Cheers to Women! 25 Years of Film and Video

Group Exhibition
Exhibition opening with a Performance on September 24th at 7 pm, open until October 7th, 2019.

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!

Vesna Bukovec and Ana Čigon

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The exhibition will be opened by a 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. 

The public programme includes guided tours of the exhibition and a lecture by Ana Grobler, MA. The lecturer will present the key video artworks with feminist content, which were created in Slovenia from mid-1970s onwards.

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You can find out more about the exhibition on the SCCA-Ljubljana website or check the exhibition catalogue.

Public programme:

26. 9., 18.00: Lecture by Ana Grobler at the Project Room SCCA
26. 9., 19.30: Guided tour in Slovenian
5. 10., 19.00: Reprise of Ana Čigon’s performance in English
5. 10., 19.30: Guided tour in English

Gallery opening hours during the festival:
Mon-Thu: 11am – 7pm
Fri: 3pm – 11pm
Sat 28 Sept & 5 Oct: 3pm – 11pm
Sun 29 Sept & Sun 6 Oct: 3pm – 11pm

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Selected works:

• Zemira Alajbegović & Neven Korda: Within Four Walls *
• Nika Autor: Newsreel 63 – The Train of Shadows *
  
• Vesna Bukovec: Circular *
  
• Jasmina Cibic: Fruits of our Land *
  
• Ana Čigon: Rebellious Essence *
  
• Andreja Džakušič: Survival Tactics
  
• Ana Grobler: Migraine
  
• Marina Gržinić & Aina Šmid: Obsession
  
• Đejmi Hadrović: Silent Observer
  
• Maja Hodošček: The Lesson
  
• Sanela Jahić: Tempo Tempo
  
• Neža Knez: For-nothing
  
• Polonca Lovšin: Back to the City *
  
• Aprilija Lužar: Women’s Taxi – Talking Portraits
  
• Nika Oblak & Primož Novak: The Scream
  
• Ana Pečar & Oliver Ressler: In the Red
  
• Nataša Prosenc Stearns: Reposition
  
• Marija Mojca Pungerčar: Career Fitness
  
• Pila Rusjan: Elisa 5
  
• Duba Sambolec: Shadowless A & Shadowless B
  
• Zvonka T Simčič: Ad Utero Ab Ovo
  
• Nataša Skušek: Ekstaza [Ecstasy]
  
• Metka Zupanič: And Here We Are
  
• Valerie Wolf Gang: Sorry, I can’t make it today

Tickets:
Alkatraz Gallery // free entrance;
Kinoteka // €2 per screening.

*These works are going to be screened at the Cheers to Women! marathon in Kinoteka on 3. 10. 

Curated by: Vesna Bukovec, Ana Čigon

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.