Exhibition Codelli

Name: Exhibition Codelli
Start: 2025-05-30T00:00:00+02:00
End: 2025-06-30T00:00:00+02:00
Location: Krakovo Embankment SilverStripe\View\ArrayData

The Inventor Baron Anton Codelli — Between Africa and Europe

On Krakovo Embankment in Ljubljana, people stroll among open-air exhibition panels beneath lush green trees.

Exhibition panels displayed on the street, in the shade of the trees.

30 May - 30 Jun 2025

Krakovo Embankment

The exhibition marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Baron Anton Codelli (1875–1954). It was prepared by the Slovenian Intellectual Property Office and the Slovene Ethnographic Museum.

Codelli, a Ljubljana-born baron, inventor, self-taught engineer, and the first car owner in the city, played a significant role in the development of mechanical and electrical engineering. He held 31 patents, including one for a device enabling the remote transmission of images, which earned him recognition as one of the pioneers of television. His greatest achievement was the construction of a wireless telegraph station in the former German colony of Togo (now an independent African country), which enabled the first wireless communication between Africa and Europe.

Codelli was also the producer of the first feature film shot in Africa – The White Goddess of Wangora (1925) – which disappeared from public view shortly after its premiere. His African collection and extensive photographic archive are now housed in the Slovene Ethnographic Museum.

To mark this anniversary, the Post of Slovenia (Pošta Slovenije) has issued a commemorative postage stamp.

The exhibition was curated by dr. Marko Frelih (department for African and American collections at the SEM), in collaboration with the Slovenian Intellectual Property Office, which has been promoting innovation and intellectual property protection in Slovenia for over 30 years.