geister were absent (at the time, they were doing army service). After 1969 OHO's prevalent activities were concerned with visual art (the group was joined, among others, by D. Nez, D. Dellabernardina and S. Dragan) and reism gave space to other contemporary art currents (Minimalism, Process-Art). When M. Pogačnik rejoined the group, OHO redirected its activities towards conceptual projects (i.e. the outdoor summer projects around Kranj in 1969). In 1970 they developed their first telepathic projects and the group gained recognition in the USA, but they withdrew to nature. On 11 April 1971 the group founded the Family Commune (Družina) in Šempas, which concentrated on the discovery of the flows of invisible energies in the world and the individual's harmonisation with them.
