Marina Gržinić & Aina Šmid
contact: margrz@zrc-sazu.si
Marina Gržinić and Aina Šmid have been working with video since 1982. They participated in more than 40 video art projects, shot a 16mm short film and created numerous video and media installations; they independently directed several video documentaries and television productions.
In 1997, they created an interactive CD-ROM for the ZKM in Karlsruhe. Gržinić and Šmid presented and exhibited their video works and video installations at more than 100 video festivals around the world and received several important awards for their video production.
Marina Gržinić (1958) holds a PhD in philosophy and works as a Principal Research Associate at the Institute of Philosophy of the Scientific Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU) in Ljubljana. She also works as a freelance media theorist, art critic and curator. Gržinić is a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. She has published hundreds of articles and essays, as well as numerous books.
Aina Šmid (1957) is an art historian. She was editor of a design magazine in Ljubljana and worked as a freelance writer.
Gržinić and Šmid had several presentations of their video films in 2022 and their work was also presented in two lectures by Marina Gržinić at ERG (Brussels) and ISELP (Brussels). The program was organized by Cinematek Brussels (Christophe Piette, Iris Lafon, Magali Michaux, Velerie Leclercq participated).
Marina Gržinić is a curator of the exhibitions SLOVENIAN PUNK & PHOTOGRAPHY (5. 12. 2023 – 11. 2. 2024, Galerija CD, Ljubljana); PUNK. SUBCULTURE. SOCIALISM. ARCHIVES OF THE FUTURE. PHOTOGRAPHY FROM SLOVENIA. (27. 4. 2024–26. 5. 2024, A.K.T; Pforzheim, Germany); PUNK. SUBCULTURE. SOCIALISM. ARCHIVES OF THE FUTURE. PHOTOGRAPHY FROM SLOVENIA. (03. 08. 2024–28. 09. 2024, Pavelhaus, Laafeld, Austria).
COLLABORATIONS:
From 2010 to 2012 Gržinić and Šmid collaborated with Zvonka Simčič. From 2016 to 2018, Gržinić collaborated with curator and artist Aneta Stojnić. Since 2020, she has been collaborating with Tjaša Kancler and Jovita Pristovšek.
In 2023 Marina Gržinić in collaboration with Tjaša Kancler and Jovita Pristovšek, made the experimental feature-length documentary video film Insurgent Flows. Trans*Decolonial and Black Marxist Futures (2023), and co-authored with them the exhibition INSURGENT FLOWS. THRIVING OF BLACK, BROWN, INDIGENOUS, QUEER AND TRANS VITALITIES. WHITE TOPOGRAPHIES OF COERCION AND EMANCIPATION (21.09.2023 –10.11.2023, KiG! Kultur in Graz, Austria).
BOOKS AND DIGITAL PRESENTATIONS:
2004 Index – Video Works (1990s–2003)
DVD compilation realized in Vienna as part of the INDEX project.
Available via sixpackfilm: https://www.sixpackfilm.com/en/indexedition/release/5/
2006 Moments of Decision – The Performative, the Political, and the Technological: Video Art, Film, and Interactive Multimedia Works by Marina Gržinić and Aina Šmid (1982–2005)
Edited by Marina Gržinić and Tanja Velagić
Texts by Giorgio Bertellini et al.
Ljubljana: Društvo ZAK, 2006
142 pp., illustrated; includes 1 video DVD, (ZAK Library, vol. 2) ISBN: 961-90628-8-4
2008 New-Media Technology, Science and Politics: The Video Art of Marina Gržinić and Aina Šmid
Edited by Marina Gržinić and Tanja Velagić
Vienna: Loecker Verlag, 2008
https://grzinic-smid.si/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/newmedia.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com
2024 Marina Gržinić: Dissident Stories. Revolutions of the Future
Edited by Łukasz Guzek
Co-edited by Marina Gržinić and Jovita Pristovšek
Gdańsk: Gdańska Galeria Miejska, 2024
https://www.journal.doc.art.pl/english/pdf30/art_and_documentation_30_booklet.pdf
2026 Encountering Futures: Lectures, Conversations, and Reflections / Vorträge, Gespräche und Reflexionen
Edited by Marina Gržinić and Elisa R. Linn
Contributors:
Asma Aiad, Pol Comelles, Janusz Czech, Frau Diamanda / Héctor Acuña, Marina Gržinić, Maša Guštin, Silke Helmerdig, Isabel Jacobs, Anahita Neghabat, Elisa R. Linn, Daria Schroth, Klaus Theweleit
Pforzheim: Kunstverein Pforzheim im Reuchlinhaus, 2026
RETROSPECTIVE PRESENTATIONS:
In 2003, a retrospective entitled MARINA GRŽINIĆ / AINA ŠMID (1985–2003) was held at the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen in Germany.
