For our Economy and Culture

Jasmina Cibic’s project takes the theme of the 55th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, the Encyclopedic palace as a point of departure, to build upon the concept of its utopic nature and absence of a selection process. The artist stresses the (possible) censorships that are inherent to the very form of an exhibition of this kind and that point to an acute stance in national iconography’s framing strategies.

The works and interventions by Jasmina Cibic are always site and context-specific and the artist is using similar methodologies within her project For our Economy and Culture. She focuses on the architectural framework of the Slovenian pavilion, a repurposed private residence, which speaks more of the intimate experience then of public engagement of a gallery. The artist proposes an immersive installation taking over the whole exhibition space, which by evoking strategies of official state architecture reformats the pavilion as a boudoir.

Its elements include two films, which dramatise the contradictions inherent in the transmutation of national identity from past to present. The interior of the Slovenian pavilion is covered with images of an endemic Slovene beetle, a failed national icon that is national icon that is almost completely extinct solely because of its ideologically charged name, Anophthalmus hitleri. The work functions as a dialogue between this ideological framing of nationhood and its re-presentation.

For our Economy and Culture will also present an extensive publication, and a conference.

The publication will include texts by Lina Džuverović, Dr. Nika Grabar, Dr. Petja Grafenauer, Tevž Logar, Dr. Suzana Milevska, and Dr. Jane Rendell. Along with theoretical texts, the publication will also include visual material and documentation of the project.

The conference, convened by Lina Džuverović in cooperation with the artist and curator of the exhibition, will contextualize the project in a wider sense and place it within the international framework of contemporary art and theory.

The Slovenian Pavilion, at the 55th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, has been produced by the Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana and co-produced by Škuc Gallery.