2005-2015 | Ana Čigon: Unbreakable / Discovery Beyond the Transparency
Video, 1:09, PAL 3:4, 2008
A short, simple video about the breaking of twigs, with a witty and telling twist; powerful meaningfulness enveloped in a breezy scene. Importantly, the word “twig” is feminine in Slovenian.
Artists often find themselves in unfavourable situations when it comes to displaying their work. While this is unavoidable to an extent, given the diverging interests of artists and exhibition organisers, unfortunately there are also display errors stemming from negligence, which ought to be unacceptable. Visiting the exhibition of Marko Tuš at Cankarjev dom with fellow artists, we came across an unbelievable sight, which only got worse on the following day. Unfortunately, such incidents are not exceptional.
The video title, Discovery Beyond the Transparency, is based on the title of that exhibition (“Beyond the Transparency”). I made use of some additional ironic coincidences, attempting to ascribe to the organisers’ seemingly unimportant failure the significance it deserves. At the same time I took advantage of the situation to offer an amusing self-expression, because it seems to me that humour can often go further. The video presents just one of the numerous but rarely criticised cases of unprofessional behaviour and attitude to exhibited artworks.
I took this serious problem seriously, but in a witty way, in the hopes that this might prove a good way of encouraging serious people to give this incident serious thought.
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Ana Čigon (1982) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana with a degree in painting, and then went on to get her MFA in video at the same institution.She also obtained an MA in Interface Cultures at the Kunstuniversität Linz in Austria. She works in the fields of video, performance, and new media art.
Artist's web page: www.anacigon.si
