Airport Art 2005

The term Airport Art refers to the phenomena of “art and craft” objects such as replicas of traditional art forms of specific cultures that could be found within duty-free shops at airports, in order to point out their dubious status as representative objects of a specific ethnic or national belonging.

The artist delegates the execution of these works, which are often reminiscent of souvenir objects, and creates a site-specific installation showing what seem to be at a first glance “traditional” objects in a constructed clinical environment.

Utilising taxidermy, lace and traditional printing techniques, Cibic has liaised with local hunting associations, lace schools and printing workshops. The motifs of the executed works stand in opposition to the tradition of their material: as is the case with Cibic’s lace works that depict floor plans of science-fiction vessels.

The spectators are invited to experience via these “souvenirs” the immersion into the evidence of a fantastical journey and to question their perception of the presented artifacts. However, instead of dealing with packaged exotic features of a certain geo-political territory, Cibic profoundly questions the universality of modern exoticism.