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Work in Progress is a long-term artistic and curatorial research project that we – visual artists Vesna Bukovec and Ana Čigon, and curator Tia Čiček – have been developing since 2022. Using a decentralised exhibition approach, we explore the conditions of contemporary work, working hours and the possibilities for shaping alternatives to neoliberalism and capitalism.

Each iteration builds on the previous one and introduces a new point of focus: a reflection on communities beyond capitalism (Škuc Gallery, Ljubljana, 2022), utopian rest (GT22, Maribor, 2023) and the contradictions of working hours (Meduza Gallery, Koper, 2025). This exhibition showcases drawings and mind maps from various stages of the artistic research, as well as two videos: the first, The Precariat of the World … (2022), features trade unionist Tea Jarc, classical philologist, anthropologist and writer Dr Svetlana Slapšak, and Jadranka Vesel from the RISE Institute reflecting on the situation of contemporary female workers, the community and the future; the second, Deceptive Working Time from 2024, features Ajda Pistotnik, MA from the Policy Lab organisation, presenting perspectives on the organisation of work and society as proposed by the Degrowth Movement, while Professor Dr Liljana Burcar addresses the historical differences in working conditions for women under socialism and capitalism, as well as the importance of the systemic emancipation of women. /.../

The exhibition entitled Work in Progress. Deceptive Working Time was first shown in the Meduza Gallery in 2025. The exhibition’s relocation is supported by the Ministry of Culture.

Events accompanying the exhibition Stress Workshop, Tina Bončina

During the workshop, we will explore the basics of stress: how to recognise it, how the mind and body interact, and how burnout develops. As understanding what is happening to us often in itself reduces the pressure it causes, we will also pay attention to making sense of the situation we find ourselves in and our reactions to it. We will engage in practical exercises, focus on prevention and recognising our own patterns, learn relaxation and breathing techniques, and explore new behavioural strategies that promote well-being.

More about the event: https://csu.si/en/exhibition/work-in-progress-deceptive-working-time/
Workshop application form: https://forms.gle/DpCrrzUkaLSPjibc7

Exhibition design: Ana Čigon, Lucija Smodiš
Exhibition set-up: Borut Wenzel
Video, camera, editing: Ana Čigon
Interviews with: dr. Mirjam Milharčič Hladnik and Aigul Haikimovo
Help with filming interviews: Vesna Bukovec
Exhibition producer: Slovenian Animated Film Society
Exhibition co-organizer: public interest NGO raum AU

The exhibition Catlands Politics, which will run at the Galerija raum AU from 29 May 2026 to 24 July 2026, reveals the harsh reality of Europe's exclusive politics through the humorous cat-like symbolism of national flags, state institutions and signage. Filmmaker and visual artist Ana Čigon weaves elements of her animation, Catlands, and video interviews in which she discusses refugee policy with female experts.

The spatial installation in raum AU is framed by a panel image of the European Commission building, which offers the opportunity to watch animation inserts and interviews with Aigul Haikimova, a member of the Infokolpa initiative, and Mirjam Milharčič Hladnik, a sociologist and scientific advisor at the Institute for Slovenian Emigration and Migration of the Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

More about the exhibition: https://dsaf.si/asset/CkFKuB73sgWbYA5pS

Animation Catlands is now available on demand on platform Vimeo.

Link to the film: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/catlands

Artists: Milijana Babić, selma banich, Laura Anderson Barbata, CADA, Graciela Carnevale, Ana Čigon, Diamela Eltit, Exterra XX, Else Gabriel, Regina José Galindo, Anna Bella Geiger, Lydia Hamann & Kaj Osteroth, María Teresa Hincapié, Ana Victoria Jiménez, Magali Lara, María Evelia Marmolejo, Mónica Mayer, Lorena Orozco, Giulia Palladini & Rodolfo Suárez Molnar, Polvo de Gallina Negra (Maris Bustamante & Mónica Mayer), Producciones y Milagros Agrupación Feminista (Rotmi Enciso & Ina Riaskov), Jesusa Rodríguez and Liliana Felipe, Maja Smrekar, Gabriele Stötzer, Cecilia Vicuña, Lorena Wolffer.

