For Our Economy and Culture 2013

Framing the Space was shot at Vila Bled, the summer residence to Yugoslavia’s president Tito. In its past, the building underwent numerous redesigns concurrent with national cultural and political imperatives. In 1930s it served the king of Yugoslavia, and the Nazi Yugend during the war. Tito entrusted its post second world war re-design to his official state architect, who had the task of translating the existing Austro Hungarian castle into a new, forward looking modernist architecture, fit to illustrate a new national formation. In Framing the Space, Cibic goes on to interrogate the architect of the building about his architectural theories mixed with the question of national representation. Within the framework of the film, she delegates this role to the character of the western journalist Linda, who is interviewing the architect whilst wondering through the building. The film presents philosophical and architectural theories of purpose, form, function and aesthetic. The script for the film was based on documents from 1950s from the architect’s personal archives. The theoretical debate around ideological vision lies in opposite to the period melodrama type delivery and aesthetic and points to the exoticism that political specificity is subjected to in the eyes of the contemporary condition. Cibic has worked with a crew that traditionally delivers historical revisitations and geopolitical exoticisms for the media and production houses such as the BBC. Framing the Space investigates two key moments within the construction and survival of national icons and their myths, namely their invention and the chosen architectonic context that channels their perception towards the spectator/audience.