The Pleasure of Expense

2020, Cooper Gallery, DJCAD University of Dundee

Curated by Sophia Hao

Developed on the centenary of the League of Nations, The Pleasure of Expense reflected on the fragile legacy of internationalism and the political role culture has played in its aspirations.

Developed in 2020, on the centenary of the founding of the League of Nations, The Pleasure of Expense reflected on the fragility of international political structures and the renewed instrumentalisation of culture amid the rise of populism and nationalist rhetoric.

At the centre of the installation was a chapter from Cibic’s film project The Gift, filmed inside the Palais des Nations in Geneva, the headquarters of the League of Nations and one of Europe’s earliest experiments in transnational governance. Constructed from donations by member states, the building itself served as a political gift: a monument to international cooperation assembled from architectural expressions of national identity. Within this setting, Cibic staged a monologue performed by an allegorical figure of Cultural Diplomacy, who wandered through the palace’s gilded halls imagining the perfect gift of culture capable of healing a divided nation. His speech unfolded alongside the performance of a never-realised musical composition donated to the League by various composers, creating a dialogue between political aspiration and its unrealised promises.

Drawing on archival records surrounding cultural diplomacy, political gifting, and soft power, The Pleasure of Expense examined how culture has historically been mobilised as a vehicle for political desire, ideological projection, and diplomatic influence. The film formed part of The Gift, a larger project investigating architecture, art, music, and performance as political gifts—objects and gestures intended to foster cohesion while simultaneously advancing national interests.

The exhibition expanded these concerns through an immersive mural depicting ex-Yugoslav antifascist monuments during their construction. Drawn from the archives of the Museum of Yugoslavia and combined with photographs produced by Yugoslav state image-makers, the installation revisited another ambitious project of transnational solidarity: the Non-Aligned Movement. Presented not as completed monuments but as structures in the process of becoming, these images foregrounded the labour, ideology, and collective aspirations embedded within political forms.

Throughout the exhibition, Cibic examined the mechanisms through which culture becomes a tool of persuasion and consensus-building. An all-female operatic ensemble activated the installation, weaving together references to political architecture, disciplined bodies, and ideological spectacle. Positioned within the exhibition as both performers and allegorical agents, the singers transformed the space into a theatre of statecraft, simultaneously embodying and decoding the desire-building strategies through which art and architecture have historically been mobilised in the service of political power.

By bringing together film, performance, architecture, and archival material, The Pleasure of Expense reflected on the unfinished promises of internationalism and the persistent entanglement of culture and governance. The exhibition revealed how artistic production can function simultaneously as a political gift, a diplomatic instrument, and a Trojan horse through which ideological ambitions are carried across generations.

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The Pleasure of Expense

2020

Installation view, photo: Sally Jubb

Works

The Pleasure of Expense

2020

Installation view, photo: Sally Jubb

Three-channel UHD video, stereo, 25 min

Single channel HD video, stereo sound

Single channel HD video, stereo,19 min

Exhibition

18 Oct – 14 Dec 2019 The Pleasure of Expense Cooper Gallery, DJCAD, University of Dundee

Publications

Jasmina Cibic A Flag, a Song, a Palace 2023

Art and Self-Determination: A Reader includes essays, poems and artistic responses to the theme of self-determination arising from a three-year research project funded by the Decade of Centenaries Programme. Taking as its starting point the centenary of the formation of the Irish Free State and the international movement towards self-determination post-World War One, this project focused on the role of art and artists against the backdrop of the changing map of Europe. Over three years, this project encompassed an international research conference, a summer school and reading group, a podcast IMMA Past Futures, artist commissions and a major exhibition, Self-Determination: A Global Perspective, October 2023–April 2024. Contributors to this publication – among them artists, scholars, researchers, historians, poets, activists and writers – were invited to reflect on the theme of self-determination from a range of perspectives across time and space.

In her essay titled A Flag, a Song, a Palace: Exploring the Scenography of Euorpes’s First Foray into Transnationalism, Jasmina Cibic reflects on the ways culture is deployed within moments of political transition, focusing on early experiments in transnational identity formation in Europe. Using the League of Nations as a key example, she traces how architecture, artistic commissions, and exhibition formats were mobilised to articulate and negotiate new political frameworks.

Rather than neutral expressions, these cultural forms are revealed as strategic tools—vehicles through which ideological positions are staged and communicated. From architectural proposals to symbolic and performative elements, aesthetic choices become central to the construction of collective narratives, while simultaneously exposing frictions between national interests and transnational aspirations.

Cibic’s essay maps recurring patterns in the use of culture as a method patriarchal verticals use throughout history, positioning artistic production as both embedded within and capable of critically unpacking these processes of political world-making.

Maja and Reuben Fowkes Soft power and socialist modernity in the films of Jasmina Cibic 2022

This essay by Maja and Reuben Fowkes examines Jasmina Cibic’s film practice as a critical exploration of cultural diplomacy and the ideological role of art and architecture in shaping political identities. Focusing on works such as Fruits of Our Land, The Pavilion, the Nada trilogy, and The Gift, the authors show how Cibic constructs scripted debates performed by archetypal figures within historically charged architectural settings—to reveal how culture has been instrumentalised in moments of political crisis and international representation.

The text highlights how Cibic reactivates overlooked histories of modernism and re-stages past cultural conflicts to expose recurring tensions between artistic autonomy and state agendas, particularly around how nations present themselves on the global stage. Across her films, architecture becomes an active agent, while dialogue—assembled from historical speeches and cultural discourse—unfolds as a performative negotiation of ideology, memory, and power. The essay ultimately positions Cibic’s work as a form of critical “Trojan horse,” reintroducing the emancipatory, transnational, and feminist potentials of socialist modernity as an alternative to contemporary capitalist and nationalist frameworks.