⭐ 5: The bicycle that used to belong to the museologist Iva Stiplovšek
The Bicycle that Belonged to the “Politely Invited, Not Urged” Lady
Iva Stiplovšek worked at the Posavje Museum Brežice for almost five decades. As the museum's education curator and museologist, she was the person to guide the museum visitors around the exhibition collections, welcoming them with her kind signature greeting “Politely invited, not urged”. One of the documents and objects that were owned by Iva Stiplovšek and are kept at the museum is her bicycle, which she used to ride around the town of Brežice and the surrounding countryside. According to a paper by Dr Janez Bogataj published in Slovensko ljudsko izročilo, “The beginnings of cycling in Slovenia go back to the 1980s. As early as 1929, there were 25,140 bicycles in Slovenia, and ten years later this number was six times higher. Until the 1960s, bicycles contributed to people's increased mobility and were ordinary people's true means of transportation.”
The bicycle is black. A bell is mounted on the left handlebar end and a brake lever for the front wheel on the right handlebar end. The rear foot brake works by back pedalling, which stops the rear wheel. The bicycle saddle has seat springs and is covered in brown leather. The rear mudguard has holes on the sides to mount a net, which prevented the rider's skirt being caught between the wire spokes.
Dated: 20th century
Material: iron, rubber, leather
Dimensions: entire length: 185 cm, entire height: 100 cm
Origin: donated by Milena Kovačič (née Strašek), Brežice, 2018
Inv. No.: E6685
On view: interdisciplinary exhibition Four elements: 3 – EARTH, 2nd floor of Brežice Castle, on view until 26 June 2019, curated by: Alenka Černelič Krošelj, Stanka Glogovič, Boštjan Kolar, Oži Lorber, Jana Puhar
For heritage enthusiasts:
Iva Stiplovšek (8 Apr 1904, Cerknica – 15 May 2001, Brežice) worked at the Posavje Museum Brežice continuously for almost five decades, from 1949 until her unfortunate fall in 1996. Alongside her husband, the painter, museologist, founder and first director of the Posavje Museum Brežice, Franjo Stiplovšek (1898–1963), she paved the way for museum-related activities in the Posavje region.
In 1977, the Slovenian Museum Association presented her with the Valvasor Award, which is presented for lifetime achievement in the museum field. In 1978, she was awarded the highest Slovenian title in the museum field: Museum Adviser. On its 40th anniversary, the Posavje Museum Brežice awarded her a distinction in gratitude for her many years of educational and documentary work. In 1997, she received the Slovene Ethnological Society's Murko Certificate in recognition of her work. In 1999, the Municipality of Brežice awarded her the Lifetime Achievement Award Plaque for her contribution to the protection of cultural Heritage and in 2000 she was bestowed the municipal Honorary Citizen title. In December 2019, the Brežice Civil Parish, the Brežice Revival Society and the Posavje Museum Brežice unveiled a bronze relief memorial at the Brežice Castle, which houses the museum, in tribute to both Iva and Franjo Stiplovšek, the pioneers of museum-related activities in the Posavje region.
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| The portrait of Iva Stiplovšek (née Lavrič) titled A Girl (oil on canvas, sized 50 x 60 cm, signed and dated Stiplovšek 1925, Inv. No. KZ 1/220) was painted in 1925, two years before she married the painter Franjo Stiplovšek. It is on view as part of the museum's permanent collection. |
Iva Stiplovšek at the Posavje Museum Brežice in 1994, when she celebrated her 90th birthday. |
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| In December 2019, a bronze relief memorial in tribute to Iva and Franjo Stiplovšek, the pioneers of museum-related activities in the Posavje region, was unveiled at the Brežice Castle, which houses the Posavje Museum Brežice. The memorial was created by the academy-trained sculptor Boštjan Drinovec. |
As a dedicated and extremely knowledgeable education curator and museologist, whose signature greeting was “Politely invited, not urged”, Iva Stiplovšek introduced numerous museum visitors to the Posavje region's cultural heritage. She donated a large number of paintings, prints and drawings by Franjo Stiplovšek to the museum, which keeps several other documents and objects that used to belong to her, including a bicycle, which she rode all around Brežice, as well as to Kostanjevica na Krki, Krško, Mokrice and even Samobor in Croatia.
She later gifted this bicycle to a colleague of hers, Jožica Strašek, née Cerinska (1920–1992), who rode it to get to work at the museum until she retired in the 1980s. After her retirement, it was used by her daughter Milena Strašek, married name Kovačič, and then by her son Lovro. In March 2018, Milena Strašek donated the bicycle to the museum, where it is used as an active museum exhibit. At first, it was on view as part of the exhibition titled “Politely Invited, Not Urged”, Museologists Franjo and Iva Stiplovšek on the Way to Posavje Museum Brežice's Seven Decades, which was housed at the museum from 12 May 2018 to 18 May 2019 and was the first step towards the celebration of the museum's 70th anniversary.
The bicycle is now part of the multidisciplinary exhibition The Four Elements: 3 – Earth, which was opened on the museum's 70th birthday, on 26 June 2019. It is on view as part of the story of the castle resident and employee Jožica Strašek, which was curated by the ethnologist Dr Ivanka Počkar.
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| The bicycle on 16 March 2018, when it was donated to the Posavje Museum Brežice by Milena Strašek, Jožica Strašek's daughter. |
The bicycle in April 2018 after it had undergone a conservation and restoration procedure at the Posavje Museum Brežice. |
For more information see:
- Batagelj Borut: »Ali naj dame kolesarijo?«, Kolesarke in žensko telo na prehodu iz 19. v 20. stoletje. V: Zgodovina za vse, letnik 11, št. 2, Celje: Zgodovinsko društvo Celje, 2004, str. 40-53.
- Bogataj Janez: Promet, transport in komunikacijska sredstva. V: Slovensko ljudsko izročilo, pregled etnologije Slovencev, Angelos Baš Angelos (ur.), Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba, 1980, str. 85-91.
- Brovinsky Boris (ur.): Dve kolesi in par nog, publikacija TMS 48, Bistra pri Vrhniki: Tehniški muzej Slovenije, 2010, str. 108.
- Černelič Krošelj Alenka (ur.): Štirje elementi: 3 – ZEMLJA / The four elements: 3 – EARTH. Brežice: Posavski muzej Brežice, 2019.
- Černelič Krošelj Alenka (ur.): »Vljudno vabljeni, nič siljeni«, Muzealca Franjo in Iva Stiplovšek: proti sedmim desetletjem Posavskega muzeja Brežice / Politely Invited, Not Urged — Museum Couple Franjo and Iva Stiplovšek: Into the Seventh Decade of the Posavje Museum Brežice, Posavski muzej Brežice, Brežice, 2018.
- Počkar Ivanka: Iva Stiplovšek (1904–2001) – »Vljudno vabljeni – nič siljeni«. Župnija sv. Lovrenca v Brežicah, ob 220-letnici župnijske cerkve (ur. Jože Škofljanec), Brežiške študije 1, Brežice: Župnijski urad, 2003, str. 187-197.
- Baš Angelos (ur.): Slovenski etnološki leksikon, Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 2004, str. 108.
Prepared by: Stanka Glogovič
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