Ana Čigon / Perspective

16 November 2010 > 03 December 2010 Cordially invited to the opening of the exhibition on Tuesday, 16th of November at 8 pm at the Alkatraz gallery
Guided tour with the artist will take place on 3rd of December 2010 in Alkatraz gallery at 6 pm

The ideas that Ana Čigon develops in her works are associated to the position/situation of an individual and his/her relationship to the society and social values. In them, we can detect themes like the individual’s struggle to reach happiness, comments and remarks on the relationship to one’s daily situation/s, relation towards social expectations with regards to sexual behaviour or, perception and reconsideration of social values in general. We can also sense the author’s personal involvement in the topics her artworks touch. Ana Čigon as an artist researches and questions the status of the artist within the social context. In her artworks we often find a sense of humour, irony or even sarcasm in her attempt to redirect one’s attention to a possibility of a different attitude towards life or the situations a human being can get stuck in.

In the Alkatraz Gallery Ana Čigon is going to exhibit a video installation entitled Perspective, resembling one of her previous video works One more kick. The purpose of the exhibition is not continuation or creation of a series, but another diversion of the initial idea of the video that is now going to be presented for the first time. The video, shot at the Alkatraz Gallery is structured and has been edited into a loop; ceaselessly repeating itself, having no beginning and no end. The moment when a spectator enters the gallery determines the spot in the video where/when the spectator starts to decode the artwork. The incessant repeating is therefore deliberate.

The structure of the video differs from the hierarchy the author has employed in her former short videos, bringing about a shift at the end. In the video installation Perspective, the story is constructed in a different way; the gradual intensification of the meaning does not happen only in time, but also through a premeditated placing of the projected video and the ceaseless repetition of its parts. The understanding of the roles of both actors in the video depends on the “perspective” we view the video from.

The author tries to show various aspects on the individual’s personal issues. The two persons in the video, each one in their limited space, are fighting for one’s own right. Their situation remains unclear, under-defined and abstract to the spectator. The video installation does not focus on concrete problems of the actors, but on the limited ability of perception of personal problems of an individual. The understanding depends on the stand point where from one can as a spectator – an external observer – understand another or can identify with him/her. The actors in the video keep seemingly incessantly losing hope and repeatedly entering into a fight. By gradual acknowledgement of increasingly more stand points we are – as spectators - made to take stands towards their attitude over and over again.

Ana Čigon has graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana in painting and enroled her post-graduate study of video art. She is currently engaged in attaining her Master’s degree in the field of Interface Culture at the Kunstuniverstat Linz in Avstriji. Her creative production is primarily concentrated to the field of painting and video art, but also reaches out to other media. She chooses the medium and adjusts it with regards to the content and the concept of a particular artwork.

Performers in the video:
performer Blaž Šef
and Ana Čigon

http://www.anacigon.si/

Photo: Sunčan P. Stone