Biennial of Graphic Arts
Ljubljana International Biennial of Graphic Art is the world’s oldest existing biennial exhibition of contemporary graphic arts. Founded in 1954, it has to date hosted around 5,000 artists from 80 countries. The festival’s mission is to offer a critical review of contemporary developments in reproductive techniques and to point out the main streams which have influenced the development of contemporary graphic art. The Festival takes place at several Ljubljana locations, including Museum of Modern Art Ljubljana, Cankarjev dom Culture and Congress Centre, Tivoli Mansion and a range of different urban open air venues. Past programme selections have included work by artists such as Albers, Agam, Anuszkiewicz, Bill, Martin, Riley, Klein, Polk-Smith, Vasarely, Soto, Mauvigner, Bruno Munari, Frank Stella, Tetsuo Yamashita, Kim Seung Yeon and Bogdan Borčić.
The gallery at Tivoli Mansion presents regular retrospective exhibitions of prizewinners from the previous Biennial. In 2001 one of the prizewinners was Damien Hirst and in 2003 a unique show of his drawings was organised by the British Council Slovenia and exhibited at Tivoli Mansion.