Artist: Tejswini Narayan Sonawane

The Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts awards a Grand Prize, which traditionally includes the presentation of a solo show at the next Biennale. This practice forges a creative bond between successive editions of the Biennale and preserves the memory of the themes of its individual iterations.

The winner of the Grand Prize of the 35th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts is Indian artist Tejswini Narayan Sonawane, who is on this occasion presenting her exhibition One Moon, One Sun. The complex spiritual dimensions of her works emphasise the existential entanglement of all those who are unable to decide their own fate. A possible way out of this dark experience, as presented by the artist in her graphic works, drawings, spatial paintings and installations, is by layering and merging the human and animal worlds, reality and fantasy. Her multifaceted imaginarium is interwoven with the recurring motif of the bird, which emerges as the artist’s self-image that takes flight from the dense incisions in the graphic matrix, in such a way prizing open the conscious into the unconscious and expanding the irrepressible flow of artistic creation as a means of achieving freedom.

Tejswini Narayan Sonawane (1987, Solapur, Maharashtra, India) received her Master of Arts in Printmaking in Mumbai. Her work encompasses a range of art techniques including woodcut, etching, drawing and watercolour. She has participated in over forty solo and group exhibitions and has been the recipient of numerous awards, scholarships and residencies. She regularly conducts workshops in India and abroad.

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More information: EXHIBITION PUBLICATION (pdf)

The 36th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts: The Oracle

Exhibition of the Grand Prize Recipient of the 35th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts

Curator: Yasmín Martín Vodopivec
ISIS Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia
6 June – 12 October 2025
Artistic Director and Curator of the Biennale: Chus Martínez

Producer: International Centre of Graphic Arts (MGLC)
Support: The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, Municipality of Ljubljana
Photos: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Archive.

Artist: Antonio Pichillá

Antonio Pichillá Quiacaín (born in 1982 in San Pedro La Laguna, Sololá) belongs to the Maya Tz’utujil ethnic group. He is part of a new generation of Guatemalan artists who, with the help of strategies acquired through formal education, are redirecting the Eurocentric perception of Maya art and disclosing the contemporary significance of the wisdom of their ancestors. In his work, he transcends boundaries and explores new connections beyond the conventional framework of contemporary art as an artist, healer, cultural mediator and respected member of the community.

Through his art practice, Pichillá analyses and reinterprets his cultural heritage, thus transforming artistic creation into a ritual act that can honour his ancestors and give continuity to inherited knowledge. His works, shown in the exhibition The Offering, were created by Lake Atitlán, which is considered the geographical area of the country where Maya culture is most deeply rooted. They are based on Maya myths, legends, rituals and iconography, respectfully preserving ancestral wisdom while creating new narratives that build on the Maya cosmogony. This worldview, based on the harmony between nature, the universe and humanity, remains a fundamental element of the culture of indigenous communities in Guatemala today.

The guiding thread of the exhibition The Offering is the art of weaving, demonstrating that spirituality is an inherent part of artistic materiality. In the Maya language, there is no specific word for art; instead, they use the term “x’ajaan”, which means sacred. Through appropriation, performativity and abstraction, the artist connects Maya rituals and customs that have long remained hidden, disclosing the value of ancestral knowledge as a symbol of resistance and the dignity of one’s identity.

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Curator:  Yasmín Martín Vodopivec

More information: EXHIBITION PUBLICATION (pdf)

MGLC Švicarija, International Centre of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia
18 September 2024 – 12 January 2025

Producer: International Centre of Graphic Arts (MGLC)
Support: Municipality of Ljubljana City, Ministry of Culture of the RS
Photos: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Archive.

Watch the video on Youtube

Artists: Igor Andjelić and Marina Abramović

This is not the first time that artist Igor Andjelić has addressed those who enter sacred spaces. Over the past ten years, he has conceived a series of multidisciplinary projects that seek to shake the traditional static role of art in the restrictive context of sacred architecture. Although his photography career is well known, it is his interventions in sacred spaces that show him most clearly as a cultural agitator and creator of artistic experiences.

