Jasmina Cibic

Ideology, Abstraction and Architecture

The Spirit of Our Needs

Sun, Oct 1, 2017–Sun, Jan 14, 2018

Haus Esters

The Kunstmuseen Krefeld are pleased to present the Slovenian artist Jasmina Cibic’s first institutional solo exhibition in Germany in the Museum Haus Esters. In The Spirit of Our Needs Cibic has developed a site-specific installation that showcases the three films of her latest NADA trilogy for the first time. With NADA she examines three of European modernism’s star architects and the role their work played in national representation.

The third act has been filmed in situ especially for the exhibition in Haus Lange and Haus Esters. It addresses Mies van der Rohe’s Krefeld architecture of the 1920s in the context of the political discussions concerning the appropriate representation of Germany at world fairs of mid 20th Century. Jasmina Cibic’s expansive installation combines these symbols and iconographies into a synthesis of gesture, stagecraft and re-enactment to form a kind of artistic synthesis that interacts with the Mies villas and their historical, political and aesthetic contexts.

Cibic realizes complex multilayered works that critically explore the relationship between cultural production and power structures. In her performances, installations and films, the artist addresses ideologies and their realization in art and architecture. Cibic (*1979 Ljubljana, lives and works in London) represented Slovenia at the 2013 Venice Biennale and has realized numerous solo international exhibitions. In 2018, Cibic will have solo exhibitions at BALTIC Gateshead and DHC Montreal.

Curator: Katia Baudin, assisted by Constanze Zawadzky

The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication.