Jasmina Cibic / Spielraum

The Slovenian artist Jasmina Cibic (1979) lives and works in London. She exemplifies a young generation of creative minds born in the former Yugoslavia whose works address social, political, and historical themes. Spielraum is a publication about her latest work, developed with the Ludwig Museum, Budapest; the International Centre of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade.

Cibic is known for her investigation of how art and architecture are utilised as soft power strategies in the enterprise of nation building. Her works often gather and restage found materials that are in some way infused by the spectre of political ideology but that have, over time, changed in their performative function as enforcers of state identity.

The title of the project is drawn from an essay by Karl Kraus, in which he vehemently opposes the use of decoration in both language and architecture. In this multidisciplinary work, Cibic takes Kraus’s concept of 'Spielraum' as a lens through which to examine strategies of nation building by political figures and establishments via the use of linguistic and visual decoration, with particular focus on the first summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Belgrade, in 1961.

curatorial texts: Anna Gritz, Rona Kopeczky, Una Popović, Dubravka Sekulić, Jelena Vesić, Alessandro Vincentelli, Giovanna Zapperi and WHW
editors: Jasmina Cibic, Una Popović
publisher: Distanz Verlag, Berlin, 2018, in partnership with Baltic centre for Contemporary Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade
print: optimal media GmbH, Röbel / Müritz
352 pages, English language, 200 colour photographs, hardcover