DEAR LADIES, THANK YOU - Ljubljana (second version) Performance presented in Kapelica Gallery 2011 Idea, performance and technology: Ana Čigon Additional technical support and programming: Vasja Progar

The performance Dear Ladies, Thank You critically addresses the issues of (in)visibility of women artists in the art world. Instead of addressing my critique directly to the public sphere, and instead of analysing statistical facts about the presence of women artists' works in contemporary art institutions, or the presence of women artists in art history books, art critique text, etc., I have taken myself - my memory/knowledge as a criterion and object of analysis. The reason for analysing the personal memory/knowledge was the comprehension of the subjectivity as the construction of public, political, and social sphere. My thesis was that the examination of one's memory, her/his knowledge, and behaviour, could reveal deeper structures and underlying ideology of the society the particular subject is part of. The performance Dear Ladies, Thank You was made in various formally and conceptually different variations. The variation in Kapelica Gallery in Ljubljana was the second one. The beginning of this performance started long before the actual event when I wrote down on a piece of paper as many artists' names as I could think of. By doing this 'memory test' I came up with 126 male artists' names and 34 female artists' names. After learning that such a small percentage of the artists I remembered/knew, were women, I decided to make a statement about this problem by learning the same amount of female artist names by heart (as I knew of male artists) and make a representation of this act in a performance. I chose to act on the imbalanced state in the art world by radically shaping and balancing my own memory. For the performance in Kapelica Gallery, I learned 126 names of women artists in a predefined order. When looking for new female artists to learn I tried to look for artists who once were known or should now be known because of their achievements. Besides their names, I also learned basic facts about their work and biography. The names of 126 male artists were written on the gallery floor before the beginning of the performance. During the performance, I spoke out the names of the 126 female artists I learned, and at the same time wrote their names down on the floor, filling this way the empty gaps between other (male) artists. The performance also involved using a head-mounted wireless camera that constantly filmed my face, a projection that showed the image of my face true the perforation of the artist's names, and dynamic lightning of the space that reacted to the speed and quantity of my writing. The technology was used to convey the idea about the issue of forgetfulness of art history and art theory. (Source: Ana Čigon)