In 2011, a retrospective entitled MARINA GRŽINIĆ / AINA ŠMID, 30 YEARS: 26 WORKS IN 5 PARTS (screening of video works from 1982 to 2011) was held in Belgium at the Galerie D.O.R. in Brussels.
In 2017, a large retrospective exhibition with new works and installations titled Marina Gržinić and Aina Šmid – RADICAL CONTEMPORANEITY: 35 years of work revisited (1982–2017), curated by Aneta Stojnić, took place at Kunstraum Lakeside in Klagenfurt, Austria.
In 2022, Marina Gržinić authored the exhibition ODPADNIŠKE ZGODOVINE | STORIE DISSIDENTI | DISSIDENT HISTORIES (1982–2022), Marina Gržinić & Aina Šmid; (25. 11. 2022 – 28. 2. 2023, Galerija Loža Koper, Piran Coastal Galleries). The curator of the exhibition is dr. Mara Ambrožič Verderber.
https://www.obalne-galerije.si/en/marina-grzinic-aina-smid-dissident-histories/
In 2023, KiG! Kultur in Graz presented the exhibition Insurgent Flows. (20.09.2023 – 10.11.2023). Subtitle: Thriving of Black, Brown, Indigenous, Queer and Trans Vitalities.
White Topographies of Coercion and Emancipation WITH Marina Gržinić, Tjaša Kancler, Jovita Pristovšek, Jill H. Casid, Bojan Đorđev, Siniša Ilić. Performances: Bojan Đorđev and Siniša Ilić, action Overwhelmed | Alexandra Gschiel | Eva Ursprung
Symposium in KiG! on 30.09.2023. A cooperation in the context of Steirischer Herbst’23.
Production support: Piran Coastal Galleries (Slovenia) | Conviviality as Potentiality (2021–2025), funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF: AR 679 | Photon Gallery (Ljubljana, Vienna), Luminus Studio, Kulturvermittlung Steiermark.
In 2024, Photon – Centre for Contemporary Photography, Ljubljana, Slovenia presented
Insurgent Flows & Insurgent Images (1.2. – 23. 2. 2024). Curators: Marina Gržinić & Jovita Pristovšek.
Featuring: Tjaša Kancler, Aina Šmid, Zvonka T. Simčič, Nina Cvar, Siniša Ilić, Vesna Liponik, Kristina Božič. “All of that life that was extracted is still present in some form as value.” (Nat Raha)
In 2024, the Günter Grass Gallery in Gdańsk, Poland, presented a large exhibition with the title Marina GRŽINIĆ DISSIDENT HISTORIES. INSURGENT FUTURITIES with Aina ŠMID, Tjaša KANCLER, Jovita PRISTOVŠEK (08.10 – 15.12.2024). Curator: Łukasz Guzek; Co-Curator: Mara Ambrožič Verderber; Exhibition project: Marina Gržinić and Jovita Pristovšek
Conference: 09.10.2024, 2.00 PM | Europejskie Centrum Solidarności (The European Solidarity Centre (The Solidarity Museum) in the Gdańsk Shipyard) IMAGES FOR THE POLITICS OF THE FUTURE. Conceived by Łukasz Guzek and Marina Gržinić. Coordinated by Jacek Kołtan. PARTICIPANTS: Anahita Neghabat (Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna); Janusz Czech (A.K.T; Pforzheim, Germany); Jovita Pristovšek (ZRC SAZU, Ljubljana, Slovenia); Łukasz Guzek (Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk); Maša Guštin (University of Gdańsk); Marina Gržinić (ZRC SAZU, Ljubljana, Slovenia), Monika Bokiniec (University of Gdańsk).
In 2026, Kunstverein Pforzheim im Reuchlinhaus, Pforzheim, Germany displayed the exhibition Un/Settled Futurities: Diasporic Re/Imaginaries (March 20 – May 3, 2026). Curators: Marina Gržinić and Elisa R. Linn. Participating position: Asma Aiad, Elisa R. Linn, Frau Diamanda / Héctor Acuña, Maša Guštin, Marina Gržinić and Aina Šmid, Pol Comelles, Yevgeny Yufit (1961–2016)
This large-scale interdisciplinary group exhibition brings together artists, filmmakers, and theorists working across: film, performance and mixed-media practices. The exhibition, conference, and workshops operate at the intersection of politics, aesthetics, and futurity, focusing on: identity and belonging beyond the nation-state; survival strategies within hostile or exclusionary systems; counter-histories and insurgent politics (e.g., travesti uprisings, labor struggles); colonial and imperial histories, migration and displacement, racialized and securitized political systems.
