Ana Čigon

News

IN THE PALACE International Short Film Festival

28 Jun 2025 at 3 pm
Palace of Culture Pernik, Hall 1, Pernik, Bulgaria

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

Vesna Bukovec & Ana Čigon. Work In Progress. Deceptive Working Time

21 Jun - 19 Sep 2025
Meduza Gallery, Koper, Slovenia

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/

Queer Cinema for Palestine. No Pride in Genocide

9 Jun 2025 at 7 pm
Hana Karim Studio, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Films in Arabic, English and German (with English subtitles).
Discussion in Slovenian or English.
Accessible for people with reduced mobility.

Join us for a screening of eight short films selected by Queer Cinema for Palestine. After the screening, we will discuss the role of art in resistance and the struggle for liberation with artist Ana Čigon.

More about the event: Queer Cinema for Palestine. No Pride in Genocide

Cinema Slovenia. Short animated films

9 Jun 2025 at 7 pm
Slovenian Cinematheque, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Films by: Lea Vučko, Damir Grbanović, Rok Predin, Ana Čigon, Milanka Fabjančič, Darko Štante, Lučka Kenda, Anja Resman, Zarja Menart

The Cinema Slovenia project is organized by Filmoteka and the Association of Slovenian Filmmakers' Societies with the support of AGRFT, the Slovenian Film Archive and the Slovenian Film Centre. The screening will be followed by a discussion. The animation TCatlands will be shown as part of the short film programe at the Slovenian Cinematheque at 7 pm.

More about the event: https://kinoteka.si/projekcija/kino-slovenija-kratki/

Kino Otok - Isola Cinema, Video on the Beach V / Nonhuman

8 Jun 2025 at 9 pm
Izola - Video on the Beach, Park Svetilnik, Izola, Slovenia

Films: The Tower 1, Andraž Žigart, Slovenia, 2025, 4’30’’; Inventory, Ivan Marković, Serbia, 2025, 21’; Blooming, Lara Šifrer, Slovenia, 2025, 25’17”; Leptir / Butterfly, Sunčana Brkulj, Croatia, Denmark, 2024, 8’07”; Cuando todo arde / When Everything Burns, Maria Belen Poncio, Argentina, USA, 2024, 15’; Starvation, Aleksandra Stosić, Slovenia, 2024, 12’; Catlands, Ana Čigon, Slovenia, 2024, 9’44’’; Gerhard, Ulu Braun, Germany, 2025, 10’15”

The subjects in Sunday’s programme are not people, but spaces, plants, towers, nature and animals. Its main question is how to shift the narrative away from an anthropocentric perspective to listen to the messages of the nonhuman world. Through the dynamic presentation of its features, the film The Tower 1 creates the impression that the tower has a character of its own. In Inventory, we follow the slow transformation of the once iconic Sava Centre, which, newly privatised, is losing its signature identity in an ongoing transformation. With an unexpected focus on a houseplant, Blooming shows scenes from the life of an unknown girl. Butterfly playfully raises questions about how the environment can affect a community and vice versa, while When Everything Burns and Catlands continue and develop this idea towards a potential dystopia that increasingly overlaps with the present reality. In Starvation, the dystopia continues on a grotesque and dark note, with the narration delivered in the language of social networks. The programme closes with Gerhard, which presents the phenomenon of social obsession with the cult of the famous artist through the cynical use of artificial intelligence.

More about the exvent: https://kinootok.org/en/event/video-on-the-beach-v/

Catlands Politics

16 May - 21 Jun 2025
Carinarnica, Nova Gorica, Slovenia

16 May 2025, at 7 pm, Official opening of the exhibition with Ana Čigon; at 8.15 pm Outdoor screening of the animated film Catlands
5 Jun 2025 at 6 pm, additional screening of Catlands animation
20 Jun 2025 at 6 pm, additional screening of Catlands animation

The exhibition Catlands Politics, which will run at the Customs House from 16 May 2025 to 21 June 2025, 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 latest animation, Catlands, and video interviews in which she discusses refugee policy with female experts.

The spatial installation in the Carinarnica 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://www.go2025.eu/en/whats-up/events/ana-cigon-catlands-politics

Fem TV 7.0 CMAK

10 May 2025, at 8 pm
MMC CMAK, VCC, Cerkno, Slovenia

Are TV-shows and newspaper articles causing upset stomach? Is the Internet even worse? Fem TV: a bouquet of feminists for efficient calming of media reflux.

Kindly invited to the burlesque-cabaret show Fem TV, which returns to Cerkno after six years. In its current, seventh version, it parodies television shows and news programs and sharply criticizes current topics related to gender, sexuality, and the intersections between various forms of discrimination.

The Fem TV collective consists of diverse, changing individuals who create in a non-hierarchical feminist and queer spirit. They have been politicizing ignored topics with humor since 2012.

The collective includes Eva Jus, Danijela Zajc, Pia S. Skušek, Ana Grobler, Ana Čigon, Vasja Progar, Jaka Andrej Vojevec, Slobodan Malić, Tadeja Pirih, Bernarda Kristan, Avalon, Lucija Zajc and Hay.

