Ema Kugler

In the video works of Ema Kugler, mythology is inscribed in the rituals of everyday life, this time it is the theme of Hydra with many faces. It is illustrated by individual scenes with actors in leather costumes (the author's creations), which restrict their movement and thus already emphasize the separation of man from nature. The last trace of connection - the ritual relationship between man and bull, which is again based on human cruelty to animals - ends with blood, which on a symbolic level also pervades the whole image.

Urbanity is finally erased by mythical rituals, which is determined by the very title of the video film: menhir, an upright stone block from the Neolithic, which was used for sacral rites. Man and woman are Adam and Eve, created in front of us by electronic transformation (morphing) and marked by blood. This element also marks all other elements of the video image: the murder of an individual by the menhir or trinity (politics, church, army), the bodies of the dancer. Blood, murder and death are overcome by only the second basic element: the stone, which is flooded with blood the very next moment. The fight of natural elements is also served by electronic tricks that turn power holders from flesh and blood into stone and wrong.

This video features no words, only music and images. Ema Kugler describes the moving images as: “They are like a dark, surrealist dance of everyman with his own death. I have seen all these images. They came from the darkness of my subconsciousness, colonized me and obsessed me.” The video shows images, which together with the accompanying music give an impression of the infinite and the divine and being sucked into an abyss from where there is no return. The images bring us to the edge of our existence and twist us in the darkness of the subconscious and inevitable oblivion. There are no words or speech in the video, only music and images but the storyline is clear nevertheless. The images are silent witnesses to our imprisonment in the world of automatism – bureaucracy and authority – god and ruler who lead us into pointless wars, killing and death. Individuals are helpless prisoners of these forces.

Tajga was shot after the performance of the same name, performed at the international festival of contemporary arts City of Women in October 1995 in Ljubljana. The viewer enters a dark atmosphere dictated by dramatic vocal-electronic music, passing anthropomorphic and waxy zoomorphic figures, and camera movements. When the author establishes the landscape, she places a wrestler and a drowning woman in it, and with these scenes she further increases the suspension. At the height of the dramaturgy, the set stage collapses. The waxen guard dogs dissolve and the soldiers retreat. Naked female characters appear, announcing the transition to a period of warmth and peace, accompanied by softer music.

The author constantly depicts the duality of human nature: the same horror occurs in both the mythical and the real world. She illustrates all this with the use of electronic tricks that can, for example, petrify a human face or wall up a human being in just a few seconds. With an electronic trick, even human figures dressed in extravagant costumes return to nature: a man in a costume reminiscent of a bird turns into a real bird. At the same time, the scenes are shot from a bird's eye view, which, as always, emphasizes man's smallness and his loss in his own world and nature.

The author continues with her main themes: the relationship between man and woman, the intrusion of the mythical into the rituals of everyday life. This video uses many electronic image processing options. Most fascinating are the scenes with "morphing" (electronic transformation), in which the character on the canvas is transformed into an identical figure on the video surface, or the latter "freezes" into a character in a still image. Once again, the author insists on a real natural environment, which deforms it and thus equates it with the artificiality of the video image.

More than 30 years have passed since the establishment of the famous Ana Monro Theater group. During their existence, GAM members significantly influenced the development of modern theater in Slovenia – in addition to street theater, they also introduced theater improvisation to our space.

The film tells the story of the Old Faith in the Soča Region. While the time of the religion’s origin remains unknown, the only documented fact about this is that in 1331, the bringers of a new religion (Christianity) came from Čedad, initiating a violent Christianisation of the Soča region. This was a long and extremely violent process.