The Oracle names and honours the symbolic place from where all beings wonder about the course of life. Because we care about tomorrow, we should assume we care about staying alive, about a world in peaceful coexistence. Times of increasing insecurity and the experience of living in a world that refuses to accept our needs give birth to many forms of escapism and misleading decision-making. Searching for big answers and the expectation of big movements capable of undoing the damage of wars and dark forces seems unrealistic. Art—all arts—assumes the existence of a tiny but meaningful spot from where to be free and dream and demand freedom and peace. This exhibition is about this tiny spot. This Biennale claims that every art and cultural manifestation is an oracle, a place we are given to reflect and ponder on how common good is possible, how a good life based on shared values is to be achieved.

This Biennale is, then, an oracular place, a place for interpretation, and at the centre of The Oracle in Ljubljana is Žogica Marogica, Speckles the Ball. Žogica is a figure that embodies tradition, politics, and the need to invent systems able to transmit, educate, and connect people. Almost every citizen in Slovenia knows this puppet. A colourful head-ball created by artist Ajša Pengov for a play, written by Jan Malík (1904–1980), that was staged at today’s Ljubljana Puppet Theatre in 1951 and that immediately became an incredible hit after its Ljubljana puppet and radio premiere, and that has now lived on the puppet stage for several decades. The puppetry traditions and their interest in inventing autonomous beings made by craft and fantasy have an enormous potential to reflect on many of the issues that affect the modelling of our world scenarios today: gaming technology; disembodied and autonomous intelligences capable of surpassing the human; analogue mass education in times of the digital; new forms of folklore to bond and dream together. Žogica, a puppet born out of the concern about who controls whom, connects the old dream of autonomy with the new nightmares around technology. When creating puppets, writer Ajša Pengov wondered: Should puppets be operated by hands or strings? Should they be an extension of our human body or become independent? Not modelled on the theatre of human actors, but autonomous in their movements and expressions. Ultimately, the eternal question of control and controlling instead of enabling, fostering, and enhancing peaceful and fertile ways of living is what concerns this Oracle.

Peace is only possible if we love the world we live in, which is a very difficult task today. This exhibition is about learning to do so.

Chus Martínez was born in Spain and is a philosopher and art historian. She is currently the Head of the Institute Art Gender Nature at the Academy of Art and Design Basel FHNW in Switzerland and a curator at TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary.

Artists and Participants:
Sinzo Aanza, Noor Abed, Gabriel Abrantes, Saelia Aparicio, Maria Arnal, Canan, Gabi Dao, Manca G. Renko, Grupa Ee, Miles Howard-Wilks, Joan Jonas, Jane Jin Kaisen, Ema Kugler, Nicole L’Huillier, Svetlana Makarovič, Yarema Malashchuk and Roman Khimei, Manuela Morales Délano, Eduardo Navarro, Ingo Niermann and Mayte Gómez Molina, Silvan Omerzu, Ajša Pengov, Nohemí Pérez, Juan Pérez Agirregoikoa, Vesna and Eugen Petrešin, Maja Petrović-Šteger, Sadie Plant, Tarta Relena, Renata Salecl, Kathrin Siegrist, Svetlana Slapšak, Mladen Stropnik, Olga Subirós, Derek Tumala, Aili Vint, Takeshi Yasura

The 36th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts: The Oracle - Exhibition Guide

The exhibition guide to the 36th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts offers an in-depth look into the conceptual world of The Oracle exhibition.