Archive 2024

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 Wime 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/

At Video Evenings with Station DIVA Photon Gallery host artists who are part of the Station DIVA archive to talk about their work and the background of their video projects. At the Video Evening, video artist, director and performer Ana Čigon will present her feminist artistic practice of the last ten years. She will show selected excerpts from video documentation of her performances. She has thematised several artworks by different female artists, individual female artists and some essential female figures from the past. She will present a selection of audiovisual works, reflecting on the transitions between the different genres in which she works, such as video art, documentary and experimental film, and animation. She will conclude by presenting the practice of long-term research and collective reflection on selected topics through video talks and artistic collaborations.

More about the event: https://photon.si/video-evening-with-diva-station-ana-cigon/?lang=en

At the beginning of December, two of my films will be shown at the Animateka International Animated Film Festival. On Tuesday at 11:00 p.m., the first Slovenian animation with LGBTIQ+ content, Rebellious Essence, will be shown as part of the programme The Team Has Spoken. On Friday at 5:00 p.m., as part of Kinotrip's Best of the World programme, my newest satirical animation criticizing the inhumane European refugee policy, Catlands, will be shown. Both screenings will be in Kinodvor cinema.

More about the programme The Team Has Spoken: https://www.animateka.si/2024/en/the-team-has-spoken/
More about the programme Kinotrip’s Best of the World: https://www.animateka.si/2024/en/kinotrips-best-of-the-world/

Format Court published an interview with Ana Čigon: J’adore utiliser la satire, l’ironie et l’humour, where she talks with Laure Dion about Catlands, her art and the use of humor.

Article: https://www.formatcourt.com/2024/11/ana-cigon-jadore-utiliser-la-satire-lironie-et-lhumour/

Catlands continues its Portugese tour at the 48th International Animated Film Festival - Cinanima 24 in Espinho. The film will be shown in the programme Grand Panorama Short Film 2.

More about the festival: https://cinanima.pt/en/international-grand-panorama/

Catlands will be shown as one of the nominated films at the Awarding ceremony for the best Slovenian short animated films created in the last two years chosen by* Slovene Animated Film Association - DSAF*. The event is part of the celebration of the International Day of Animated Film.

More about the event: https://dsaf.si/asset/yLJ5e6iFjBpfR8Azk

Catlands will have its premiere Portuguese screening in Lisbon, at a powerful socially charged competition programme Travessias / Special Section of the wonderful Olhares do Mediterrâneo - Women's Film Festival.

More about the festival: https://www.olharesdomediterraneo.org/travessias-special-section_om2024/

Format Court published a wonderful article Semaine méditerranéenne à Cinemed, about three films presented at Festival Cinéma Méditerranéen Montpellier - Cinemed, amidst them also Catlands. Thanks to Format Court and the author of the article Laure Dion for writing about the film.

Article: https://www.formatcourt.com/2024/10/semaine-mediterraneenne-avec-cinemed/

Andreja Kopač prepared a multi-page interview for the October issue of the Sleovenian magazine Rast from the Novo mesto publishing house Goga on the subject of work, capital and trade unions, in which Vesna Bukovec and Ana Čigon talk about the project Work in Progress (authors Ana Čigon, Vesna Bukovec, Tia Čiček) and reflect on the role of work in our life.

More about the magazine: https://www.erast.si/2024/11/prepletenost-in-soodvisnost-dela-kapitala-in-sindikatov/

On 24 October we will be back to our co-production country Croatia. Catlands will be shown in the Competition Programme l at the Museum of Contemporary art Zagreb, for the occasion of the International Day of Animation organised by ASIFA Croatia.

More about the event: http://www.asifa.hr/p/medunarodni-dan-animacije.html

The premiere Slovenian screening of the film Catlands was at the Festival of Slovenian Film in Portorož. The film was shown as part of the official Competition programme I

Catlands received a SPECIAL MENTION with the following jury statement:
Special mention goes to the animated film Catlands by Ana Čigon for its humorous take on the proverbial Slovenian attitude to borders and fences.

Article about the film at the festival: Primorske novice, Maja Pertič Gombač, Festival slovenskega filma: Vsaj nekje smo lahko optimistični, 24/10/2024 (SLO)

More about the event: About the festival awards
Meet the authors, video 50'45- 66'45'' (SLO)
List of films in the Competition programme I

Catlands was officially selected for Short Film Panorama programme of the established festival of Mediterranian films, CINEMED - Festival Cinéma Méditerranéen Montpellier. This will be a French premiere screening of the film.

