Jasmina Cibic
The Gift—Act I
Film, Installation / Commissioned work
Jasmina Cibic, The Gift—Act I, 2019, video, installation view, Künstlerhaus, Halle für Kunst & Medien, Graz, photo: Mathias Völzke
Dates
20.9.–28.11.2019
Details
Two-screen video installation
In English with German translation
Location
Künstlerhaus, Halle für Kunst und Medien
Graz
Production specifics
Cocommissioned and coproduced by steirischer herbst ’19, FLAMIN–Film London Artist’s Moving Image Network with funding from Arts Council England, and macLYON; Coproduced by Waddington Studios London
In collaboration steirischer herbst ’19 and Künstlerhaus, Halle für Kunst & Medien
Supported by Copper Gallery (Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, University of Dundee), Northern Film School (Leeds Beckett University), UGM Maribor Art Gallery, Museum of Yugoslavia (Belgrade), United Nations Geneva, and Espace Niemeyer (Paris)
With the kind support of ERSTE Stiftung
Jasmina Cibic’s video installation is the first chapter of her new poetic study of the many “political gifts” found in European history of art and architecture, especially during times of rebuilding after political upheaval. There is a persistent and unsubstantiated rumor in Graz that the Künstlerhaus was also such a “gift” from the departing British occupation forces. Cibic’s installation looks at how culture turns into a Trojan horse with such donations. Some of the most spectacular architectural examples of this become the backdrop for a poetic narrative guided by “Four Fundamental Freedoms”—allegorical characters based on a speech by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941. These protagonists devise a plan for a cultural battle between different worldviews, where three personifications of Art, Architecture, and Music face off to tender themselves as the perfect presents for an imaginary, divided nation. They are judged by the Freedoms, who offer increasingly aggressive populist criticisms of culture’s complicity in politics, and in the end, their verdict is damning. Cibic’s film follows this contest, while a wrought metal sculpture represents the perfect gift with a quote drawn from the political debates around one of the film’s locations: “Everything that you desire and nothing that you fear.”
Film credits:
Curatorial advisors: Matthieu Lelièvre, Alessandro Vincentelli
Line producer, France: Balthazar de Ganay
Production services, France: Lionfish Films
Production manager, France: Louise Krieger
Production manager, Switzerland: Bénédicte le Pimpec
Director: Jasmina Cibic
Script: Jasmina Cibic, Juliet Jacques
Research assistants: Manca Bajec, Jelica Jovanović, Ana Panić, and Mauro Tonini
Cinematographer: Mark Carey
Editor: Sue Giovanni
Composer: Chris Bemand
Violinist: Dejana Sekulić
Sound designer: Pip Norton
Dancers: Harry Alexander, Oxana Gilbert
Choreography: Josh Ben-Tovim
The Gifts: Brian Caspe (the Diplomat), Edmund Kingsley (the Artist), and Lachlan Niebor (the Engineer)
Four Freedoms: Nikki Leigh Scott (Freedom of Worship), Johanna Taylor (Freedom from Want), Louise Tyler (Freedom from Fear), and Jane Wisener (Freedom of Speech)
Retrospective
Retrospective