Exhibition curator: Bettina Knaup, Iva Kovač and Mónica Mayer

The exhibition Archival Chain Reactions emerges from a collaborative project dedicated to connecting and activating important yet precarious archives of feminist art. By addressing the historical erasure of women* and gender-nonconforming, queer feminist artists, this project aims to counter the threat of disappearing feminist archives and emphasises the necessity of networking and exchange among archives in different contexts globally. Rather than viewing archives solely as static repositories, Archival Chain Reactions highlights them as dynamic social formations that require continuous care, maintenance, and exchange.

More about the event: https://www.mg-lj.si/en/exhibitions/4353/exhibition-archival-chain-reactions/

The collective Fem TV consists of: Eva Jus, Danijela Zajc, Pia Skušek, Ana Grobler, Ana Čigon, Vasja Progar, Jaka Andrej Vojevec, Slobodan Malić, Bernarda Kristan, Tadeja Pirih,Avalon, Lučka Zajc, Hay.
Performing: Eva Jus, Danijela Zajc, Pia Skušek, Ana Grobler, Ana Čigon, Vasja Progar, Avalon, Lučka Zajc
Make up: Avalon; Technical support: Rianne, Lučka Zajc; Video: Rianne, Bernarda Kristan
Organization: 27th International Feminist and Queer Festival Red Dawns (Arts and Culture Association KUD Mreža)
Coproduction / co-organisation: Association for the Promotion of Equality and Pluralism Vita Activa / Spol.si, Association Matafir, Fem TV, Pionirski Theatre
Financial support: the City Municipality of Ljubljana – Department for Culture

The Feminist Year is around and it’s time to re-declare the Thistle Anti-award. This dishonorable title can befall anyone who publicly attacks, humiliates, and insults others on the basis of gender identity, gender expression and/or sexual orientation. The audience will choose the winning, most daring statement at the award announcement, which will take place as part of the Fem TV 8.0 show. All of you who will follow the event will be able to vote live for your favorite” among the 5 selected statements.

Fem TV is a burlesque-cabaret show, consisting of short sketches that parody television shows and news programs and provide a sharp critique of current social events.

More about the event: https://rdecezore.org/?p=19836&lang=en&l=2026

Animation Catlands will be shown in the short films section Wilde Roses at the 37° Trieste Film Festival. This section is dedicated to female directors from Slovenia and is curated by Nerina T. Kocjančič.

More about the festival: https://triestefilmfestival.it/en/movie/short-films-3/

Animation Catlands will be shown at Animuffin Festival in Zagreb, Croatia.

More about the festival: https://www.animafin.eu/2025/11/filmovi-2025.html#more

Animation Catlands will be shown in Grand Competition Programme 1 of the 17th Banjaluka International Animated Film Festival in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

More about the festival: https://www.banjalukanima.org/program/48/2025-10-24?title=Grand+competition+program+1

Participants: Karolina Babič, Blaž Kosovel
Moderator: Jadranka Vesel
Organization: Vesna Bukovec, Ana Čigon.
Production: Piran Coastal Galleries, Publisher / *cf.

The public conversation will take place as part of the accompanying program of the exhibition by Vesna Bukovec and Ana Čigon Work in Progress. Deceptive Working Time at the Meduza Gallery in Koper. The exhibition is part of a multi-year artistic-curatorial research project that critically addresses precarious work and contemporary forms of neoliberal exploitation of people, nature, and the planet. At the same time, it seeks alternative ways of organizing society that do not succumb to the despair that nothing can be changed. The exhibition is based on the reflections of several interlocutors and three books: Bullshit Jobs: A Theory by David Graeber, The Restoration of Capitalism: The Repatriarchalization of Society by Lilijana Burcar, and the anthology Degrowth: A Vocabulary for a New Era.

