12.12.2007
Red Dawns
March 5-9 2008, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Call-out
Festival Red Dawns is organised by association KUD Mreza in cooperation with many friends, supporters and volunteers. This year, the festival is also generously supported by EYFA, an organisation based in Amsterdam which connected Amsterdam, Graz and Ljubljana with a project entitled Trilogy: Women Crossing Communities.What we've set out to accomplish with this year's festival is not easy: we would like to enable connections between art and activism, activism and theory, theory and art. So that, when the caravan of artists, activists and theorists is moving on, we won't be left with unforgettable memories and broken hearts alone, but with something more... palpable. For instance, with the open-code programming knowledge of the The GenderChangers collective, or the auto-repair skills offered by Ksenija Glavac, or the burn-out prevention techniques taught by Belgrade's Zene na delu (Women at Work), and the viewpoints of no less than sixty feminists that confront global capitalism in a fat book called New Feminisms; Queer and Networking Conditions. No doubt, we will also be left with another girl in love from this or that other, starless Europe. She will try hard to persuade Slovenian authorities that it's not the country she fell in love with, but that she's prepared to do anything (marry, registrer, whatever they want) to stay here with the woman, man, the beloved and wonderful being of her choice.
But we also want to poke the sores that hurt; those caused by the personified fist of patriarchal, falogocentric and heteronormative (in short, too common) violence against women, children and men that are not "manly enough". Emelie Rondahl is going to ease the pain with a needle and thread in her Bloody Normssewing workshop. Dancers Nina Fajdiga and Jasmina Krizaj will cope with the burden of "real femininity" with aching and abrupt motions; stage director, writer and actress Simona Semenic will regard an ill woman as a victim and then, with great pleasure, relieve her of that status. Urska Sterle will starve out and disable every lesbian that would dare to even softly strike another lesbian, feminist or, god forbid, any "ordinary woman" with her courage. Can you imagine, how it would be if all of us suddenly came out of the closet! In fact, many women do stick out of closets and averages in spite of their pain. We've met them in fairy tales, too. The opening night of the festival is dedicated to them, to (fairy tale) heroines who examine rules and norms in the only way possible: by courageously, even desperately violating them - and living their lives.
Welcome!
With love,
Red Dawns
Website: http://www.kudmreza.org/rdece/2008
06.03.2008
Red Dawns blog
Read the daily blog entrances at the www.rdecezore.blogspot.com
10.03.2008
HAWBFA
Habits are Worth Being Fanatical About,
Gallery Alkatraz, March 8 2008 at 18h
Nina Fajdiga and Jasmina Krizaj
11.03.2008
Interview with Jasmina Jerant
for the vest.si
11.03.2008
New feminism
Book presentation by Marina Grzinic
13.04.2008
About
Red Dawns is an international feminist and queer festival organized annually on The International Women's Day in Ljubljana's Autonomous Cultural Center Metelkova mesto. The first festival was organized in 2000 by several local women's groups and art associations in an attempt to redefine Metelkova mesto as a public space that supports the creativity and socializing of women on their own terms. In the course of two years, Red Dawns festival allied itself with other women's initiatives from Slovenia, the Balkans and the wider European neighborhood. In 2006, the festival redefined its goals by focusing on feminist and queer art that is sensitive to social, cultural, and economic aspects of sexual asymmetry. In response to the march of the new Right in postsocialist countries as well as in Western Europe, the festival also began advocating feminist politics in relation to the multitude of struggles for social justice.
The 2008 collaboration with Trilogy strengthened Red Dawn's dedication to art that seeks connections with transnational feminist activism and theory as possible community-building practices. The program focused on different techniques of accountable knowledge production and exchange "so that, when the caravan of artists, activists, and theoreticians is going to leave town, we won't be left with unforgettable memories and broken hearts alone, but with something more... palpable. For instance, with the open code programming knowledge of the The GenderChangers collective, the auto-repair skills offered by Ksenija Glavac, the burn-out prevention techniques taught by Belgrade's Women at Work, and the viewpoints of no less than sixty feminists who confront global capitalism in the book New Feminisms; Queer and Networking Conditions".
The 9th Red Dawns festival was a profuse event, organized by association KUD Mreza and ten local co-organizing groups, assisted by two EYFA members and fifteen volunteers. The fifty workshop moderators, feminist theoreticians, historians, writers, storytellers, performers, visual artists, dancers, comedians, musicians, and other participants were joined by fourteen Trilogy artists, journalists, media activists and philosophers who made a considerable contribution to Red Dawns' program. The festival celebrated creativity and work-in-process rather than production of objects as a motivating approach to collaborative work and active audience participation. Noha Ramadan's workshop Body as the Site of Action and the resulting street action were, in this sense, most memorable. Comic artist, graphic designer, and Red Dawns coorganizer Anna Ehrlemark wrote: "Noha spoke about the necessity of moving beyond activism based on slogans and banners as they tend to petrify subject positions instead of trying to subvert the accepted logic and status quo. At the workshop, Noha showed examples of actions based on what she calls the revolutionary need to liberate our bodies in public spaces. She claimed that by transgressing the borders of what is perceived as acceptable behavior, we carry the potential to recognize moments of freedom and expand them to other contexts."
Red Dawns festival opened possibilities, a space, an inclusive environment for exercising the right of women to express themselves, to show, perform, disseminate, and share their ideas, problems, creativity, and care. Participants meet other participants, saw each other's work and ideas, and discussed future cooperations. The audience was exposed to new art, contemporary feminist politics and moreover, had the possibility to join the workshops, discussions, and street action. The strong feeling of solidarity was stipulated by the willingness of guests and volunteers to help each other in creating this unique transnational community of female artists, activists and theoreticians. The merits of their exchange can be paralleled to the mutually enriching experience of EYFA's cooperation with KUD Mreza.