Projection and conversation
Friday, 29. 8. 2025, 20.00
Inner courtyard of Gallery Skuc, Stari trg 21, Ljubljana
Image design: Brina Vidic
Programme
Alien Act
To participate: Pablo Ballarín (EU/POLAND), on May Bojanić (SI), Julie Černá (Czech republic), Anna Čigon (SI), Léo Mourey (DE/EE), Emilia Škarnulytė (LITHUANIA)
Curator: Lene Lekse (SI)
Duration: 59’
The chosen film program arises from the reflection on borders as social constructions. Not only geographical and political, but also historical, perceptual, normative and existential. The boundaries that define who enters and exits, who is seen and who is erased, who has a voice and which of us is an alien. At a time when borders are closing and control is consolidating, the question of how to think, understand and cross borders becomes all the more important.
The title Alien Act is consciously formulated in the singular and plays with the term Aliens Act , the Aliens Act, which legally regulates the status of "others"at the state level. However, act also means an action, activation, a call to go beyond the known and legislated. The films in the program travel on the transition between concrete and abstract, political and perceptual, memory and myth. The stone sings of freedom until the anxiety of its own weight reaches it; the border guard and his dog remain a routine of absurd surveillance as they escort migrants, activists and sometimes even buffaloes across the wall; on a psychedelic journey with aliens, a young girl explores the boundaries and cracks of her memory; traces of heat in an apartment reveal the presence of a female relative who has been officially wiped out; in an idyllic cat garden by a hedge, we follow the brutality of European deportation policies and shifting responsibilities; meanwhile, somewhere in the North, a siren swims through an abandoned NATO military complex, in which it triggers a cosmic Echo.
These are works by the author_ that do not thematize alienity and alienation as a mere representation, but as a gesture, disorder and necessity. Films and animations provide a form of escapism through which reality can be rethought. Through surrealist approaches, humor and absurd situations, real, social and political tensions are revealed. The Program raises questions about how to live with the border, how to detect it and, above all, how to swim it.
Julie Chern / stone of Destination /
Czech Republic, 2025, 10’00”
The animated musical follows the path of an anthropomorphized Stone of destiny, driven by the desire for freedom. His singing is accompanied by both newly found freedom and fear of failure.
Pablo Ballar-a border guard and his dog
Spain/Poland, 2024, 3 ' 02”
Visit the border between Belarus and Poland.
L / L Moure / Phosphenic Archives
France/Estonia, 2025, 12’32”
A young girl faces memory loss when she is visited by aliens in her room. Entering her mind turns into a melancholic and psychedelic journey, where memories are mixed with dreams.
Maja Bojani / <url> / <url> / <url> / <url> / <url> / <url> / <url> / <url> / <url> / <url> / <url> / <url> / <url> / <url> / <url> / <url> / <url> / <url> / <url> / <url> / <url> / <url> / <url> / <url> / <url>
Slovenia, 2025, 12’37”
The Film reveals traces of heat in the apartment, which was once inhabited by the artist's great – grandmother-one of the erased. The interweaving of personal history and political trauma opens the reflection on the deletion of 25,671 people from Slovenian records in 1992.
Anna chignon-The Cat between the doors
Slovenia, 2024, 9’44”
The Film takes place on the estates of three cats, whose territories are guarded by hedges. When the fleeing cats get involved, the idyllic garden turns into an allegory of the European policy of deportations and shifting responsibilities.
Emilija Skarnul Contactt-Sirenomelia
Lithuania, 2018, 11’00”
Filmed in an abandoned NATO submarine complex in Olavsvern, Norway. The artist floats through space like a mermaid, while cosmic signals and noise connect man, nature and machine in posthumanist mythology.
Photo: archive SCCA-Ljubljana and Lena Leksa
Lene Lekse (1995) is a visual artist working at the intersection of sculpture, animation, video and scenography. In 2021, she received a master's degree in sculpture from ALUO UL, and now continues her studies in animated film at the Estonian Academy of Arts (Eka) in Tallinn. She participated in many group exhibitions, mdr. at the U3 Triennial at the Moderna Galerija in Ljubljana ( alive and dead, 2019), at the Skuc Gallery, Krobath (Vienna), Kula Cetinjska (Belgrade), at the lighting guerrilla (Ljubljana) and at the Obrov Gallery (Maribor). Solo exhibitions: the eye of the Falcon (DobraVaga, 2019), whistling strategies (Alkatraz, 2020), Serendipitousl illustration (P74, 2022) and the E Alaccavation site (Ku Alaka Reichsmann, Alacakovo, 2024). In 2021, she received an Oho group award and was on Residency by residence Entertainment Unlimited at NE Animatork.
The video theatre is a programme of curated screenings and talks on art, video and film. In the spring-summer period, we step out of the dark cinema and the cold gallery space, into the open air. In cooperation with the Skuc gallery, we are preparing events in their inner courtyard.
Diva station is an online and physical archive developed by SCCA-Ljubljana since 2005 with the aim of researching, documenting, archiving and presenting art film, video and New Media Art.
In case of rain, the projection will be in the gallery.
The discussion with the authors will be conducted in English.
Free admission.
Organization: SCCA-Ljubljana / Diva station, Skuc Gallery
Support: Ministry of culture of the Republic of Slovenia and municipality of Ljubljana-Department of culture