Nothing preserves the right to dream and the freedom of being like art

As we gradually approach the end of 2024, we are also nearing the 36th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts, celebrating its 70th anniversary in 2025. Counting down the months to its opening, we are talking to Chus Martínez, Artistic Director of next year’s Biennale, to better understand her position and get an insight into the thought process that is shaping the upcoming exhibition.

How have you been approaching the upcoming Ljubljana Biennale?

Getting started on an exhibition like the 36th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts is a difficult task. The first “work” to be done is mental. I started asking myself many questions that I hope I will be able to reflect in the exhibition, but also in creating a mood of positive energy around the event. How does the biennial’s past reflect or affect its future? What makes this biennial so different from others? What do the different communities expect from the exhibition? Are we going to be able to convey a very necessary feeling of trust and also hope to the citizens? With very few exceptions, I decided to work with artists I have never worked with before. In that sense, the work and the situation are new for everyone: the artists, myself, and the audience. I feel this provokes in me a sense of curiosity and also takes me out of my comfort zone, assuming a risk that culture and art should always assume: the importance of constantly trusting artists and their work, the condition of being explorative and open.

What questions have you found yourself most intrigued by lately?

I have been asking myself how art can contribute to the regeneration of our democratic social fabric. And I came up with an interest in fantasy. Fantasy strongly emerged in the 19th century as the force that reinvented folklore and also the national state myths attached to it. It was invented to revive oral history and to reintroduce tradition. Therefore, it has kept a suspicious status that has excluded fantasy from being further developed in art and philosophy as fiction has been. This specific gap between fiction—high culture—and fantasy—popular culture—has been maintained without much effort to revise or rescue fantasy for the sake of freedom and the common good. Like some of the technologies that are being developed—AI, to name the most obvious—fantasy has not been very present in the artistic discourse because we feel we lack control over it. Only now can we perceive a growing interest among many artists worldwide to return to fantasy as an ally to gain eloquence in the public sphere and a sense of charisma to address fundamental subjects. I would like to explore with artists the way fantasy offers a language to engage with the social. This is in my mind.

After a couple of visits to Ljubljana, what is your impression of the city ahead of next year’s Biennale?

A community that has been able to give itself a sense of relevance, both through stressing the importance of nature in one’s life and through art and culture—and also fashion. Being in Ljubljana is very inspiring to me. I see the possibility of still creating models for coexistence within a city in Ljubljana—with all its problems and paradoxes—I sense here a strong will to secure a life with virtues, with values for the people. This has been very palpable in my visits.

As 2024 is coming to an end what is your wish for the 36th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts and the months of work leading up to it?

That it would interest many different communities. That we will be able to meet there independently of our personal interests or tastes. That we will recognise in the biennial a place that supports and protects the public interests and the common good. A biennial with such a long history is a treasure that not every community can enjoy. Being able to find joy in art and culture, every time it opens, seems crucial to me. Using it as an opportunity to discover and feel inspired.

You are a prolific writer and a constant challenger of preconceived ideas. What do you think is a notion that needs to be challenged most urgently?

The notion that art is for the few or removed from the lives of people. On the contrary. Nothing preserves the right to dream and the freedom of being like art. Let’s be upfront and clear about how art really contributes to a better society.