IAB_05

The Vast Automaton

24/10/2025 – 30/11/2025 

The fifth edition of the Industrial Art Biennial (IAB05), entitled The Vast Automaton, is curated by the international curator Bani Brusadin, who lives and works in Barcelona and Madrid (Spain), and the Italian curator Giulia Colletti, who currently works in South Korea. The biennial will run from October 24 to November 30, 2025, at around 12 locations in the Istrian region: Labin, Pula, Raša, and Vodnjan.

Concept

The Vast Automaton delves into the emergence of mega-structural landscapes, spanning energy infrastructure, mining regions, industrial automation and their far-reaching impact on both human and non-human life. Addressing the ongoing polycrisis rooted in 20th-century industrialization, The Vast Automaton opens space for alternative visions of the present. This edition investigates automation, extractivism, and critical technologies aiming to unveil unseen facets of contemporary industrialization.

This edition of the biennial explores the themes of automation, extractivism, and critical technologies, with the aim of uncovering the invisible aspects of contemporary industrialization. The programme unfolds across four spatial clusters — Labin, Raša, Pula, and Vodnjan — and consists of site-specific works, installations, video, and film projections that question shifting power relations and offer new perspectives on our entanglement with technological systems, emerging subjectivities, and the planet itself.

Activating a series of new and hitherto neglected locations, the 5th Biennial presents a diverse group of artists from Australia, Belarus, China, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Egypt, Germany, Russia, Senegal, Serbia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland the United Kingdom, and the United States of America, whose practices resonate with the industrial and environmental heritage of the region.

As part of the biennial, several accompanying events co-financed by the EU (EACEA – Creative Europe) will be held, including an exhibition of digital NFT works created as part of the Female Digital Creativity – FLUX Project, in Gallery NOVO in Pula, and a conference on new technologies and crypto art.

Artists

Heba Y. Amin, Andrej Beštak and Anja Leko, Živa Božičnik Rebec, Maks Bricelj,and Ema Maznik Antić,Alice Bucknell,  Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler, Aleksandra Domanović, Anna Engelhardt and Mark Cinkevich, 업채 eobchae, 김아영 Ayoung KIM, Laibach Kunst, Lawrence Lek, 刘窗 Chuang LIU,  Abu Bakarr Mansaray,,!Mediengruppe Bitnik, Gerard Ortín Castellví, Tanit Plana, Selena Savić, Gordan Savičic, Nestor Siré, Suzanne Treister, Marina Xenofontos, Dunja Zupančič / Dragan Živadinov.

Public Programmes

In advance of the pre-opening for artists, guests and journalists on 23 October and the official opening on 24 October at DKC Lamparna, Labin, introductory events are planned in Slovenia and Croatia. On 11 September a screening programme will be held at Kinoteka, Ljubljana, in association with Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana. On 13 September the introductory event POSTGRAVITY ART:: NOORDUNG will take place at the Small Roman Theatre in Pula. This consists of a unique “informance” by Dragan Živadinov and Dunja Zupančič and a team of live performers and collaborators. At all four locations — Labin, Raša, Pula and Vodnjan — guided tours will be organized several times during the Biennial, providing visitors with a deeper insight into the exhibited works and the main thematic threads of the Biennial.

About the Biennial

The Industrial Art Biennial (IAB) is an international exhibition of contemporary art and new artistic practices. It was launched in 2014 by the art-activist collective Labin Art Express XXI (L.A.E. XXI), as a strong alternative to the context of globalization, which changes most local features due to the dominance of much more powerful cultural and political centres, which systematically impose certain conventions in contemporary art, changing local cultural landscapes.  IAB insists on the local and regional context, emphasising the industrial and cultural heritage of Istria, with the aim of strengthening the local/regional identity, and improving its importance, visibility and recognition in the European framework. For each edition curators invite artists to explore the broader concept of the “industrial” in contemporary art. IAB was designed to present and promote new socially-engaged art practices, dealing with the ambiguity of the connection between art and industry, as well as between art and the built and/or natural environment.

Curators

Giulia Colletti is a curator and art historian. Her research traces the emergence of mega-structural landscapes shaped by mining territories and computational systems. Informed by cosmotechnics in Southern/Southeastern Europe and East Asia, she examines the reverberations of technological epistemic regimes. Engaging with artists who probe extractive paradigms, the erosion of living matter, and speculative futures, her work explores how biosphere-technosphere entanglements reshape modes of world-making.

In 2025, she serves as a Research Fellow at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA), and at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (NTMoFA). From 2019 to 2025, she was Curator of Programs and Digital at Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea. Her essays, reviews, and compiled readers have also been featured in museum catalogues and published by Cura., Mousse, Flash Art, and e-flux, among others.

Bani Brusadin, an independent curator, educator and researcher, has worked on numerous projects in his career dealing with contemporary art, critical technologies, planetary-scale infrastructures, and utopias of a networked society.

Brusadin is currently lead curator at Medialab, a project of Matadero Contemporary Art Center in Madrid (Spain). In 2023 he was part of the curatorial team of the renown festival transmediale, one of the oldest  digital art initiatives in Europe, and he was one of the founders and curators of The Influencers festival in Barcelona, which has been dealing with unconventional artistic practices and radical projects since 2004.