The exhibition Confess, currently on view in the Church of Our Lady of Health in Piran, is the artist’s fourth intervention in this space. With a truly iconoclastic stance and an unwavering intuition, Igor Andjelić once again creates a utopian situation that takes the ideology of the contemporary exhibition space back to its ecclesiastical origins, thus shaping an updated liturgy that transcends the predictable limits of artistic intervention. Through the choice of space and the works on display, as well as their considered placement, the artist and his collaborators create a deliberately mystical atmosphere that evokes a contemplative experience in the visitor. Confess is a total work of art with clear transcendental tendencies. The object here is a sanctuary with dynamic and contemporary artistic expressions that replace the absent religious symbolism, while the context belongs to the viewer.

Confess is an invitation to an insightful experience that happens at the very moment when the observer is confronted with an unexpected image of oneself. To accept that the reflection of one’s own image is far from the perfect ideal we have of ourselves. To honestly admit that we can always expect more from ourselves.

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Curator:  Yasmín Martín Vodopivec

Church of Our Lady of Health, Piran, Slovenia
7 June – 29 October 2024

Production: ULAY Foundation
Supported by: Municipality of Piran – Comune di Pirano
Photos: Igor Andjelić, Matjaž Stopar, Mateja Mirt, Christian Reinhardt.

Artist: Sanja Nešković Peršin

Following the traces of her earlier works, artist Sanja Nešković Peršin ventures into the most mysterious regions of artistic creation. Using performative film and live performance, she imaginatively creates a sensual cacophony, exploring in this realm the longing and disquiet that inevitably accompany the deeply rooted pursuit of excellence. By juxtaposing vague, indecipherable black-and-white images of individual movements discarded in the past for their lack of perfection with her performative intervention in the space, the artist establishes an internal dialogue from the perspective of an uncertain present, reproducing a feeling of suspense that precedes the actual resolution of expectation. This dynamic interplay of image and sound fragments in the darkness of the exhibition space draws a map of tension and uncertainty that, from today’s perspective, encourages an exploration of the constellation of what could have been and what did not happen.

Using a unique poetic language dominated by a steady cadence of increasingly intense movement variations, which she has practised continuously throughout her dance career, the artist seeks to transcend the boundaries of the physical, emphasising the importance and weight of the irrational as an essential part of our rational perception. Through the iconoclastic exercise of deconstructing repetitive movements, she reveals the uncanny complexity of conflicting emotional impulses that underlie the creative process. Unconscious themes emerge through memories of half-lived, unrealised experiences, creating a dream-like atmosphere in which the artist sublimates the desire for perfection until it combusts.

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Curator: Yasmín Martín Vodopivec

Space for Art NÓT, Ljubljana, Slovenia
19 September 2023 – 21 September 2023

The Jamestown Arts Center, Rhode Island, United States
28 October 2023 

Ljubljana Art Weekend, Space for Art NÓT, Ljubljana, Slovenia
24 – 25 May 2024 

Maribor Art Gallery, Maribor, Slovenia
10 October 2024  

Galerie Kandlhofer, Vienna, Austria
24 October – 22 November 2024 

13th International Festival of Contemporary Dance CoFestival, Cirkulacija 2, Ljubljana, Slovenia
25 November 2024  

Kontai-ji Temple, Kyoto, Japan
10 May 2025

Kaiju Theatre, Nagasaki, Japan
11 May 2025

Concept and performer: Sanja Nešković Peršin
Set-up and video: Atej Tutta
Music: Sašo Kalan
Text editing: Vesna Česen Rošker
Proofreading: Postulat
Translation: Arven Šakti Kralj
Co-production: NOT Space for Art
Supported by: Municipality of Ljubljana, Department of Culture
Acknowledgements: Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana (MGML), Maribor Art Gallery (UGM), Hestia Belgrade
Photos: Atej Tutta, Jan, Urška Boljkovac.

Watch the video
https://vimeo.com/atejtutta/review/1019945822/62c45aac00

Artists: Jihan El Tahri, Soghra Khurasani, Ibrahim Mahama, Tjaša Rener, Jaanus Samma, School of Mutants (Hamedine Kane, Stéphane Verlet-Bottéro), Janek Simon, Temitayo Ogunbiyi

The exhibition The Holy Corner presents newly commissioned works by selected artists who are taking part in the 35th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts From the void came gifts of the cosmos. This edition of the Biennale was conceived by Artistic Director Ibrahim Mahama together with curators Patrick Nii Okanta Ankrah, Exit Frame Collective, Alicia Knock, Selom Koffi Kudjie, Inga Lāce and Beya Othmani. The concept for The Holy Corner print portfolio and the selection of artists was developed by curator Yasmín Martín Vodopivec. Her curatorial intervention is based on the idea of how important it is to preserve the values of a bygone era in order to overcome the anxieties of the present day. The diverse themes of the artworks included in the print portfolio form an imaginary altar where the visitor is symbolically compensated for their contribution to the social project, and which can evoke the rebellious power of the collective spirit.

