Symposium II: Artistic interventions in the context of feminist and migrant self-organization and collective practices
Friday, November 22nd 2013, 9:00 – 16:00
Schwerpunkt Wissenschaft & Kunst
Programmbereich Contemporarary Arts & Cultural Production
Atelier im KunstQuartier (1st floor)
Bergstraße 12, 5020 Salzburg
www.w-k.sbg.ac.at/interventionen
Overview:
09.00-09.45 Marina Gržinić (Ljubljana/Wien): Dissident feminisms and anti-racist politics
09.45-10.30 Emma Hedditch (USA/England): What is happening? Performance as interventionist art practice
10.30-11.00 Break
11.00-11.45 Klub Zwei: Jo Schmeiser, Simone Bader (Wien): Work on/in (the) Public
11.45-12.30 Workshops
Workshop A: Marina Gržinić: „We are here to stay!“
Workshop B: Emma Hedditch: What is happening? Performance as interventionist art practice
Workshop C: Klub Zwei: Work on/in (the) Public
12.30-13.30 Break
13.30-15.00 Workshops
15.00-16.00 Public Presentations of workshops
Contents
I. Marina Gržinić
Presentation: Dissident feminisms and anti-racist politics
In the lecture I want to discuss a history of feminism and show the diversification of this history also due to strong processes of confrontation and intervention of feminism with and in different political, social and economic contradictions. One of such points was a new perspective in feminism that opened with the struggles against racism and discrimination, based on the constructed category of „race.“ Women of color and black women communities started to point out processes of structural racism and asked feminists to take a clear anti-racist policy. This questioning resulted in a format of feminism that took dissident or counter positions in activism, struggles for emancipation, and in culture and art projects. I will show and elaborate on some of these dissident feminist artists and activists positions with strong ant-racist political agenda and think of their importance for us here and now.
Workshop: „We are here to stay!“
„We are here to stay!“ say feminist activists and artists from Maiz (Verein von und für Migrantinnen), Linz. Accordingly in the workshop we will try to elaborate the political implications of this statement and watch films by feminist-political groups with strong antiracists politics and talk about the status of these works and the possible ways of understanding their interventions in the history and present of feminism and contemporary social and political agendas.
Dr. Marina Gržinić is philosopher, artist and theoretician. She is professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Her latest book is Re-Politicizing art, Theory, Representation and New Media Technology, Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna and Schlebrügge Editor, Vienna 2008. She also published an edited online book on Biopolitics, Necropolitics and De-coloniality (Pavilion, no. 14, 2010). Gržinić has been involved with video art since 1982, she works for 30 years with Aina Smid, she is professor of art history and free-lance editor. Gržinić lives in Ljubljana, works in Ljubljana, Slovenia and Vienna, Austria. Films and texts by Gržinić under: http://grzinic-smid.si/
II. Emma Hedditch
Presentation: What is happening? Performance as interventionist art practice
I will give some indication of how I think about performance, both as a historically, situated, specific culturally defined interventionist art practice, medium or form and also something broader, philosophical, psychological and political. I will acknowledge the critical influence of political organising and struggles for transparency and practices of responsibility and respect in relation to feminist and anti-racist work.
I will situate performance in the context of interventions by reading some performance texts I have written, alongside and in between I will show documentation of performances of which I have been part, and acknowledge the desire and influences, that drive this practice. The absolutely social, rather than individual production, in relation and practice/performance of the different positions at work.
It is the invitation, the relation of recognition of difference, support and acknowledgement that I would in part like to talk about. How we, in these relations produce actual physical and psychological spaces for experimentation, research, self-organising, performing and actions. We are held in this invitation, and these possibilities open out if we let them.
I feel an affinity with practices that do not seek to unify in support, or compartmentalise, but instead offer resources and space to try things out, to challenge each new context and that are not afraid to improvise and break with the smooth and often passive modes of reception and presentation. It does not need to know what we will do, but it is willing to let us do it, if we dare to. In this sense you could say it is close to anarchist, anti-patriarchal, de-colonising or non-authoritative socialist thinking and organising. What will happen, where and with whom? It is with this curiosity and a commitment to distributing resources and knowledge, and having or making the experience of organising and doing something, that I commit to this new invitation.
Workshop: What is happening?
In the workshop we will bring examples and explore experiences of organisational practices and direct action strategies. We will discuss how we are working towards goals such as „Inclusive Speech“, „Non-Master Suppression Techniques“ and embodied solidarity in political work and artistic practices. Drawing from our own experiences and trying out some of the techniques together, we will explore how these practices actualise feminist and anti-racist thoughts.
Emma Hedditch (born 1972, UK) is an artist and writer based in New York. She often works collaboratively with other artists and groups, for example The Copenhagen Free University (2001-2008) and Cinenova, a feminist film and video distributor (1999-present). Heavily influenced by politicised conceptual art practices and feminist politics, her work has taken on elastic forms as performances, collectively produced films, fanzines as well as workshops, screenings and events. Emma Hedditch has been Artist In Residence for performance at the Munich Art Academy in 2013.
III. Klub Zwei: Simone Bader und Jo Schmeiser
Präsentation und Workshop: Work on/in (the) Public
In the last decade Klub Zwei has frequently collaborated with feminist immigrants. In a series of projects entitled „Work on/in the Public“ we looked at questions of racism and sexism, and our own involvement in their perpetuation.
The title implies that the racist and sexist structures on which our society is based must be made visible and that they cannot be changed without exposure to public debate. But it also indicates that structural change will need to be accompanied by other forms of representation and discussion. Finally, „Work on/in the Public“ means critiquing the dominant public sphere. It means the work to change it, and involves supporting, strengthening and creating a network of different public spheres to which the dominant one refuses to grant social significance and the right to be heard.
Klub Zwei will present some projects and discuss materials produced: banners, tapes, stickers, posters and postcards. The materials were designed in collaborations with immigrants and pupils, and shown in different cities. The materials are „work to be continued“. Thus they already point to a possible working situation. In the workshop they shall trigger similar collaborations and invite to sketch questions and claims for the local context in Salzburg.
Since 1992 Klub Zwei – Simone Bader and Jo Schmeiser – has been working at the interface of art, film and new media. Our main fields of interest are socio-political issues and how they are portrayed. Our work centres on critiquing dominant modes of representation and developing new ways of presenting them. The potential for social change also lies in its images. Our further interests are critically assessing structures and engaging in egalitarian co-operations among women with different backgrounds, histories and life concepts. www.klubzwei.at