Brusadin’s research deals with a critical approach to digital culture and technologies, and his curatorial practice emphasizes the importance of artistic projects that question the social and political aspects of technological changes. His work often explores how art can provide answers to the challenges of contemporary society, and the thematic focus on automation, technology and post-industrial processes fully corresponds to the topics that will be addressed at the 5th Biennial.

Cultural partners

The cultural institution POU Labin, Galerija “Apoteka” from Vodnjan, and the Archaeological Museum of Istria (AMI), The Historical and Maritime Museum of Istria (PPMI) and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Istria (MSUI) and Gallery Novo from Pula. The Kinoteka screening event and the participation of Ema Maznik Antić & Maks Bricelj are produced in partnership with Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana.

Supported by

•  The European Commission – EACEA (ProjeCt FLUX – Female Digital Creativity)
• The project is supported by the Italian Council program (2024) promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture. / Il progetto è realizzato grazie al sostegno del programma Italian Council (2024) promosso dalla Direzione
  Generale Creatività Contemporanea del Ministero della Cultura.
• Ministry of Culture and Media Republic of Croatia
• County of Istria
• City of Pula
• City of Labin
• City of Vodnjan
• Municipality of Raša
• Tourist Assocation of Labin – Rabac
• Tourist Assocation of Pula
• Tourist Assocation of Istria
• With the support of the Institut Ramon Llull.
• IFA Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen

Labin Art Express XXI s ponosom najavljuje 5. izdanje Bijenala industrijske umjetnosti

 

IAB_05

The Vast Automaton / Ogroman Automat 

24/10/2025 – 30/11/2025

IAB_05
The Vast Automaton / Ogroman Automat

24/10/2025 – 30/11/2025

Peto izdanje Bijenala industrijske umjetnosti (IAB 05), pod nazivom Ogroman automat (The Vast Automaton), kuriraju nezavisni kustos Bani Brusadin, koji živi i radi Barceloni (Španjolska), te talijanska kustosica Giulia Colletti, koja trenutno radi u Jožnoj Koreji . Bijenale će se održati od 24. listopada do 30. studenog 2025. godine na 12-tak lokacija u Labinu, Puli, Raši i Vodnjanu.

KONCEPT

Ogroman automat istražuje nastanak megastrukturnih pejzaža, koji obuhvaćaju energetsku infrastrukturu, rudarstvo, industrijsku automatizaciju, te njihov dalekosežan utjecaj na ljudski i neljudski život. Polazeći od današnje polikrize, čiji su korijeni u industrijalizaciji 20. stoljeća, Ogroman automat otvara prostor za alternativne vizije sadašnjosti.

Ovo izdanje bijenala bavi se temama automatizacije, ekstraktivizma i kritičkih tehnologija, s ciljem otkrivanja nevidljivih aspekata suvremene industrijalizacije.

Program se odvija kroz četiri prostorna klastera — Labin, Raša, Pula i Vodnjan — te se sastoji od site-specific radova, instalacija, video i filmskih projekcija koje propituju promjenjive odnose moći i nude nove poglede na našu isprepletenost s tehnološkim sustavima, nastajućim subjektivnostima i samim planetom.

Aktivirajući niz novih i dosad zanemarenih lokacija, 5. Bijenale predstavlja raznoliku skupinu umjetnika i umjetnica iz Hrvatske, Slovenije, Srbije, Ujedinjenog Kraljevstva, Njemačke, Švicarske, Španjolske, Cipra, Rusije, Bjelorusije, Australije, Južne Koreje, Kine, Kube, Egipta, Sijera Leonea i Sjedinjenih Američkih Država,… čije prakse rezoniraju s industrijskim i okolišnim nasljeđem regije.

U sklopu bijenala održat će se i nekoliko popratnih programa sufinanciranih od strane EU (EACEA -Kreativna Europa), poput izložbe digitalnih NFT radova nastalih u sklopu projekta Female Digital Creativity – FLUX , u Galeriji NOVO u Puli, te konferencija o novim tehnologijama i kripto umjetnosti u Labinu.

UMJETNICI

Heba Y. Amin, Andrej Beštak and Anja Leko, Živa Božičnik Rebec, Maks Bricelj,and Ema Maznik Antić,Alice Bucknell,  Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler, Aleksandra Domanović, Anna Engelhardt and Mark Cinkevich, 업채 eobchae, 김아영 Ayoung KIM, Laibach Kunst, Lawrence Lek, 刘窗 Chuang LIU,  Abu Bakarr Mansaray,,!Mediengruppe Bitnik, Gerard Ortín Castellví, Tanit Plana, Selena Savić, Gordan Savičic, Nestor Siré, Suzanne Treister, Marina Xenofontos, Dunja Zupančič / Dragan Živadinov.

