As culture lies threatened globally by the rise of right-wing nationalism, The Pleasure of Expense is a timely dissection of culture’s relationship with political power and the strategy of the political gift. As a tactic of soft power, the gifting of artistic and architectural works to ideological structures is essentially a tokenistic act. Entangling governments and citizens in a deliberate instrumentalising of culture for political benefit, the economy of gifting offers an enticing spectacle of benevolent solidarity. 
Cibic's project composes from a gallery-specific film installation and a live performance - the ensemble of which subtlety decodes the apparatus and appearance of the nation state to open alternatives to the existing regime of political and aesthetic possibility.
The visual touchstone of the exhibition is an immersive mural depicting ex-Yugoslav monuments, gifts of the state and its people to the antifascist struggle. Projected onto this assemblage Cibic’s film conjures the Palace of Nations in Geneva – home to the first attempt at transnationalism in Europe, whose interior was comprised of gifts from member states.
Within the installation, an all-female operatic ensemble performs excerpts of political speeches made during key moments of socio-political crisis of the 20th century. Sung whilst reclining on hammocks, embroidered with political slogans, the new performance brings state power, modernist architecture and the body into a single spectacle.