Stagecraft

Stagecraft is a publication accompanying Jasmina Cibic’s exhibition at macLYON, centred on the idea of the political gift of culture—how art, architecture, music, and performance are mobilised as offerings within moments of political and social crisis.

At its core is Cibic’s film The Gift, which stages a speculative competition to produce the “perfect” cultural gift capable of repairing a fractured nation. Drawing on archival speeches, letters, and diplomatic exchanges, the film reveals how cultural production is repeatedly deployed as a strategic instrument of persuasion, negotiation, and control—functioning as a Trojan horse for political agendas.

The publication expands this inquiry through essays by iLiana Fokianaki and Matthieu Lelièvre, who situate Cibic’s work within broader histories of soft power, ideological state apparatuses, and the manipulation of archives. Together, they trace how cultural gifts—whether symbolic, aesthetic, or performative—have been used to construct alliances, assert dominance, or project unity across shifting geopolitical contexts.

A key component of the book is the inclusion of primary archival materials, many published here for the first time. These include proposals for an offictial flag of the League of Nations and unrealised musical compositions donated by amateur composers to the Palais des Nations during its formative years—gestures intended to embody transnational cooperation, yet ultimately revealing the fragility and contradictions of such ambitions.

Through these documents and narratives, Stagecraft positions cultural gifting as a recurring political mechanism: one that emerges most forcefully in times of crisis, where culture is tasked with imagining cohesion while simultaneously masking conflict.