Jasmina Cibic

Jasmina Cibic creates works that reflect on the mechanisms and strategies of constructing national cultures. Through archive research and collaborations, she carries out a critical exercise in dissecting the relationship between State and culture drawing a parallelism between the building of a national culture and its political use. Founding Fathers is a series of still lifes portraying, against a black background and with dramatic lighting, seven varieties of roses dedicated to the inspirers of the European Union, ranging from Konrad Adenauer to Sandro Pertini, from Victor Hugo to Helmut Kohl, all figures who for one reason or another pioneered the idea of a finally united Europe. However, on closer inspection, we notice that various insects run through the stem of these plants, turning the portrait into a vanitas and alluding to the transience of political and ideological memory and ideas.

Jasmina Cibic (1979, Ljubljana, Slovenia) lives and works in London. Cibic makes films, sculptures, installations and performances that explore the ways in which States and political forces instrumentalise culture. Through archival research Cibic looks for the intersections between political interests, nationalist rhetoric and cultural artefacts. She had solo shows at macLyon, Museum Sztuki Ł.dź, Museum of Contemporary Art Ljubljana, CCA Glasgow, Phi Foundation Montreal, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art Gateshead, Kunstmuseen Krefeld, Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, MGLC Ljubljana and Ludwig Museum Budapest. She exhibited in group shows at MAXXI Rome, Steirischer Herbst ‘19, MOMA New York, MUMA Monash Museum, CCS BARD. Cibic represented Slovenia at 55th Venice Biennale d’Arte (2013).