Making of Catlands:

More about the event: https://cinemed.tm.fr/programmation?s=17357

Article: Feminist Sharpening of the Gaze in the Contemporary Visual Art Authors of the presented article: Ana Čigon, Ana Grobler and Eva Jus

The introduction of the two new publications of the ČKZ journal is centred around the thematic issue of the ČKZ Feminism, Art, Literature as well as the monograph The Kurdish Women's Movement by Dilar Dirik. Drawing from the post-Yugoslav space, Feminism, Art, Literature places the artistic, literary and, on a wider scale, intellectual work in the context of the material and the social, revealing the ways in which they are and have been constituted as spaces where feminism is established as an ideological, methodological, affective and political intervention.

In our article we write about feminist art in Slovenia and broader and feminist festivals, especially we focus on the importance of the International Feminist and Queer Festival Red Dawns.

More about the event: https://mestozensk.org/en/festival/2024/dogodek/119498 (SLO)

My new animation Catlands is continuing its festival journey through Italy. The film will be part of the official selection of the competitive programme Germogli at the Corto e Fieno - Rural Film Festival in Borgomanero.

More about the event: https://cortoefieno.it/

In September we will be traveling to Albania. Ana Čigon will be presenting Catlands at BALKAN Shorts competition programmme of the International Film Festival in Tirana - TIFF in Tirana, Albania

Spatial thanks to TIFF festival and the Slovenian Embassy in Tirana for their accomodation and financial support.

More about the festival: https://tiranafilmfest.org/official-selection-2024/

Many of Ana Čigon's videos are part of DIVA Station Archive. As part of the Back2Back events, SCCA-Ljubljana Center for Contemporary Arts invites local and international artists to present their production of work and establish a dialogue with the works in the DIVA Station Archive based on their own selection. This time, in cooperation with the International Centre of Graphic Arts and the MGLC Švicarija residency centre, SCCA has invited Lea Culetto, who is participating as a resident artist in the international European project Sustainability is in the AiR, which connects residency centres. In the collection of videos that Lea Culetto has chosen is also Čigon's video Unbreakable.

More about the event: https://www.scca-ljubljana.si/en/back2back-lea-culetto-bodyscapes/

26 Aug 2024 - Interventions in public space in Ljubljana: 9 am Park Tabor; 10 am Trubarjeva 19; 11 am Stari trg (between Romeo and Julia restaurants); 6 pm Kongresni trg (public toilets); 9 pm NUK II parking lot
27 Aug 2024 - Interventions in public space in Ljubljana: 9 am Gruberjeva brv (under Golovec hill) – meeting point; 7 pm Penzion Pod Lipo (back side) \

Performances, ŠD Tabor – hall
29 Aug 2024 at 7 pm
30 Aug 2024 at 5 pm
31 Aug 2024 at 4 pm

Idea and concept: Ivana Müller and Bojana Kunst
In collaboration with Ajda Bračič, Ana Čigon, Urban Belina and Klara Drnovšek Solina
With the participation of: Neja Tomšič, Miloš Kosec, PLAC, Bojana Piškur, Danica Sretenović in Gaja Osole (kolektiv Krater), Rok Vevar in NoBorderCraft
Produced by: Bunker and Maska
Executive producer: Klara Dnovšek Solina
Co-produced by: ORLA and Le Pacifique Grenoble
Thanks to: Dom upokojencev Center – enota Tabor, Slovenska filantropija

Mending the Invisible is an artistic project by Ivana Müller and Bojana Kunst that tries to mend holes in the social tissue and weave threads of time and space between various city realities through poetic, humorous and symbolic actions.

Mending the Invisible will, in future years, come to life in various cities – firstly in Ljubljana during the 2024 Mladi Levi festival.

More about the project: https://www.bunker.si/en/mending-the-invisible/

My new animation Catlands is continuing its festival journey through Italy. As part of the La Grotta dei Piccoli programme, it will be presented to young audiences on August 11th at 10:30 pm at the La Guarimba International Film Festival in Amatea, Italy.

2D digital cut-out animation, 9'44'', 2024

Catlands is a satire that mirrors Europe's pressing political issues through the daily ups and downs in the relationships of neighbouring cats. Kindly invited to view the webpage of the film where you can find more information about the film, see images from individual scenes and find the PressKit with interesting information about the background of the story.

More about the event: https://www.laguarimba.com/lagrottadeipiccoli2024/
Film page Catlands

The animation Catlands will be part of the European Panorama at the Flipbook Film Festival. The programme will be screened at the Cinematheque of North Macedonia in Skopje, North Macedonia.

More about the event: https://fff.mk/program-2024/

Kindly invited to read the review of Competition program 2 at the Animafest Zagreb festival, where the author Erika Roša also writes about my animation Catlands. Zippy Frames is the premier online animation journal promoting European and Independent Animation.

