Our participation in the EFF can be seen as an attempt to take our feminist and artistic activism further, to tackle normative patterns of exclusion of feminist, queer and trans / gender artists differently or to “switch metaphors”. Our experiment takes time.

Please contact us through the website if you would like to be kept informed about or involved in the progress and activities.

Suzanne van Rossenberg
Carla Cruz
Nina Hoechtl
Francesco Ventrella

http://cyberatvbko.blogspot.com

Switch metaphors

About feminism and art, queer and trans / gender activism

Carla Cruz (PT), Nina Höchtl (AT), Suzanne van Rossenberg (NL) and Francesco Ventrella (IT) propose a discussion about the question if (and how) art can be a tool for unravelling or subverting hetero-normative power structures in society. Each in her/his own practices (both artistic and curatorial) we are faced to deal with the constructed parameters that determine (our) art, and find ways to work with them, avoid them or redefine them. This choice ultimately has an influence on our (economical) position in different art scenes.

As we agree that artistic strategies produce knowledge, we believe it’s important we read other feminists’ strategies, and they read, discuss and fight ours. In order to do this, we think real life AG meetings and presentations in different contexts are the best. On the 31st of March Carla, Nina and Suzanne already presented one of their works in a “cyberfeminist” context. For 2007 we plan probably two more AG meetings. In Rome we will do a presentation in Francesco’s No Entertainment at All!, a research based performance project in collaboration with 1:1projects.
Newcomers can join our meetings, or invite us for a presentation or discussion!

The other way we share artistic strategies and discuss the topics is by emailing, websites, blogs, IM and Skype. Newcomers can react on our products at the EFF website in whatever form they prefer. If you wish to become participatory in the AG (and interested in discussing the topics we address), please write an email to Suzanne. From this we can start telling each other stories about our artistic strategies and explain each other how we each take accountability for our fiction (painting, performances, writing, curating, community art, etc.) from commissioned to self-funded, from invisible to commercial.

Our virtual and real life encounters will determine the form of our discussion at the EFF in 2008.

More about/from us:

http://allmyindependentwomen.blogspot.com

http://www.carlacruz.pt.to

http://www.trans-genderplatform.nl

http://www.suzannevanrossenberg.nl

http://www.1to1projects.org

About past forward, the cyberfeminist exhibition and real life meeting in Vienna:

http://cyberatvbko.blogspot.com

http://www.vbkoe.org/cyber_feminism_past_forward.htm

‘past forward’

Exhibition and meetings: March 9 to March 31, 2007
Opening: March 8, 2007, International Women’s Day

Check out:
http://rhizome.org/thread.rhiz?thread=24045&page=1

On the 31st of March Nina, Carla, Francesco and I will give a presentation about our work under the title ‘On Accountability’ and talk about the questions we raised in the proposal for the EFF. We will also take part in the round table discussion about the “cultural political” situation in the different countries we each live.

Also check out:
The Faces community (gender/technology/art) that is celebrating its 10years anniversary that same weekend.
http://www.faces-l.net/

The main reason to propose a discussion topic for the EFF was my thought that feminist art could not be missed at a forum like this, enlarging visibility of different kinds of feminist art to a feminist audience.

Feminist contemporary art consists of performances, painting, tapestry, video, installations, lectures, stencil graffiti, books, hacktivism, digital art, interactive projects and more. There is feminist art that uncovers cultural and economic power structures that determine art, taste and philosophy, through different appearances than for example a scientific research —though a visual similarity between art and science isn’t unthinkable, let alone the similarities in methodologies.

An artist can challenge the borders of art, make them elastic or break them over and over again. An artist can also look for the door to leave this dominant fiction. To me this choice is a feminist one, illustrated with a quote from Donna Haraway’s ‘Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and Privilege of Partial Perspective’ (1991):

“It is, of course, hard to climb when you are holding on to both ends of a pole, simultaneously or alternately. It is, therefore, time to switch metaphors.”

So, feminist art can be institutional critique, but can it also be a tool for feminist activism?
Can art accomplish emancipation of queers or awareness of gender performativity in society —to my mind a good cause?
What do feminist artists do besides activist deeds that are unrecognizable as art (and not to forget unpaid) and gallery and museum pieces that reach small, and enclosed audiences?

Together with Nina Höchtl, Carla Cruz and Francesco Ventrella, who each deal with these questions in their own practices, I would like to start an Affinity Group about art and feminism (trans / gender and queer activism) in order to show (and share) strategies of feminist artists.

Suzanne van Rossenberg