Each chapter of Jasmina Cibic’s “Spielraum” series addresses a stage in the life of an imagined, ideologically charged building or monument, from its genesis to its fall. “Tear Down and Rebuild” (2015) was shot within the modernist interior of the former Palace of the Federation in Belgrade (built in 1961), the film features a passionate debate among four female protagonists with each taking a position on the demolition of a building. The entirety of the film’s dialogue consists of quotations pulled from speeches by public figures, politicians, and architects. These proclamations question the relevance of art and architecture made at a particular historical moment with the purpose of revising, or destroying ideological narratives of the state.
Jasmina Cibic works in film, sculpture, performance and installation to explore how political rhetoric is deployed through art and architecture, particularly examining how cultural production is used by the state to communicate ideological principles and to construct a national culture.