Povezava na članek: https://www.zippyframes.com/festivals/animafest-zagreb-croatian-competition-2-go-critic

The animation Catlands will have its international premiere as part of short film competitive programme Maremetraggio at the ShorTS International Film Festival on 30th of June 2024 in Trieste. Kindly invited!

More about the event: https://www.maremetraggio.com/en/2024-edition/programme-2024/

Participants: Vesna Bukovec, Tia Čiček, Ana Čigon

The exhibition Work in progress. For a Better World, will present the video Prekariat sveta ... (Precariat of the world ..., 2022), in which trade unionist Tea Jarc (Youth Plus Union), Dr. Svetlana Slapšak (retired professor, classical philologist, anthropologist and writer) and Jadranka Vesel (Rise, research institute for social economy) present their views on work in contemporary world. Also included in the exhibition are the series of drawings Work in Progress (2022) by Ana Čigon, the series of drawings Vesna Bukovec And Yet I do Bother (2019) and *Heritage *(2022) and the drawing Another World is Possible (2021).

Work in Progress draws attention to the fact that current forms of work and activity need to be reconsidered and certain behavioral and repressive patterns need to be recognized, unlearned and opposed. We see ways of recovery and empowerment in sharing knowledge, creating communities and establishing different living and working conditions. We see the transformation of the existing hierarchy of values, which neglects the worker for the sake of profit and false "progress", as the key to creating a fairer world.

More about the exhibition: https://kamerat.org/2024/05/29/delo-v-nastajanju-za-boljsi-svet/

The animation Catlands will have its world premiere as part of the Croatian Film Competition 2 programme at Animafest Zagreb on 8th of June 2024in Zagreb. Kindly invited!

2D digital cut-out animation, 9'44'', 2024

Scriptwriter, director and art director: Ana Čigon
Animators: Kata Gugić, Ana Čigon, Ana Horvat, Bernarda Kristan, Lea Vučko, Damir Grbanović
Background design: Julijana Božič
Editing: Iva Kraljević
Music: Tomaž Grom
Sound design: Boštjan Kačičnik
Voice actors: Aphra Tesla, Tea Vidmar, Jošt Jesenovec, Blaž Šef, Ana Čigon
Image postproduction: Teo Rižnar
Producer: Viva Videnović (URGH!)
Co-producer: Vanja Andrijević (Bonobostudio)
Co-production: URGH!, RTV Slovenija (SI) / Bonobostudio (HR)
With the support of: Slovenian Film Centre, Croatian Audiovisual Centre, Viba film.

Catlands is a satire that mirrors Europe's pressing political issues through the daily ups and downs in the relationships of neighbouring cats. Kindly invited to view the webpage of the animation where you can find more information about the film, see images from individual scenes and find the PressKit with interesting information about the background of the story.

More about the event: https://www.animafest.hr/en/2024/program/croatian_film_competition_2_8/1
Film page Catlands

Kindly invited to visit the Lesbian Quarter festival, within the framework of which the Fem TV collective will perform on 28th May 2024 at 8 pm in Škuc Gallery. The next day - on 29th May 2024 at the same time an same location also kindly invited to come see my experimental film Phoney Sights.

More about the festival: https://skuc.org/lezbicna-cetrt-2024

The film by Miha Vipotnik Pošvedrani klavir / Wracked Piano was shown on national TV station RTV SLO 1. I have animated wonderful drawings by Ciril Horjak for this film. The film has received an award for original music score (composer Gregor Strniša) and an award by the Asociation of film publicists.

The film will be available online until 1/6/2024: https://365.rtvslo.si/arhiv/dokumentarci-kulturno-umetniski/175046725

Directors and films: Anton Shebetko-Simeiz (UKR); Ana Čigon-Rebellious Essence (SVN); Catarina Leal, Eva Matarranz, Anna Savchenko-God's Mistake (SVN); krëlex zentre, Ruthia Genrbekova, Maria Vilkovisky-Layer (KAZ)

The animation Rebbelious Essence was presented at the goEast, 24th Festival of Central and Eastern European Film. The animation was presented as part of the Symposium Precarious Joy, which was curated by Jasmina Šepetavc and Yulia Serdyukova.

