France Marolt (1891–1951) was a researcher, composer and conductor who left a significant mark in many areas of Slovenian research and culture in the first half of the 20th century. Since he used his conclusions in his artistic endeavours and vice versa – he often adjusted his research theses to fit his artistic interpretations – it is impossible to separate the researcher from the artist.

Marolt’s work was diverse, embedded in many institutions and activities. He had been involved with music since his youth, and from the end of the 1920s he provided the main guidelines in arts, research, teaching and journalistic work. Throughout this period and even more enthusiastically after the Second World War, he worked to establish and empower Slovenian culture. He was a highly respected personality in his time, as evidenced by his role in numerous organizations and commissions as well as his correspondence with some important contemporaries in the Slovenian and Yugoslav space.

The exhibition focuses on Marolt’s personality and work, and above all his main concern – the search for folklore material with which he could set the formation of a Slovenian national identity. The validity and significance of France Marolt has survived to this day, particularly in the choral and dance revival and folkloristics. In today’s memory, Marolt is best known for the Academic Choir (today the Academic Choir Tone Tomšič, University of Ljubljana), the Folklore Institute (today the ZRC SAZU, Institute of Ethnomusicology) and folk dance group (today the Student Folk Dance Group France Marolt), but his legacy reveals much more. The exhibition sifts through this extensive legacy to uncover selected documents testifying to his diligence, his devotion to music and his search for ideals, but does not conceal the impulses that guided him in constant search for the Slovenian, the original and the authentic.