The print portfolio The Holy Corner was published in an edition of thirty copies as part of the 35th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts From the void came gifts of the cosmos (15. 9. 2023–14. 1. 2024). Following the spirit of the exhibition project, the print portfolio became a travelling exhibition in collaboration with local institutions and artists. After six months on display at La Nueva Fábrica in Guatemala, new dates and destinations are to be confirmed shortly.

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More information
EXHIBITION PUBLICATION in Slovene and English (pdf)
EXHIBITION PUBLICATION in Spanish and English (pdf)

Curator: Yasmín Martín Vodopivec

The 35th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts: From the void came gifts of the cosmos
Exhibition of the Print Portfolio of Artists of the 35th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts

Plečnik’s Kiosk, Prešernov trg, Ljubljana, Slovenia
16 November – 3 December 2023

La Nueva Fábrica, Antigua, Guatemala
16 March – 8 September 2023

Production: International Centre of Graphic Arts
Support: The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, Municipality of Ljubljana
Co-production in Guatemala: La Nueva Fábrica (LNF)
Photos: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Archive.
Photos LNF: Ana Werren.

Artist: Honza Zamojski

In Honza Zamojski’s exhibition, the eponymous Middleman plays various roles. He is a viewer who, upon entering the exhibition space, stands in the middle of the symmetrical architecture. He is also an author who mediates between the world of ideas and the material world by creating drawings, sculptures and texts. Middleman is also visualised as a simplified and symbolic puppet that can be moved by various forces.

Essentially a site-specific installation, the exhibition takes place not only within the symmetry of architecture, but often in relation to the symmetry (or asymmetry) of a sheet of paper, a word and a human figure. An attentive viewer will notice that the further one moves away from the centre of the exhibition, the brighter it is and the more there is to see. You could even say that the narrative explodes, and what tries to put it back together again is Middleman holding the collapsing world with all his might.

In the frame of this exhibition, the latest book by Honza Zamojski, which is an illustrative and poetic attempt to describe the Middleman, his everyday life and the reality that surrounds him, was published by the International Centre of Graphic Arts and Nero Editions.

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Curators: Nevenka Šivavec and Yasmín Martín Vodopivec

MGLC Tivoli Mansion, International Centre of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia
10 March – 28 May 2023

Production: International Centre of Graphic Arts
Support: The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, Municipality of Ljubljana
Photos: Matevž Paternoster. MGLC Archive.

Artists: Dragica Čadež, Lujo Vodopivec, Drago Tršar

Švicarija has always known how to surprise, connect and boldly reshape its purpose. Many individuals have taken diligent care that the light in it has never been completely extinguished. The unique past of Švicarija, which was granted the status of a cultural monument of local importance in 2013, is summed up by the guiding principle of community, art and nature, which will continue to illuminate its work in the future.

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Curators: Yasmín Martín Vodopivec and Dušan Dovč

MGLC Švicarija, International Centre of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia
14 May 2022–Ongoing (permanent exhibition)

Production: International Centre of Graphic Arts
In collaboration with: Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia (ZVKDS)
ZVKDS expert advice: Tatjana Adamič, Aleksandra Renčelj Škedelj
Support: Municipality of Ljubljana City
Photos: Jaka Babnik and Katja Goljat. MGLC Archive.

Artists: Jaka Babnik, Ana Čavić, Tomaž Gorjup, Milan Ketiš, Zmago Lenárdič and Jasna Hribernik, Polonca Lovšin, Marko Pogačnik, Kristina Rutar, Andrej Savski, Urh Sobočan, Irena Tomažin, Iva Tratnik, Urša Vidic

The group exhibition Natural Faith presents artworks and spatial installations whose common attribute is that they connect nature and man into a dynamic balance. The works on display express an intimate, spiritual, mystical and critical relationship between man and nature, which is nevertheless antagonistic despite its supposed mutuality. The mythologisation of personal beliefs, whose presence can be felt directly or indirectly in the works, is often marked by a trust in the power of nature and an idealised longing to return to it.

