Čigon, Ana: Dear Ladies, Thank You

Čigon, Ana: Dear Ladies, Thank You

The video is subject to copyright law. For viewing, please visit us at +MSUM for individual viewing. More info.
Title Dear Ladies, Thank You
Type Performance, Vocal performance, New-media performance, Lecture performance
Venue Kapelica Gallery
City of production Ljubljana, Slovenia
Production Kapelica Gallery
Language Slovene
Format 720x576 mm
Duration 28' 17"
URL http://kapelica.org/#event=201
Registration number KAP-2011-MED-228
Number of works in a group 2

Synopsis

In the performance, Ana speaks out and write down the names and surnames of 126 female artists which she has learned by heart by a predefined order. The number of the names is the same as the number of male artists she came up with by "searching" in her memory for artists names she knew by heart, prior to learning new female names. Only 20% of the artists she came up with were female. She decided to "balance" the knowledge of names, by learning as many names of women artists to balance it with male ones. In the performance, the artist presents this act of learning and balancing, by speaking and writing down the learned names of women artists. She writes them in the spaces between names of male artists that are, at the beginning of the performance, already written on the floor (this are the names of 126 male artists that she came up with by "searching" her memory). In the end, she bows with her body turned towards the written names and in this way says thank you to all the artists (female and male). Below is the text of the invitation to this performance: "'Dear Ladies, Thank You' is a multimedia performance - my thanks to female artists from the recent and more distant past who have (in spite of different obstacles) succeeded in becoming visible in the public and artistic world. It is an intervention in my own memory: I turned the questions about how well known are female artists onto myself and decided to attempt to balance that knowledge against the presence of male authors in my memory. I set out to affirm the presence of these authors in my mind while at the same time reflecting on their presence in the public arena. In the performance, I directly invoke the names of numerous female artists which I have learned by heart and write their names on to the floor. My face is filmed in real-time and the projection slowly unveils it as the names are written down. The speed of writing dynamically dictates the lighting of the entire stage." (Ana Čigon)

Sodelujejo

Technician Vasja Progar

Artist, artistic group

Group of artworks

Production

Venue

Related from the AV archive

Artwork
Eclipse , Venus Test, Ljubljana, 3 March 1999, 02' 02"