The organizers of the Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts have announced that the thirty-fifth edition of the event will be titled “From Void Came the Gifts of the Cosmos”. From September 15, 2023 to January 14, 2024, the Biennale is curated by Artistic Director Ibrahim Mahama and his team, whose members include Exit Frame Collective, Alicia Knock, Selom Koffi Kudjie, Inga Lāce, Beya Othmani and Patrick Nii. Okanta. Through media such as film, print and performance, the Biennale will investigate the friendships, ties and “stories of resistance” between post-independence Ghana and the former Yugoslavia, both of which were states founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement. Collaboration, a nation-building tool deployed by Ghana’s first president, pan-African theorist Kwame Nkrumah, will serve as a focal point.
“As curators, ‘From the Void Came the Gifts of the Cosmos’ has led us to find ways to turn back time,” Ghana-born Mahama said in a statement. “The exhibition will be presented in multiple forms, historical, contemporary, educational – so we ask ourselves – how do we use historical and other forms to establish new dialogues. One of the most important decisions we have made so far in the exhibition process has been to open it up to students. Early in our research process,” he continued, “we embarked on a marathon of school visits in Slovenia, which was an amazing experience. This is where some very interesting proposals have come from, and the curatorial team has selected a number of students whose work will be featured in the exhibition as artists.
Artists from across Europe and Africa will present new site-specific commissions as well as existing work alongside historical graphic work from the Biennale’s archives. In addition, a series of public programs will focus on the notion of agyinaor council, adopted by the Akan, the largest ethnic group in Ghana.
A full list of participating artists is below.
Anita Afonu
Selasi Awusi Sosu
Yasmina Benabderrahmane
Virginia Chihota
Galle Winston Kofi Dawson
Nabil Djedouani
Jihan El Tahri
Beti Frim and Ines Sekač
Christian Guérématchi
Anna Governor
Helga Griffiths
Eric Gymfi
Sonia Kacem
Soghra Khurasani
Crater
Kvadratni meter
Lalitha Lajmi
Pat Mautloa
Amina Menia
Danilo Milovanovic
Yusif Musa
Iona Nemeth
Noks Collective
Group Name
NPR
Henry Obeng
Mohamed Omar Khalil
Krishna Reddy
Abed Al Kadiri
Bruce Onobrakpeya in dialogue with Temitayo Ogunbiyi
Nolan Oswald-Denis
Thierry Oussou
Tjasa Rener
Martyna Rzepecka
Jaanus Samma
School of Mutants (Hamedine KaneStéphane Verlet Bottero)
Mori Sikora
Janek Simon and Max Cegielski
Sanaz Sohrabi
Duba Sambolec
Tejswini Narayan Sonawane
SVS
Tracy Naa Koshie Thompson
El Warcha in dialogue with the PLAC (Participatory Autonomous Zone)
Ala Younis
Lara Zagar
Manca Zitnik