The message of the exhibition goes beyond the current imperative of nature conservation by acknowledging nature as the essence of personal activism and symbolically appealing to humanity’s global responsibility to preserve nature as a living being and a place of creative coexistence.

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More information: EXHIBITION PUBLICATION (pdf)

Curators: Yasmín Martín Vodopivec and Dušan Dovč

MGLC Švicarija, International Centre of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia
21 December 2022 – 26 February 2023

Production: International Centre of Graphic Arts
Support: Municipality of Ljubljana City, Ministry of Culture of the RS
Photos: Jaka Babnik and Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Watch the video Natural Faith

Artist: Hamja Ahsan

In 2019, the artist Hamja Ahsan was awarded the Grand Prize of the 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts for his work Aspergistan Referendum. The artist invited visitors to the Biennial to vote in a referendum on whether they should join Aspergistan, an independent country of shy, introverted and autistic people. 72 per cent of the voters supported the artist’s proposal. With this call for autonomy, Hamja Ahsan breathed back into his art project Shy Radicals the rebellious character from which the project had sprung a few years earlier.

The project dates back to a few years before the publication of Ahsan’s book Shy Radicals: The Antisystemic Politics of the Militant Introvert (2017), a satirical work in which the author bases his critique of the hegemony of the dominant culture on the foundations of the anti-colonial theory in the context of a new world order that emerged with the so-called War on Terror as a result of the attacks of 11 September 2001 in the United States. What was originally presented as an international campaign to destroy Al-Qaeda has led to a severe setback in democracy under the pretext of an untenable just war theory that places security above freedom and civil liberties and presupposes the existence of second-class citizens, racism and Islamophobia as defence strategies against the enemy allegedly hiding in our social network.

The exhibition toys with the positive outcome of the referendum at that time and shows the history of this activist movement against the dominance of the extroverts. It ironically addresses the repressive aspects of the state apparatus, the enforced polarisation of society and the relevance of individual initiative to bring about the necessary radical changes in the community.

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The 34th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts: Iskra Delta

Exhibition of the Grand Prize Recipient of the 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts
Curator: Yasmín Martín Vodopivec
ZVKDS Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia
10 September – 21 November 2021

More information: EXHIBITION PUBLICATION (pdf)

Artistic Director of the Biennale: Nevenka Šivavec
Production: International Centre of Graphic Arts
Support: The Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana, The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, Municipality of Ljubljana
Photos: Klemen Ilovar. MGLC Archive.

Watch these videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_thz194FU0&t=175s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4WcQh6unmo

The circumstances which led to the formation of the experimental interactive video project by Pila Rusjan and Nung-Hsin Hu are linked to the ECVP collaborative project known as The Exquisite Corpse Video Project. This is an original cross-cultural collaboration of artists working in experimental video and is inspired by the surrealist method of the ‘cadavre exquis’. The surrealist method was based on the randomness of the story assembled by the words or phrases added by different collaborators, whereas with ESVP, each participant produces a video piece created in response to the last ten seconds of the video by the preceding artist. Ten participants of the ECPV project formed the TRAFFIC JAM #1 video group. The artists first met at the Casa das Caleiras residency in São Paulo in 2010. TRAFFIC JAM #2, in which Pila Rusjan and Nung-Hsin Hu made the creative connection, went on in Taipei, as part of the Treasure Hill Artist Village residency programme from January to March 2012. In the intense atmosphere of creative collaboration, the two artists conceived the collaborative Bedtime Stories project.

The project springs from their own experience of loneliness in a foreign country and at the same time discusses the paradoxical situation of increasing solitude in a world characterized by intense communication aided by modern technologies. The interactive book and bed make up the audio-visual installation that creates an intimate and pleasant atmosphere, where visitors could browse through the book and choose their bedtime story. The stories that were projected onto the bed were presented in different forms, blurring the line between reality and dreams.

Curator: Yasmín Martín Vodopivec
International Centre of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia

20 April 2012 – 17 June 2012

Support: The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, Municipality of Ljubljana
Photos: Jaka Babnik. MGLC Archive.