The authors of the exhibition have invited social economy ambassador and activist Jadranka Vesel (Research Institute for Social Economy RISE) to moderate the discussion. She is also one of the collaborators of the Work in Progress project and one of the interlocutors in the video at the current exhibition. She will be conversing with social and solidarity economy researcher Dr. Karolina Babič, employed at the Faculty of Education of the University of Primorska, and Dr. Blaž Kosovel, editor of the journal Razpotja and author of the foreword to the Slovenian edition of David Graeber's Bullshit Jobs (*Publisher /cf.).

Jadranka Vesel has titled this conversation Deceptive Working Time, Deceptive Humanity … and, in addition to the female and male interlocutors, invites the engaged public to the discussion: “At the 2022 exhibition, we dedicated a roundtable to work and community. Today, we should dedicate it to humanity. If at that time we talked about work and its precarious forms bordering on slavery, today we are receiving confirmation that people are superfluous. All social safety nets are being reduced so that funds can be allocated for militarization. Even genocide is becoming profitable. Everything and more must be squeezed out of everyone, so that profits can grow—even if that means killing, destroying, humiliating, exploiting people and natural resources to a degree that threatens our existence. It is time to raise our heads, to stand up for every person, for everything that surrounds us, for the protection of the planet we call Earth. Join us—organizing will be easier if we start with a conversation. Let art mark the beginnings of new shared paths!"

More about the event: https://www.obalne-galerije.si/en/deceptive-working-time-deceptive-humanity-conversation/

Animation Catlands will be shown in the competition programme of Vukovar Film Festival in Croatia.

More about the festival: https://www.vukovarfilmfestival.com/vff19/hr/program/film/macak-na-vratima

The short experimental film Phoney Sights is comming to the national TV program. Kindly invited to watch it on TV SLO 1 on 18 Aug at 9.45 pm and on 22 Aug at 1.50 pm.

Animation Catlands will be shown in the competition programme of Vrboska Film Festival on the island of Hvar,Croatia.

More about the festival: https://www.vrboskafilmfestival.com/

In June the animation Catlands will be shown in the competition programme On human interactions at the wonderful IN THE PALACE International Short Film Festival in Palace of Culture Pernik, Bulgaria.

More about the festival: https://www.inthepalace.com/en/movies/m/catlands

A critical view of work and contemporary forms of exploitation of workers, such as extended working hours, non-standard and insecure forms of work, curtailing workers’ rights, hyper-production, and mindless demands for constant economic growth, the aim of which is not to improve the living standards of the most vulnerable, but to accumulate wealth in the hands of the wealthiest individuals, increasingly frequent occurrences of burnout resulting from the unlivable demands of neoliberalism, environmental pollution, etc. are themes and problems of today’s society in its broadest sense and scope. The work in progress with a decentralized exhibition approach represents a multi-year artistic-curatorial research created by visual artists Vesna Bukovec and Ana Čigon in collaboration with curator Tia Čiček.

More about the exhibition: https://www.obalne-galerije.si/en/vesna-bukovec-in-ana-cigon-work-in-progress-deceptive-working-time/

For the World Refugee Day Festival of Migrant Film and Slovene Philanthropy will be holding an event entitled Between the Border and Home / Med mejo in domom. During the event the animation Catlands will be shown several times during the day and a round table will be held with the following guests: Ana Čigon, director of the film Catlands, Iza Thaler, representative of UNHCR, Urša Regvar from the PIC organization, and Ognjen Radivojević from the Slovenian Philanthropy. The round table will be moderated by Rok Derenčin.

More about the festival: https://www.filantropija.org/2025/06/11/med-mejo-in-domom-dogodek-ob-svetovnem-dnevu-beguncev/