Ptuj - The 20th contemporary art festival Art Stays will get underway in the medieval town of Ptuj, north-east, on Thursday featuring a plethora of Slovenian and foreign masters, such as Yoko Ono, as well as up-and-coming artists. Under the title Postproduction, it aims to provide a retrospective of the past as well as a vision for the future.

Tonight's opening event at the Ptuj Dominican Monastery will see visual art performances by several post-opera artists and will conclude with a concert by the Koala Voice group in Slovenian Square, and a projection-mapping of the Ptuj City Theatre by the Italian art group Movimento Creative Label.

The festival's programme will be divided into two parts. The first one will look back at the festival's history and headline artwork done in previous iterations of the festival.

Titled Postproduction I, the main exhibition at the Ptuj City Gallery will see works of art by iconic artists that have left an indelible mark on Art Stays, including Marko Batista, Dušan Fišer, Noriko Obara, Santiago Serra, and Fernando Prats, as well as works done at the festival itself.

The second exhibition at the Ptuj Dominican Monastery will feature complex sculptures and installations from previous iterations of the festival or those that have now been finalised, including works by Janet Bellotto, Lyn Book, Robert Jurak.

Ptuj Castle will showcase figurative sculptures by Italian artists, as well as Japanese Toru Hamada. Polish director Lech Majewski will also take part, putting on display his Bruegel Suite that was featured at the 54th Venice Biennale.

The exhibition series will conclude at the Mihalič Gallery with artworks done in Ptuj by resident artists in previous years, while also summing up the festival's entire history at the Town Hall Gallery.

The second part of the festival will revolve around an exhibition project by festival's household names such as Costantino Ciervo, Nicolo Masiero Sgrinzatto, and Stojan Kerbler, all of whom have put their mark on Ptuj's art scene.

Running until 18 September, the festival will also showcase art installations and video-projection projects at various locations in the town.