KIBLIX 2023: Hypocrisy and Pride
International Festival of Arts, Technology and Science
26 October–29 December 2023
KIBLA PORTAL

The 21st edition of KIBLIX, which will open on Thursday, 26 October 2023, at 7 p.m. with the international group exhibition and an AV performance by Octex, is this year themed Hypocrisy and Pride, following last year's theme of Love and Peace.

INVITATION (PDF)
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION (PDF)

This year’s edition refers to the currently prevailing social, political, economic, cultural, scientific, technological and other relations in the communities that we call states, unions, organizations … and which, of course, also exist in art. Perhaps most strikingly, when various historical figures and mythical images – of which literary history and art history are so full, they can be found even in music – see themselves in a mirror. Hypocrisy is a part of us, a widespread trait that can develop into a character trait. One of its causes is self-interest. Pride is equally universal; in some people it lies dormant, in some it hardens, while in others it blossoms and becomes spiritus agens. The spirit of progress. An agent. It has many synonyms: arrogance, haughtiness, conceit, insolence, presumption, which have certain semantic differences, and the Greek hubris (ὕβρις), which contains additional shades of meaning such as impudence and indignation. Hypocrisy, which has the same root in many Slavic languages, also means duplicity and pretense.

In 1589, Peter Binsfeld assigned a demon to each of the deadly sins that tempted people. In Binsfled’s classification, they are listed as follows: Lucifer: pride (superbia); Mammon: greed (avaritia); Asmodeus: lust (luxuria); Leviathan: envy (invidia); Belzeebub: gluttony (gula or gullia); Satan/Amon: wrath (ira); Belphegor: sloth (acedia).

The first mortal sin or cardinal sin, the most serious of all sins, is pride – superbia is associated with Lucifer (from Latin lux – light, ferre – to bear, bringer of light). In Christian tradition, it stands for the fallen archangel, usually associated with Satan, the embodiment of evil and an adversary of God. According to legend, Lucifer was a high-ranking archangel in heaven before his arrogance led him to rebel against God. When the rebellion failed, God banished him and a third of his followers from heaven and cast him to earth, where he lives today.

Pride, its synonym and an even more powerful pre- and para-Christian concept that appears as an archetype in Greek tragedy, is hubris. The hero, the heroine, suffers from his or her hubris, exaggerated self-confidence. This is tragically human, but not a bad thing – for without hubris there is no hero, except perhaps the cunning Odysseus. Prometheus, who stole fire, Icarus, who flew too close to the sun, are just two of the many fallen heroes. In more recent examples from literature there are many works based on hubris, why we leave to you.

Clive Staples Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia, wrote in Mere Christianity that pride is an “anti-God” of the state, a position in which the ego and self are in direct opposition to God: »Other vices including unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and so on, are mere ’fleabites’ … the devil became the devil by pride and pride is the cause of every other vice. Pride is the complete anti-God (and anti-others) state of mind.«

The exhibition at the space for art KIBLA PORTAL presents: Valeria Abendroth, AES+F, Aphra Tesla Operating System Incorporated Stefan Doepner, Uršula Berlot, Vuk Ćosić, Trbovlje, the New Media Setting, Betina Habjanič, Inštitut Egon March, Jusuf Hadžifejzović, Marko Jakše, Maša Jazbec, Adela Jušić, Vladimir Kopicl, Domen Kosmač in Marko Košnik, Laibach, Slava & Mihail Mizin, Toni Soprano MENEGLEJTE, P L A T E AU R E S I D U E, Monika Pocrnjić, Rok Predin, Vlado Repnik + Cirkulacija 2, Jiří Surůvka, Urška Kristina Škerl, Andrej Štular, Zoran Todorović, Tanja Vujinović in izbor združenja Metamedij iz Pulja -  Tin Dožić, Marko Gutić Mižimakov, Mario Mu in Ivana Tkalčić. The production of KIBLA2LAB will also be on display.


The festival will offer a thematic discussion, AV performances, concerts, workshops and guided tours until the end of December.

KIBLA PORTAL, Valvasorjeva 40, 2nd floor, Maribor. Opening hours: Monday–Friday from 3 to 5 p.m. or by prior appointment (kibla@kibla.org)


Photo: Janez Klenovšek