More about the eevent: https://cmakcerkno.net/burleskno-kabaretna-predstava-fem-tv-7-0/

Catlands filmreview

9 May 2025
Radio Student

Review of the animated film Catlands by Ana Čigon

Catlands is a short animated film by director Ana Čigon, which premiered last year at the 34th Animafest in Zagreb. Last December, it was included in the program of the 21st Animateka, where we also watched it. It is a sharp satire that reflects a sharp commentary on European border policy through the microcosm of three feline neighbors. /.../

Review available only in Slovene: https://radiostudent.si/kultura/kinobar/macje-meje-in-pasji-zakoni

Remembering for Tomorrow

4 - 30 Apr 2025
Alkatraz Gallery, AKC Metelkova, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Open from 2 pm to 6 pm, Mon - Fri
4 Apr 2025 at 6 pm guided tour of the exhibition with the artists; at 7 pm, oppening
16 Apr 2025, at 5 pm, discussion with the artists and the curatorial team
17 Apr 2025, at 6 pm, guided tour of the exhibition with the artists
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The second exhibition of the International Feminist and Queer Festival Red Dawns, taking place in April and organised in collaboration with the Association for the Promotion of Women in Culture – City of Women, features two of the key artists who have been working independently and together in many fields of art in Slovenia for more than two decades. Social criticism, more specifically, feminist art, is an important foundation of Vesna Bukovec's and Ana Čigon's artistic practice.

More about the exhibition: https://galerijalkatraz.org/?p=20974

ClujShorts International Short Film Festival, competition programme

Animocje International Animation Film Festival, competition programme

Athens International Film + Video Festival

Glasgow Short Film Festival

22 Mar 2025 at 9.30 pm
Civic House Venue, Glasgow, UK

My animation Catlands is continuing its festival tour. In March it will have its UK premiere at Glasgow Short Film Festival. The film will be shown in the programme Welcome to the Multiverse: Dystopia Now.

More about the event: https://gsff.filmchief.com/shop/tickets?v=1055

Exhibition Picture (a) City, MSUM

30 Jan 2025 at 8 pm, opening
30 Jan - 1 Jun 2025 Museum of Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, Slovenia

The exhibition Picture (a) City displays works of art that depict and critically reflect on various periods in the life of the city of Ljubljana.

Artists: Igor Andjelić, Architect's bulletin; Jože Barši & Martina Bastarda, Mateja Ocepek, Nataša Skušek; Eva Bevec, Biancoshock, Fabian Brunsing, Klara Debeljak, DNLM, Leon Dolinšek, Kostja Gatnik, IRWIN, Lado Jakša, Zmago Jeraj, Staš Kleindienst, Future 14b Collective, Neven Korda, France Kralj, Krater, KUD Obrat / Obrat Culture (Stefan Doepner, Urška Jurman, Polonca Lovšin, Apolonija Šušteršič), Kvadratni meter (Teja Miholič, Urša Rahne, Anne Elisabeth Tassel), Gašper Lešnik, Miha Maleš, Metod, Rastko Močnik, Amir Muratović, Ivana Müller & Bojana Kunst in collaboration with Ana Čigon, Ajda Bračič, Urban Belina, Klara Drnovšek Solina; The Most Beautiful City in the World, David Nez (OHO), Nonument Group, Nikolaj Omersa, Tadej Pogačar & P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Museum of Contemporary Art, Marko Pogačnik, Marjetica Potrč, Marij Pregelj, Matjaž Rušt, Jakob Savinšek, Željko Stevanić, Iva Suhadolnik Gregorin; Inštitut Egon March (Urška Kristina Škerl, Domen Kosmač, Marko Košnik); Nika Špan, Miha Štrukelj, Vladimir Turner, Sašo Vrabič, Peter Žargi, The Wa

Exhibition curator: Igor Španjol

More about the event: https://www.mg-lj.si/en/exhibitions/4066/exhibition-picture-a-city/

Work in progress. Deceptive working time

20 Dec 2024 at 7 pm
Škuc Gallery, Ljubljana Slovenia

Work in Progress is a multi-year artistic-curational research and fluid process that explores our relationship to work, community, and the experiences and practices of others. By cooperating, we highlight the precarious position of modern workers. The special feature of the process is the use of different media, group work and learning. We include colleagues from various fields who co-shape the project with their considerations, and we explore ways of sharing knowledge and involving female participants and visitors.

Deceptive Working Time thus originates from several years of research and also flows back into it. At the reading group*, we talked about the book Bulshit Jobs by David Graeber and thought about how the views on the value and evaluation of work in the book resonate with our lives. In addition to Graeber, we also read the books Restavracija kapitalizma: repatriarhalizacija družbe (Restoration of Capitalism: Repatriarchalization of Society) by Lilijana Burcar and the book Degrowth: A vocabulary for a new era, authors: Giacomo D'Alisa, Federico Demaria, Giorgos Kallis and others. In doing so, we were interested in what solutions socialism offered for the organization of work and the relief of women's reproductive work, and how degrowth deals with the issue of working hours.

At the event, we will present a video in which mag. Ajda Pistotnik from the Policy Lab organization presented the views on organizing work and society proposed by the degrowth movement. Dr. Lilijana Burcar will address the historical differences in working conditions for women in socialism and capitalism and will present the importance of the systemic emancipation of women.

More about the event: https://www.galerijaskuc.si/si/event/delo-v-nastajanju-varljivi-delovni-cas/