Curators text:

"…we live here — in this precarious joy
and we have found preciousness, still."
The opening night of the goEast Symposium highlights the stories, struggles and precarious joys of the “other queers” in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as Central Asia. Some you find in Simeiz, a small Ukrainian seaside town in currently-occupied Crimea which has been a legendary queer meeting spot since the Soviet era, bringing together the LGBT+ communities from the region for decades. Others you spot on picturesque Croatian islands, staging a queer play in a pine forest, coming out as their true selves through performing. As joy, queer histories are also often precarious – ephemeral traces and memories of communities, political struggle, love, life – that can be violently erased by wars, homo- and transphobic laws and hateronormative dominant narratives. This is where films, as documents of queer existence, come in. They are connecting us to our past, and teach us how to fight for our future – for the small queer bars in villages, for human and even inter-species diversity, for a world in which we can live freely and without fear and for the right to tell our stories.

More about the event: https://www.filmfestival-goeast.de/en/short-film-programmes/

Curator: Gani Llalloshi
Artists: Majda Skrinar, Aleksij Kobal, Lara J. Marconi, Joni Zakonjšek, Tilen Žbona, BridA, Aleš Sedmak, Ana Čigon, Jaka Jeraša, Igor Andjelić, Anja Kranjc, Gani Llalloshi, Erik Mavrič

Group exhibition of the works of artist from Primorska region. At the exhibition, you can see my short documentary film Heroinat/Heroines

The curator and artist Gani Llalloshi wrote the following about the exhibition:

"The Second World War had a devastating impact on countless lives. The end of the winter of 1944 was a turning point for Nazif, a 17-year-old boy who joined the partisan army. One of the Kosovo Corps brigades was ordered to help drive the occupying forces out of the Western Balkans. The journey of these partisans from Shkodër to Trieste was long and exhausting. Nazif and his comrades walked 1,200 kilometers from battle to battle. He returned home in 1948. Nazif was my father.
/../ My father’s story made me reflect on the past, on my work and my fate that brought me close to the place that marked my father’s youth. From his words, starting with the legendary cry of the Slovenian patriots in Primorska, “Trieste is ours!” , and from my own experience of everyday life in Slovenian Istria, I sensed that the word “ours” may have a deeper meaning than it first appears, one that transcends the mere linguistic context. It expresses a connection to the homeland, to the community and to the recent history that has shaped us. It is an expression of emotional attachment to the land on which we grew up, and to the people with whom we have shared these paths."

More about the exhibition: http://www.galerijamp.si/

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, Hay.
Make up: Avalon; Technical support: Jaka Korošec; Design of the poster and graphic design: Ariane Podlesny
Organization: 25th International Feminist and Queer Festival Red Dawns
Coproduction / co-organisation: Spol.si/Association Vita Activa, Fem TV, Matafir Association, Club Gromka
Contacts for media and press: Spol.si
Financial support: City of Ljubljana – Culture Department

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 6.0 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=17949&lang=en&l=2024

Assistants: Ana Čigon & Ida Hiršenfelder
Postproduction: Museum of Modern Art, MG+, Ljubljana
Soorganisation: Ida Hiršenfelder, Ana Čigon
Production: Rampa Lab / Kersnikova Institute

Kindly invited to join us on Saturday to write about female artist that are part of the exhibition For Your Pleasure. Feminist Positions in Visual Art in and from Slovenia on Slovene Wikipedia.

Wiki page of the event: https://sl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedija:V_%C5%BEivo/Feministi%C4%8Dni_WikiMaraton
Webpage of the event: https://www.mg-lj.si/si/dogodki/3887/delavnica-feministicni-wikimaraton-2024/

2D digital cut-out animation, 9'44'', 2024

Scriptwriter, director and art director: Ana Čigon
Animators: Kata Gugić, Ana Čigon, Ana Horvat, Bernarda Kristan, Lea Vučko, Damir Grbanović
Background design: Julijana Božič
Editing: Iva Kraljević
Music: Tomaž Grom
Sound design: Boštjan Kačičnik
Voice actors: Aphra Tesla, Tea Vidmar, Jošt Jesenovec, Blaž Šef, Ana Čigon
Image postproduction: Teo Rižnar
Producer: Viva Videnović (URGH!)
Co-producer: Vanja Andrijević (Bonobostudio)
Co-production: URGH!, RTV Slovenija (SI) / Bonobostudio (HR)
With the support of: Slovenian Film Centre, Croatian Audiovisual Centre, Viba film.

The animation Catlands has completed its creative adventure and we are sending it on a hopefully successful festival journey. Many thanks to all collaborators for their contributions, creativity and perseverance.

Catlands is a satire that mirrors Europe's pressing political issues through the daily ups and downs in the relationships of neighbouring cats. You may watch the trailer of the film below, and are kindly invited to view the webpage of the film where you can find more information about the film, see images from individual scenes and find the PressKit with interesting information about the background of the story.

More about the animation: https://anacigon.si/film_catlands.html