Jasmina Cibic and Jeremy Deller, together with Ian Hamilton Finlay, are two of the three artistic positions of the exhibition project “Grand Hotel Abyss,“ which will be presented in Künstlerhaus, Halle für Kunst & Medien, in cooperation with steirischer herbst 2019. With their contributions the Slovenian and the English artists render, from various perspectives, the idea that the construction of the Künstlerhaus was a farewell present from the British allies who were positioned in Styria in the postwar period.

Cibic’s video installation, “The Gift – Act 1“ (2019), considers the numerous politically motivated gifts that can be found in European art and architectural history. Deller’s most recent video production, “Putin’s Happy“ (2019), deals with the misguided patriotism that contributed to the result of the Brexit referendum, and questions the false glamour of British national myths and political history that have spawned today’s situation in his home country. In conversation with Christoph Platz (Head of Curatorial Affairs, steirischer herbst) and David Riff (Senior Curator, steirischer herbst) the two artists will not only talk about historical and red-hot cultural and socio-political movements, but will also present insights into their work processes, inspiration and thematic arguments.

Jeremy Deller (*1966 London, lives in London) studied art history at the University of Sussex and has been working as an artist since the early 1990s. Deller’s projects are often politically charged, full of historical references, and furnished with the aim to break open conservative patterns of thought. His most important exhibitions include “From one Revolution to Another“ (Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2008), “It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq“ (Creative Time and New Museum, New York, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 2009) and “Joy in People“ (Hayward Gallery, London, 2012). In 2013 he exhibited at the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. In 2014 he was awarded the Turner Prize.

The work of artist Jasmina Cibic (*1979 Ljubljana, lives in London) often revolves around the construct of national culture, its underlying ideology, political aims and utilization, as well as the political application of art, particularly architecture. In 2006 she completed her Master of Fine Arts at Goldsmiths, University of London. With her project, “For Our Economy and Culture” she represented Slovenia at the Venice Biennale 2013. Most recently, her works were exhibited at the Galerie Tobačna 001 in Ljubljana, at Whitechapel Gallery London, at the Louvre Auditorium, and at the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld.

Christoph Platz (*1982 Aachen, lives in Graz) is an art historian, curator and exhibition manager. He has worked for Skulptur Projekte Münster 07, Kunsthalle Münster, and Westfälischer Kunstverein and has published the book "Kunstverein im Umbruch" (2011) on the development of the institution in postwar Germany. In 2010 he joined the Project Management department of dOCUMENTA (13), which he later headed. Platz led the Exhibition Departments of Bergen Assembly (2013) and documenta 14 (2017) and served as independent strategic advisor for artists and institutions (such as Stadtkuratorin Hamburg and Academy of the Arts of the World in Cologne). Since 2018 Platz resides in Graz, where he is Head of Curatorial Affairs at steirischer herbst and also teaches at the Institute for Contemporary Art (IZK, TU Graz).

David Riff (*1975 London, lives in Berlin) is a writer, translator, artist, curator, and former member of the art group Chto Delat. He has been a curator at steirischer herbst since 2018. Among other shows, Riff cocurated the 1st Ural Industrial Biennial in Yekaterinburg (2010, with Cosmin Costinas and Ekaterina Degot) and headed the first Bergen Assembly together with Degot (2013). His most recent effort as an artist-curator was a large-scale exhibition on Mikhail Lifshitz in Moscow (2018, with Dmitry Gutov).