photo: Borut Peterlin
Alan Hranitelj, Slovenian costume designer, was born on 3 March, 1968 in Zagreb. He attended the Fine Arts School. From the mid-1980s, he has lived and worked in Slovenia. After the collaboration in the performance Baptism Under Triglav in 1986, he continued his career in Ljubljana. His creative endeavors are divided between theatre, opera and film costume design and make-up art, until 1992 he also worked as a fashion designer. He co-operates with diverse Slovenian and foreign theatres and the most visible Slovenian theatre, film and video directors.
His opus comprises 408 costume designs and collaborations in different projects; namely, 207 theatre costume designs, 22 opera and 11 classic ballet costume designs, 31 costume designs for contemporary dance performances, 12 for film and television, he took part in altogether 53 exhibitions, he did 32 costume designs for events of different kinds, and 26 for TV commercials. Among other things, he designed uniforms for 12 business companies, and he even designed costumes for the acrobat theatre group Cirque de Soleil. His works are part of 4 permanent art collections in Slovenia (Slovenian National Museum, Slovenian Ethnographic Museum, Museum of Modern Art Ljubljana and the Maribor Regional Museum).
For his creations, he has been awarded with 29 merits in Slovenia as well as abroad.
His unique visual aesthetics in very much recognizable designs are often upgraded also by his own manual work. Alan Hranitelj has presented his work through numerous independent and group exhibitions in Slovenia and internationally. Among the most renowned are the exhibition in the Ljubljana Museum of Modern Art Gallery in 1991, in the Equrna Gallery in 1993 (Bag & 12 Hats) and in the City Gallery in 1995 (Costume Design 1991–1995). In 2006, he prepared a display of his best works at the International Graphic and Fine Arts Centre Ljubljana to introduce his comprehensive monograph entitled Costumography: 1986 - 2006. In 2009, parallel to his renowned exhibition Autumn – Winter, 2008 - 2009 at the Ljubljana-based National Museum, he published his second book titled Autumn – Winter: 2008 – 2009. In 2019, he marked his 33rd anniversary of his work with an exhibition entitled »Parallel Worlds of Alan Hranitelj« at the Ljubljana Castle which was accompanied by his third book – second monograph »Parallel Worlds of Alan Hranitelj: 2006-2019«. As for his international success, his presentation and exhibition in Köbenhaven, European Capital of Culture 1996, were among the most visible, along with the exhibition in the Cultural Centre Nansen Aranjo in the Brazilian city Belo Horizonte in 1997, as well as the presentation of his opus in 2000 at the Millenium Dome in London.
In the summer of 2007, Alan Hranitelj was invited to collaborate with the spectacular Canadian theatre Cirque du Soleil. For them, he prepared costumes for the show ZARKANA, which premiered in June 2011 at the Radio City Music Hall in New York. From November 2012 to 30 April 2016, the show was playing without interruption at the Aria Resort in Las Vegas, USA.