Jasmina Cibic
Spielraum – The Nation Loves It
29 January–8 March 2015
Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest
1095 Budapest
Komor Marcell u. 1
Ludwig Museum Budapest is proud to present the first chapter of Cibic’s new project Spielraum – The Nation Loves It. This new body of work was preceded by Cibic’s critically acclaimed project For Our Economy and Culture made for the Slovenian Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennial.
The exhibition title references the writing of one of the first European political satirical writers; Karl Kraus. In his essay Spielraum (1912), Kraus vehemently opposes the use of decoration in both language and architecture. Cibic connects Kraus with the phenomena of programmatic application of decoration by practically every (trans)national political structure within language and the built environment. Through film, performance, sculpture, and installation, Jasmina Cibic’s gesamtkunstwerk explores the instrumentalisation of visual language and rhetoric in the construction of the state as spectacle throughout recent history.
Working with architectural historians, Cibic has researched the plans and designs for the hosting of the first conference of the non-aligned movement that took place in Belgrade in 1961, a significant meeting of global states without any alignment to major power blocks. The challenge for this city at that time was to re-define and re-design the environment for presentation to the foreign delegates attending the conference whilst simultaneously re-branding the city to its citizens. The works in Spielraum – The Nation Loves It re-configure the visual elements contained in the sketches, plans and drawings for the city with its unique pavilions, monuments and decorative additions with specific reference to the interior design of the monumental former Palace of the Federation in Belgrade, a major conference site.
At the apex of the exhibition is a 15-minute film, which articulates the sculptural elements installed throughout the exhibition space, activating them as agents of political rhetoric at the hand of a single character, an amalgam, speaking the words of global public figures scripted from a myriad of political speeches. Edited by Tim Etchells, these proclamations were originally made by figures politically engaged and invested in architecture’s relationship to national identity on an international stage. The film is framed within a specifically designed set within the space that will also form the scenography for the next chapter of the film, due to be filmed during the course of the exhibition. A series of original performances re-activating film props and elements from this same scenography will also be hosted by the exhibition. This in turn reformulates the exhibition space as a combination of gallery, film set and theatre as the many elements oscillate from prop to sculpture to stage and back.
Spielraum – The Nation Loves It confronts the viewer with the contextualization of questions which not only speak about the patterns characteristic of systems of power, but also about the glaring contradictions that are inseparably connected to transformations of national and cultural identities in the past as well as the present.
Curator: Rona Kopeczky
Script for the film and performances: Tim Etchells and Jasmina Cibic
Soundscapes and soundtrack to film: Simon Fisher Turner
Curatorial Advisor: Tevž Logar
Spielraum is an exhibition in three parts. The subsequent chapters will be presented as Jasmina Cibic’s solo exhibitions at MGLC Ljubljana in March 2015 (curated by Anna Gritz) and the Salon of the Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade in September 2015 (curated by Una Popović).
The project is co-produced by Ludwig Museum Budapest, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, MGLC Ljubljana, Aksioma Institute of Contemporary Art Ljubljana, Waddington Studios London and Northern Film School Leeds and supported by the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Budapest.
The project was made possible with the support of the Museum of Yugoslav History and the Slovenian Ministry of Culture.
For the programme related to the exhibition check the link: www.ludwigmuseum.hu
More information about the artist: www.jasminacibic.org
