Building a Long Passageway

Through Building a Long Passageway, Cibic examines the Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts as a tool of Yugoslav cultural diplomacy. Its international stature was built on a socio-economic model in which state enterprises actively supported artistic production through the acquisition and circulation of art, binding together artists, institutions, and industry.

Cibic reconstructs this framework within Cankarjev dom—Ljubljana’s central cultural venue, conceived as a monumental expression of socialist cultural infrastructure. By inserting a corridor into the exhibition—echoing the corridors of office buildings and factory spaces that once displayed company-acquired artworks—she transforms the space into both reconstruction and dissection, turning the exhibition itself into a critical apparatus.

A durational performance gradually covers the corridor’s white walls with stamped logos of Slovenian companies that once purchased artworks. These imprints form a visual archive of a former support system, shifting the space from neutral display to a dense field of signs—both decorative and evidentiary.

Many of these companies have since disappeared or been privatised, marking the collapse of a system in which culture held a defined social and economic role. What remains is its trace: a pattern detached from its original function.

Activated by a younger generation of artists, the work foregrounds the conditions of contemporary cultural labour—where production persists despite the erosion of its structural support, exposing the paradox of an art system that remains visible, yet increasingly precarious.