KIBLIX 2022: Love and Peace International Festival of Art, Technology, and Science 16 November–30 December 2022 KIBLA PORTAL
KIBLA PORTAL, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, will host the 20th edition of the KIBLIX Festival from 16 November to 30 December 2022. The festival starts on Wednesday, 16 November, at 7 p.m. with the opening of an international group exhibition and performance by Marko Batista and Žiga Palčar. In addition to the main exhibition, the festival will bring a rich program including AV performances, a panel, concerts, and workshops.
The epidemic-marked KIBLIX 2020–2021 explored what virtual worlds are today; it turned out to be the most consistent display of space-time »digital arts« and the most relevant exhibition of »digital realities« in the world. This year’s edition KIBLIX 2022 serves as a platform of the Network of Art and Cultural Research Centers – RUK. The network, created by the Delavski dom Trbovlje, PiNA from Koper, and KIBLA from Maribor, has implemented pilot projects, productions, residencies, workshops, debates and supported artistic creations by opening spaces of thought and action. After four years of networking, the facilitation of productions for artists, guest performances and exchanges, collaborations, presentations, and screenings has borne fruit. We leave you to decide how.
For the 10th anniversary of KIBLA PORTAL, the largest independent exhibition space for contemporary art, the curators of the festival Aleksandra Kostič and Peter Tomaž Dobrila decided to gather the production of the RUK network and highlight the designs and creations of local artists. In an era of media unification, closing of distribution channels of the World Wide Web, deplatforming, bans and censorship, restriction and exclusion, opening our eyes and awakening, »good morning« seems like a curse word. Or at least a call for prosecution. That there is no place for art and having your own opinion in World War III is a pretext for the convinced and the resigned, for the withdrawn and the insufficient, for the surrendered and the cobbled-together, for whom we at KIBLIX have been opening the channels of a future coming true since the beginning, in 2022. On the 20th anniversary of KIBLIX, we flirt with the here and now, looking back and looking forward.
We have used all the means at our disposal to do so. The way they are. Confronting the works that stem from the postulates of consideration, reflection and radiation, openness and collaboration, mutuality and respect, ideas and action – all this was just a push towards assembling the parts into a coherent community and opening up spaces to realize projects with knowledge and knowing, creativity and ingenuity, research and experimentation, and with the materials and resources at our disposal. This is why KIBLIX 2022 is a home-grown project, the works on display are the result of three research laboratories, DDTlab in Trbovlje, HEKA in Koper, and KIBLA2LAB in Maribor, as open centers of contemporary art and creativity.
At the opening of the festival, DDTlab will perform a show with the robot Eva and visitors will have the opportunity to try out the NeuroFly and DragonNeuroFly simulator and operate it via a brain-computer interface (BCI).
Productions and collaborations of the RUK Network laboratories: DDTlab: Laibach: Quadrophenia Tomo Križnar, Bojana Križnar Pivk, Tanja Hanžič, Maša Jazbec: The Nuba People 360° Dunking Devils, HSE, Arctur, Iztok Kovač: Vertigo Bird 2020 Varvara & Mar, Žan Rajšek, Maša Jazbec: Robot Yaski Art Laibach, Matic Bernot (STPŠ Trbovlje), TNM: AR Laibach
HEKA: Robertina Šebjanič, Sofia Crespo, Feileacan McCormick: AquA(l)formings – Interweaving the Subaqueous Name: Time Will Tell Brad Downey: Sky Clock, Limestone, Melania, and Self-portrait
KIBLA2LAB: VRTN!CA Archduke John, Father of Meranovo ANTROPOMORPHIA Neo Christopher Chung with Diana Bogucka (VR) and Žiga Pavlovič (VR) : Artificial Perspectives Simon Whetham, Maša Dobrina, Valérie Wolf Gang, Monika Pocrnjić: Altered Perspectives Alice Daeun Kim: Minorities Vojtěch Radakulan: On the Future Garden Laser scans for the project Invisible Maribor Laser scan of the exhibition KIBLIX 2020–2021: Virtual Worlds Now Valérie Wolf Gang: The Beautiful Face of Artificial Intelligence ScanLAB Projects: Remote Relic: Observation 01 and 02 (Working Titles)
Invited artists: BridA/Tom Kerševan, Sendi Mango, Jurij Pavlica: Temperaton Tanja Vujinović: AvantGarden: Bios6 and MetaGarden: FlowR Toni Soprano Meneglejte: Analyzing Aphra Tesla Operating System Incorporated Stefan Doepner: Tod Mit Vorteil / IMMORTALITY Marko Batista: Vitreous Sky Ana Pečar: Mura – Wild and Made in Concrete and Creation and Invention Take Courage Away Igor Štromajer: a=tF² Nataša Berk: 2025 (pass into) Assertiveness Nika Oblak & Primož Novak: Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? Name:: Mine is Smaller Than Yours
Admission is free.
KIBLA PORTAL, Valvasorjeva 40, 2nd floor, Maribor Opening hours: 17–19 November 2022: from 5 to 9 p.m. 20 November–30 December 2022: Monday–Friday from 3 to 5 p.m. or by prior appointment (kibla@kibla.org).
__ Festival KIBLIX turns to research and critique of contemporary technological media, as well as their soft applications in contemporary arts, culture, and education and is part of the project RUK (2019–2023). RUK is a network of art and culture research centers on the crossroads of art, science, and technology. The project is co-financed by the Republic of Slovenia and the European Union under the European Regional Development Fund.
Production: ACE KIBLA, RUK Network AV performances by Marko Batista and Žiga Palčar and Marko Batista and Lina Rica and concerts by JUNEsHELEN and Alja Petrič and Svojat are produced by the X-OP Association for Contemporary Art.
