The Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana and Škuc Gallery are proud to present Jasmina Cibic at the Slovenian Pavilion, La Biennale di Venezia, the 55th International Art Exhibition. Cibic’s project, For our Economy and Culture, is commissioned by Blaž Peršin and curated by Tevž Logar, artistic director of Škuc Gallery, Ljubljana.

Currently based between London and Ljubljana, Jasmina Cibic is one of a new generation of Slovenian artists whose practice, although conscious of and addressing specific national political and theoretical concerns, operates within a global discourse and creates a very distinctive language of its own. Cibic’s work is generally site- and context-specific and employs a range of activity, media and theatrical tactics to redefine or reconsider an existant environment.

Cibic’s presentation for the Slovenian Pavillion, For our Economy and Culture, continues her interests and methodologies and takes the curatorial directive of the 55th International Art Exhibition ‐ la Biennale di Venezia: The Encyclopedic Palace as a starting point to further explore systems and hierarchies of knowledge and presentation.

Using the architectural specificity of the Slovenian Pavilion, a repurposed private residence, and referencing state architectural strategies, Cibic will create an immersive multi-media installation that appropriates the entire space and explores issues around national representation and framing as well as specific modes of exchange and reception.

Elements include a purpose-built sculptural structure that redefines the Pavilion’s interior; two new films, which through dramatized reconstructions explore philosophical and architectural theories of purpose, form, function and aesthetic priorities; and a display of paintings drawn from the Slovenian Parliament’s official art collection. The entire interior will be clad with a specially created wallpaper carrying obsessively repetitive scientific illustrations of an endemic Slovene beetle: a ‘failed’ national icon that has almost been completely exorcised solely because of its ideologically charged name, Anophthalmus hitleri.

For our Economy and Culture will be accompanied by an extensive publication featuring original texts by Lina Džuverović, Dr. Nika Grabar, Dr. Petja Grafenauer, Tevž Logar, Dr. Suzana Milevska, and Dr. Jane Rendell and further presents a conference in autumn 2013, which aims to explore key themes and contextualise the project within an international framework of contemporary art and theory.

About the artist
Born in Ljubljana, Slovenia in 1979, Jasmina Cibic studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti, Venice, Italy, before receiving an MA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, London, 2006. She is the recipient of prestigious awards including Bevilacqua la Masa (Venice 2002, 2005), The Trend Award for outstanding achievements in visual art in Slovenia, (2011) and Catlin Commission Award, (London, 2011).

Recent projects and exhibitions include: Borderline, Joanneums Museum Graz; The Object of the Spectacle, Galerija Škuc, Ljubljana; U3 – 6th Triennial of Contemporary Art, curated by Charles Esche, Museum of Modern Art Ljubljana; The Secret of the Ninth Planet, California College of the Arts, San Francisco; Percorsi d’Arte, Museum of Modern Art, Bologna and Tourists Welcome, Ljubljana International Airport. Forthcoming exhibitions include U3 – 7th Triennial of Contemporary Art (June 2013), curated by Nataša Bachelez-Petrešin, MSUM, Ljubljana and an artist’s project for the 30th Biennial of Graphic Arts in Ljubljana (September 2013), curated by Dr. Petja Grafenauer.