Nonument Group. Photo: Peter Giodani.
Soundtrack for an Invisible House
Commissioner: Martina Vovk (Moderna galerija Ljubljana)
Curator: Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez
Exhibitors: NONUMENT GROUP (Neja Tomšič, Martin Bricelj Baraga, Nika Grabar, Miloš Kosec)
Scientific Advisor: Anja Zalta
The Republic of Slovenia presents Soundtrack for an Invisible House at the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, curated by Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez and developed by the Nonument Group (Neja Tomšič, Martin Bricelj Baraga, Nika Grabar, and Miloš Kosec). Installed in the Arsenale Exhibition Spaces, the project transforms a forgotten architectural trace into a resonant space for listening, reflection, and historical re-examination.
Soundtrack for an Invisible House is rooted in a little-known episode of European history: the construction in 1917 of a temporary wooden mosque by the Austro-Hungarian Army in Log pod Mangartom, near Slovenia’s northwestern border. Built to serve Bosnian Muslim soldiers fighting on the Isonzo Front during World War I, the mosque functioned as part of the empire’s military infrastructure, where religion was mobilised in the service of politics, propaganda and power. After the war, the structure disappeared, leaving behind only a handful of photographs and, until recently, no visible trace in the landscape.
Recently unearthed through archaeological excavations and officially registered as a heritage site in 2025, the mosque today exists as a “nonument”: a site, whose meaning transformed due to political and social changes. In this case, an invisible structure whose absence speaks powerfully of political, religious, and territorial histories. Taking this site as its point of departure, the Nonument Group explores how religion has been—and continues to be—mobilized in the service of war, propaganda, and power, while also tracing the shifting identities of European Muslim communities across the 20th and 21st centuries.
Through Soundtrack for an Invisible House, the Slovenian Pavilion offers a contemplative space that connects past and present, asking urgent questions about the entanglements of religion, power, and conflict in today’s world.
