24/08/2007

Are you feminist?

Hello!

Are you feminist?

If not, why do you think that one sex should have more rights than the other?

Normally, when people are asked if they believe in equal rights for men and women the answer is yes. Yet, if they are asked if they are feminist, which defends precisely that equality of rights, most answer no, and some even react as if the proposition was insulting in some way.

Why is feminism such a negatively loaded term when the majority agree with what it stands for?

As you may know, I am working on a project inspired by the wealth of negative propaganda, misinformation and stereotypes that surround feminism.

My intention is to publish an encrypted feminist magazine in the form of a glossy commercially printed publication and a website. The encryption makes the magazine unintelligible at first sight. It will however be decryptable.

Why make an unintelligible magazine?

The encryption touches on myths around women as mysterious, complex and prone to conspiracy. It is also a comment on the difficulty in finding out about the role and work of women in history, on the need for alternative stories and on the apparently ‘coded’ nature of history when it comes to women’s achievements.

Encryption is normally used to keep information in the hands of a selected few. The importance of women through history has normally been put to one side away from the grand narratives and discourses of power.

The unintelligibility of the magazine is a reminder that women are still prevented from enjoying equal status to men through various filtering methods. It mirrors the process in history and it also expresses my own astonishment on the fact that we still have to fight for equality on so many levels and that instead of the barriers being removed, they increase in sophistication.

We have advanced a lot as a society since women were not allowed to study, let alone vote. The fact that most people don’t want to think of themselves as feminist remains to me unintelligible.

The content for this magazine will start off as a collage of existing material reproduced with the permission of the copyright holders. I would be hugely grateful if you would like to contribute with an article, poem, dream, idea, or any other type of text related to the subject of feminism. Either an existing one or one written specifically.
If you would like to contribute please send your text to xyx28@grafeo.com. Also, if you are in contact with anyone who you think might be interested in this project, please could you forward them this e-mail or let me know who to contact.
To find out more about the project you can go to www.sumemos.com and register for updates, or you can contact me directly. I will be happy to tell you more.
Thank you!
Veronica

www.grafeo.com

An installation promoting this project will be part of the MA Fine Art graduating show in September 2007 and I will be around to talk about it. The show will be open on Saturday the 1st of September 11 to 18h, and Monday the 3rd to Thursday the 6th between 11 and 19h and on Friday the 7th between 11 and 16h. The address is Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, 107-109 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0DU.

Feminist Art // Bases de Dados

Nina sent me this e-mail regarding our discussing within Switch Metaphores Affinity group for the European Feminist Forum... with great information on feminist art
ince 2006 there's a database for feminist art:
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art
Feminist Art Base
brooklynmuseum

"Our goal is to make this groundbreaking archive a comprehensive
resource for artists, curators, scholars, and the general public. We
see this database as an integral tool for accomplishing the mission of
the Center: to present feminism in an approachable and relevant
manner; to educate new generations about the meaning of feminist art;
and to raise awareness of feminism's cultural contributions."

another one is from elke zobel (an austrian that is very busy with zines):
http://www.grrrlzines.net/resources/artandmusic.htm

and another database (that we can also use the next time to mention
your meeting in porto! - i've an account and i thus could do it for
you! one small contribution :) ): the "projects" are mainly in the usa
(once in a while london appears :) ) but we could expand it to europe
:)...
https://feministartproject.rutgers.edu/

Megafån

The artist group Megafån (Fredrika Biström, Freja Bäckman, Heidi Lunabba) is inviting feminist works to the living-room/bookshelf at our Feminst Wallpaper exhibition in Galleri Sinne in Helsinki, 26.10.-11.11.2007.
www.megahem.info

We are putting together an exhibition with and about our recent project Feminist Wallpaper and in this context we also want to present works by other feminist artists, writers, filmmakers, musicians and feminists in general.
This part of the show is going to function as a living- and reading-room, a space for a femnistic discourse, where the visitors can sit down and watch a DVD of their own choise, pick a book or magazine from the shelf and read, or maybe leave something behind for the next person.
We hope to get a big variety of material, so please send us your videos, films, music, books, fanzines, magazines, articles, stickers or anything else that is possible to present in a bookshelf or on a table.

Movies and videos should be on DVD, with the title and a discription of it on the cover. They are going to be shown on a monitor, no video installations e.g.
Music on CD.

Send us your works before 1. of October 2007. (Note the short notice!!)

Megafån
c/o Heidi Lunabba
Villa Snäcksund
10600 Ekenäs
Finland

Unfortunately we are not able to pay any fee.
The works will be on display and in use during the whole show, that means finger marks and other traces of usage may occure.
We are happy to keep the received material in an archive after the show. It will not be used in future projects without the orginator´s permission.
If you want to have back your material, remember to write the return address. Megafån will pay the return postage as long as it goes as regular post (no big parcels) .

Megafån will have the right and responsibility to do the selection of works to be displayed.

For questions contact: freja.backman@gmail.com

Woman or work in Progress?

inaugura sexta feira 31 às 22h
A exposição colectiva de artistas plásticas femininas, intitulada Woman or work in progress? vai inaugurar no próximo dia 31 de Agosto, às 22h, na reabertura do espaço cultural Plano B, na Rua Cândido dos Reis, nº 30, no Porto. A exposição vai estar patente até ao dia 30 de Setembro.

Horário: de 3ª a Sáb. das 14.30h às 20h e das 22h às 2h da manhã

Woman or work in progress? - é uma exposição colectiva que resulta num diálogo entre diversas linguagens plásticas, onde se reconhece a individualidade de cada uma destas mulheres, artistas plásticas.

Este encontro de amigas unidas pela arte, tem como objectivo principal, dar visibilidade à mulher no mundo artístico.

Artistas plásticas representadas:

Adriana Castro

Benedita Kendall

Catarina Machado

Daniela Nogueira

Isabel Monteiro

Joana Peres

Joana Rêgo

Marcela de Navascués

Marta Fonseca

Paula Parracho

Sandra Palhares

Comissária: Catarina Machado
--
Plano B
Rua Cândido dos Reis 30
4050 - 151 Porto

01/08/2007

GLU GLU GLU


GLUMAGAZINE
yhe link was sent by Suzanne, and it looks suberb - - lesbian magazine