Cheers to Women! A Performative Appetizer to Video Art
Performance, cca 25 min, 2019Alkatraz Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Premiere September 24th in Slovenian; reprise October 5th in English
Production: City of Women
Co-production: SCCA-Ljubljana (DIVA Station), KUD Mreža
Supported by: Ministry of Culture, City of Ljubljana
The new performance by Ana Čigon Cheers to Women! A Performative Appetizer to Video Art, dedicated to video art created between 1995 and 2015 by Slovenian female videasts. Through the eclectic merging of written, spoken and performative quotes, the artist is forming a performative tale, encouraging viewers to an in-depth viewing of the exhibited works. In that sense, the performance is formed as an experimental historical overview, otherwise different from the classical critical texts, but nevertheless awakening the video archives, contemporizing it and thereby encouraging a re-thinking of the meaning and position of artwork by Slovenian female video artists within the canon of art history.
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Živele! Performativni aperitiv k videoumetnosti / Cheers to Women! A Performative Appetizer to Video Art from City of Women on Vimeo. |
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Photo 1 by Ana Čigon
Photos of the performance (2 to 18) by Nada Žgank
More PHOTOS of the performance: http://cityofwomen.org/en/content/2019/photo_gallery/cheers-women-25-years-film-and-video
VIDEO about the performance: https://vimeo.com/362398758
Performance is opening a group exhibition Cheers to Women! 25 Years of Film and Video. More info below.
Cheers to Women! 25 Years of Film and Video
Group Exhibition in Alkatraz Gallery
Curated by: Vesna Bukovec, Ana Čigon
Artists: Zemira Alajbegović & Neven Korda,* Nika Autor,* Vesna Bukovec,* Jasmina Cibic,* Ana Čigon,* Andreja Džakušič, Ana Grobler, Marina Gržinić & Aina Šmid, Đejmi Hadrović, Maja Hodošček, Sanela Jahić, Neža Knez, Polonca Lovšin,* Aprilija Lužar, Nika Oblak & Primož Novak, Ana Pečar & Oliver Ressler, Nataša Prosenc Stearns, Marija Mojca Pungerčar, Pila Rusjan, Duba Sambolec, Zvonka T Simčič, Nataša Skušek, Metka Zupanič, Valerie Wolf Gang
Alkatraz Gallery, Ljubljana
24/9/2019 - 7/10/2019
*These works are going to be screened at the Cheers to Women! marathon in Kinoteka on 3rd October
Exhibition catalogue
Co-produced by: SCCA-Ljubljana (DIVA Station), KUD Mreža, City of Women; supported by: Ministry of Culture, City of Ljubljana; thanks to: MG+MSUM (Tomaž Kučer), CONA.
Celebrating the 25th edition of the City of Women Festival, we are proud to look at the 25 years of creative endeavours by female video artists in Slovenian space. Due to space and production limits, we have decided to symbolically select twenty-five female authors, although there are, of course, infinitely more. The selected works are examples of diverse exhibition forms enabled by the video medium. Most of the works are presented in gallery space using various video formats and forms of display (single-channel, multi-channel, installation). Some of the works will be shown on the big screen as part of the marathon of Slovenian female film- and video artists at Kinoteka on 3 October between noon and midnight. By screening their films in the regular programme, also the national broadcaster RTV Slovenia is to pay tribute to Slovenian female directors.
We were looking for feminist and/or socially critical works as we wanted to know how society, culture and politics directly influence the lives of women and people in general. In their works, the female authors tackle the topics of social, welfare and political situation of women, issues of gender and reproductive rights, women’s bodies, pain and violence against women. They debate the position of female and male workers in capitalism and the position of female and male artists in precarious working conditions. They point out the problematics of media representation of discriminated social groups and the reduced or twisted media image of the world. They introduce the themes of discriminated social groups, such as refugees and migrants or ethnic and gender minorities. They tackle memory and the forsaken pasts, ecological and war themes, digital identity and the catastrophic effects of neoliberalism on the poor, endebted and disenfranchised individuals, regardless of their gender. They approach those topics with utmost seriousness, although the works feature several humorous and absurd moments.
We have prepared a subjective selection of works from the vast video production of numerous authors. We have started off by researching the video archive DIVA Station at SCCA-Ljubljana and the former editions of the City of Women Festival. We have exposed the works awakening and calling for debate, reflection and action.
Cheers to Women!
Other exhibition links: City of Women website, SCCA-Ljubljana website anf Alkatraz Gallery website
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Photo 1 by Vesna Bukovec (based on still image from Shadowless B, Duba Sambolec’s video from 2000.)
PHOTOS of the exhibition by Nada Žgank: http://www.cityofwomen.org/en/content/2019/photo_gallery/cheers-women-tour
VIDEO about the exhibitio: https://vimeo.com/362765339