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, The Speckled 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.

Discover the journey behind the 36th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts by following THE ORACLE: A Curatorial Diary from LJ, a weekly column by Artistic Director Chus Martínez.

About the Artistic Director

Chus Martínez was born in Spain and has a background in philosophy and art history. She is currently Head of the Institute Art Gender Nature, Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW in Switzerland, and Associate Curator of TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary.

She is a board member of CIMAM (International Committee for Museums) and serves on the advisory boards of numerous international art institutions, including Castello di Rivoli, Turin and Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin. She was Chief Curator at El Museo Del Barrio, New York and Head of Department at dOCUMENTA (13). Previously, she was Chief Curator at MACBA, Barcelona, and Director of Frankfurter Kunstverein. Martínez has prepared many exhibitions and publications on contemporary artists. She is a lecturer and author of numerous catalogue texts and critical essays, and writes regularly for international art journals.

Artists

Artists will be revealed in mid-May.

About the Biennale

The Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts will celebrate its 70th anniversary in 2025 and is one of the oldest biennials in the world. Since its beginning in 1955, the Biennale has showcased the works of around 9,000 artists from 122 countries. Throughout its history, it positioned Ljubljana and Slovenian art into a global context and helped shape the international discourse in the field of printmaking and contemporary art. In 2001, marking a significant shift from national selections to a curated exhibition format, the Biennale began commissioning new works, resulting in 245 new art pieces to date. This period also saw the involvement of 30 curators and the utilisation of 53 exhibition venues, reflecting the Biennale’s ongoing evolution as a space for experimentation, critical reflection, and inter-institutional collaboration.