PROGRAM OTVARANJA

Uoči predotvaranja za umjetnike, goste i novinare 23. listopada te službenog otvaranja 24. listopada u DKC Lamparna, Labin, planirani su uvodni događaji u Sloveniji i Hrvatskoj. Dana 11. rujna održat će se program projekcija u Kinoteci u Ljubljani, u suradnji s Aksiomom – Institutom za suvremenu umjetnost, Ljubljana. Dana 13. rujna održat će se uvodni događaj POSTGRAVITY ART:: NOORDUNG u Malom rimskom kazalištu u Puli. Ovaj događaj uključuje jedinstveni “informans” Dragana Živadinova i Dunje Zupančič. Na sve četiri lokacije — Labin, Raša, Pula i Vodnjan — tijekom Bijenala biti će organizirani grupni posjeti pod stručnim vodstvom.

O BIJENALU

Bijenale umjetnosti (IAB) međunarodna je izložba suvremene umjetnosti i novih umjetničkih praksi. Pokrenut je 2014. godine od strane umjetničko-aktivističkog kolektiva Labin Art Express XXI (L.A.E. XXI) kao snažna alternativa procesima globalizacije, koji — pod dominacijom moćnih kulturnih i političkih centara — mijenjaju lokalne specifičnosti namećući određene konvencije unutar suvremene umjetnosti i pritom oblikuju lokalne kulturne krajolike. IAB se dosljedno temelji na lokalnom i regionalnom kontekstu, naglašavajući industrijsku i kulturnu baštinu Istre s ciljem jačanja lokalnog/regionalnog identiteta te povećanja njegove važnosti, vidljivosti i prepoznatljivosti unutar europskog kulturnog prostora. Za svako izdanje kustosi pozivaju umjetnike da istraže širi pojam „industrijskog“ u suvremenoj umjetnosti. Bijenale je osmišljen kao platforma za predstavljanje i promicanje novih, društveno angažiranih umjetničkih praksi, koje se bave višeznačnim odnosima između umjetnosti i industrije, kao i između umjetnosti te izgrađenog i/ili prirodnog okoliša.

KUSTOSI

Giulia Colletti je kustosica i povjesničarka umjetnosti. U svom istraživačkom radu bavi se nastankom megastrukturnih pejzaža oblikovanih rudarskim teritorijima i računalnim sustavima. Inspirirana konceptima kozmotektonike u južnoj/jugoistočnoj Europi i istočnoj Aziji, istražuje odjeke epistemoloških režima temeljenih na tehnologiji. Suradnjom s umjetnicima koji propituju ekstraktivne paradigme, eroziju živog materijala i spekulativne budućnosti, njezin rad ispituje kako međuodnos biosfere i tehnosfere preoblikuje načine stvaranja svijeta.
Od 2025. godine djeluje kao istraživačka suradnica u Nacionalnom muzeju moderne i suvremene umjetnosti Koreje (MMCA) te u Nacionalnom muzeju likovnih umjetnosti Tajvana (NTMoFA). Od 2019. do 2025. bila je kustosica programa i digitalnih sadržaja u muzeju Castello di Rivoli – Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, u Torinu. Njezini eseji, osvrti i tekstovi objavljeni su u muzejskim katalozima te u publikacijama kao što su Cura., Mousse, Flash Art i e-flux, i dr.

Bani Brusadin je nezavisni kustos, edukator i istraživač, koji se u svojoj karijeri bavio brojnim projektima na području suvremene umjetnosti, kritičkih tehnologija, planetarnih infrastruktura i utopija umreženog društva.
Trenutno je glavni kustos Medialaba, projekta u sklopu centra suvremene umjetnosti Matadero u Madridu (Španjolska). Godine 2023. bio je član kustoskog tima renomiranog festivala transmediale, jednog od najstarijih europskih festivala digitalne umjetnosti, a bio je i sukreator i kustos festivala The Influencers u Barceloni, koji se od 2004. godine bavi nekonvencionalnim umjetničkim praksama i radikalnim projektima.
Brusadinovo istraživanje temelji se na kritičkom pristupu digitalnoj kulturi i tehnologijama, a njegova kustoska praksa naglašava važnost umjetničkih projekata koji preispituju društvene i političke aspekte tehnoloških promjena. Njegov rad često istražuje načine na koje umjetnost može odgovoriti na izazove suvremenog društva, a tematski fokus na automatizaciju, tehnologiju i postindustrijske procese u potpunosti se poklapa s temama koje će biti u središtu 5. izdanja Bijenala.

PARTNERI

Pučko otvoreno učilište (POU) Labin, Umjetnička organizacija “Apoteka”, Vodnjan, Arheološki muzej Istre (AMI), Povijesni i pomorski muzej Istre (PPMI), Muzej suvremene umjetnosti Istre (MSUI) te Galerija NOVO iz Pule.

DONATORI

Europska komisija – EACEA (projekt FLUX – Female Digital Creativity)
Ministarstvo kulture Republike Italije – Italian Council
Ministarstvo kulture i medija Republike Hrvatske
Istarska županija
Grad Pula
Grad Labin
Grad Vodnjan
Općina Raša
TZ Labin – Rabac
TZ Pula
TZ Istra
Institut Ramon Llull
IFA – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen