discourse - her position in transition

Schlussdiskussion

mit Katharina Pewny, Sabine Prokop, Barbara Klein und Margit Niederhuber
Jill Greenhalgh / Great Britain (Magdalena Project)
Cristina Castrillo / Argentinien - Schweiz - Umbral
Shailja Patel / Indien - Kenya - USA - Migritude

Abkürzungen im Text:

prok- Sabine Prokop
jill- Jill Greenhalgh
cristina- Cristina Castrillo
shailja- Shailja Patel
barbara- Barbara Klein
kath- Katharina Pewny
margit- Margit Niederhuber


Am Ende des Textes CVs der Vortragenden

Autorin: Elisabeth Seyerl

Synopsis des Vortrages

In dieser Schlussdiskussion unter der Leitung von Katharina Pewny wird die gesamte Diskursschiene des Festivals thematisch zusammengefasst und ein Resümee gezogen. Auch Schwachpunkte werden angesprochen, so zum Beispiel der Mangel an „women of colour“, sowie die möglichen Ursachen dafür oder auch Lösungsvorschläge. Zuletzt wird allen Künstlerinnen und Organisatorinnen herzlichst gedankt.

In this discussion, supervised by Katharina Pewny, the last two weeks of discussions are summarised and a final conclusion is made. Also the negative points of the festival are discussed, so for example the absence of women of colour. Possible reasons for this and possible solutions to the problem are talked about. Finally all the artists and organisers are thanked.

Protokoll des Vortrages

kath- Today it will be mostly in English, if you don’t understand it, please ask.
I would liket to start by thanking the Depot, for this space. Apart from the party tonight, it is the last event of the festival, except for some performances today.
We want to make a bridge between the local and international networks. I would like to start with the question, how do you women, who you work in the theatre, as performancers, teachers, what do you see in this festival, what do you want to tell people? The second round of question will be open to the public.
So, how could this continue in the future, reflecting what has happendend? I want to briefly mention the necessity to leave the “we as feminists” to see what has happened in the different local places, f.ex., there is not the same history in the former communist countries, in comparison to western europe. The other point is, that it is good to keep politics and art together, that feminist art is a political art.
Ok, I would like to introduce the guests today.
Indian w. you are a performer on magritude. And christina castrillo you did the performance…, ad third jill, the founder of …

shailja- Thank you. I will keep it brief. For me the most important thing is connecting artists to each other and to the institutions. One of the most interesting things I discovered was, that the venues, where performances were done, were asked, which performance they wanted to stage and promote, so they had a relationship with the artists. This is somethingg we should keep in mind, and we should foster the relationships. I myself will ask all the artists to connect with me and my work. This way we can build international networks.
The other thing is the belief in dialogue, and combining the making of work with a critical look at the politics and theories around the work. An atmosphere of exchange.
Moving on from there, one of the bases of my work is to ask, what am I not seeing. So I found at this festival, there has been an absence of women of colour, that is not a criticism but a question. How was the info about the festival made accessable? For me it has always been interesting to make art in marginalised communities. The other question is, how did women with children participate? I know that some women could not come to my show, because they couldn`t find a babysitter.

cristina (with translator into English)- I thought a lot about the word transition, it is a word that is used a lot, but I am not sure if it always means the same thing. We use the word, because the word comes out of our heads or we use it to feel ourselfs in movement.
The problem with the word is, to know what one wants to do. For what I want to do, that word is really difficult to fit in. Because for me transition means, to accept what reality imposes on me, I don’t want transition in that case. To accept the rules of the market, the rule that you have to do a performance in 2 weeks, accept that everyone can do a performance, to accept that there is no market for other forms of performance, to accept that there is no research on performance…. My transition is to go to the centre of my work, for 37 years I have tried to get into this transition, it has been a long time. I have to put myself in the position, to try and explain for me the word transition. I think I am a good example for independency, and the mental independency is really hard to have and also the independency of my work is difficult to keep. I am scared of speed, of institutions, in this panorama, when I talk about transition, I am talking about movement. It has to do with my work and with my life, it cannot be divided. You have the same passion and loyality. This personal position, when one is able to do a movement, it is not a feminist position, but a human position.
My relationship with the Magdalena project, all of this is behind this project and in what I see as myself. The kind of work, research, …it takes me a year and a half to do a performance. I am not just presenting myself here, I am the founder of the “roots theatre”, 25 years ago. It is a coincidence, that I am doing a performance, usually I only train my actors. In this independency, there are 3 steps: travelling. The journeys are products of seeing and taking, the journey is the fundamental knowledge. The next thing is the international laboratory, which we do every year. And the third thing is the little action we do in our space.
To go back to the transition problem (?). Apart from defending this idea, not letting yourself be eaten up by the rest of the world, there is a way to respond.

jill- Cristina and I, we have met many times before, I brought her work to Britain. It is difficult to respond to the question, for two reasons. I only arrived here on Wednesday, I missed many things. For example on one day, all the artists had a meeting at 3 o`clock and I missed it. For me the importance of coming here, is to hear others and meet others.
I want to pick up on two things. I have been thinking about structures, that are useful for our work as women. Barbara is in a similar position as I was a few years ago: not having any money and support from the state. At that time I decided, that my silence was the strongest thing I had, I did not fight back. When they closed the office in Wales, more things connected to it happened everywhere else. The Magdalena project is being kept alive, all over the world. At the end of each festival, we have a discussion like this. It is extraordinary, how much of the things said in these circles, is actually done later. The third point connects to what Cristina said. That, if you make this decision to make an event happen , you have to make sure the festival is for you. You have to be selfish. Because it is something you want to find out and you want to see and do. Without that deep selfish need, I don’t think, the thing really happens. I for example know, that I have been selfish all my life in that manner, I only invite work I like and I am interested in.
The last thing is this idea of silence and privacy. The idea, that womens history has been much more private and invisible than mens,.. but I think maybe this is one of ours strengths. Men have not been interested in our work. And now they are coming to us and saying, this is interesting.

kath- I want to pass the word on to the local festival makers.

barbara- It is unbelievable that the idea for this festival has really been realised, that the festival exists. I want to thank Margit for all her work, it would not have happened without her. I want to thank all the artists and theorists, who brought a lot of ideas and wisdom into the festival.
There is the question, can we say “we”, because what do we all have in common? Maybe the lack of independency? But what do we want to reach? It is difficult to say “we”.
For me it was interesting, that there are so many ideas of resistance. For me it was the idea of building up the Kosmostheater, but now I don’t know if this is the right way.
What I have learned, is that maybe we should be more invisible and not so easy to grab.
But what has happened here at the festival, has been very empowering for me. I just want to say thank you to all of you.

margit- I would prefer to ask the audience, are there any questions?

kath- Maybe you can tell us what you as artists are doing in the future and what have you experiences of the festival been?

prok- As you said, perspectives. I think it is important to continue the contact between scientists and artists. It is of course a question of money and so. But maybe we can do something together with the Depot, because we all don’t have any money.
The discourse between artists and scientists is important and should go on. All the questions in the discourse, we should keep on discussing.

kath- Yes, I think it is good to connect different locations. I would like to ask the audience, if they have any questions.

au- I have a lot to say, but one thing is very important, the inter-generational communication. I have a example, when I compare my work with Cristinas work. My history is similar to hers. It is interesting to connect through the generations, not just through being women.
Me and my colleagues, we are all something like 26 years old, we don’t need to say we are feminists, because it is enough to say we are women artists. We know about the history, and we carry it in ourselves and I will question it in my generation. Our generation is in a critical moment, we don’t know how to define ourselves.

margit- The idea of the festival, networking, …, looking back on to the two weeks, I think it worked well. Every artist could stay for a week, they had the possibility, to see performances and get to know people. The second thing is connecting to the institutions. It worked out well, but the more established the institutions were, the less they were involved in it.
The third thing is the dialogue between artists, it worked well, and they also had the possibility of the web blog. That is something to continue working on.
Two more things. The question of women artists: for us it was clear, that we were talking about women, but in the newspapers they were talking about women in a festival, not a Künstlerinnen festival. This is a difference.
And about the definition of women artists. I understand, that in the younger generation you have a different way of defining yourself (to the au). I would love, not to have to do any more women festivals, but at the big festivals, there are never 50% women artists, which means we still need to push the women artists a lot.
One more thing to your question Shailja, about the access of women of colour.
We tried it in some ways, we sent out the papers and infos. But you can see, where the resources are, where there is access to the internet and so on. It is much easier for women in Europe with money and access to the internet, to connect to these festivals. But we are going to try to bring in women from other countries.

jill- Just a response to that. I was at a café in South America with a few women. One woman said she read about a questionnaire, which proposed, that it will only be in 400 years, that there will be total equality for women. So we still have a lot to do.

kath- Does anyone have a different idea for solving the problem?

shailja- I would like to respond. One of the things is, that you see a problem and you address it. It is easy to notice the absence, but doing something against it is harder. The question “Who is absent here?”, I need to ask myself, how much work have I done, to bring in women of colour? I think there is also fear and competition between the artists. You don’t want to share the resources, because you are scared of having no funding and no money, because there are so many talented people.
I think we need to actually tell people we know, about these festivals and things. But for some artists, there are such huge costs, to enter these productions. We need to find a way to allow them to make the connections.
au- I want to respond to Margit. You need to trust my generation, that we know the history, but that we see things from different perspectives and that we maybe think the total confrontation between men and women does not work. Maybe you need to let go of your idea of what a feminist fighter is.

shailja- It is easy to make the assumption, that the fight for women`s rights is not as important any more today. But it is important to know, that there are countries, where women don`t have this feminist history and where they still have the barriers, that white women may have already left behind them, in front of them.

au- What I am interested in, is a more strategic issue. For instance, to stop fighting. Was that ever an issues in the Magdalena project, to fight or to make yourself invisible. What does that mean?

jill- That is the question, I am asking myself. The strategy mentioned by the Gorilla girls, the fact, that they are in the major museums, although nobody knows who they are. I am determined to mix the personal and professional work, I don`t want to divide those two things.

au- Is it not about financing things? How do you realise an idea without exploiting yourself? And the Gorilla strategy, doesn’t it involve self exploitation and getting tired of it? How do you finance your projects?

jill- I work at the University. But in the past I made mountains of applications, so it is about looking for strategies of survival, without killing yourself

barbara- Yes, we need money, we don’t get money, but there are new possibilities. What is private and what is public? There are new ways of being public, for example the internet. And you can also use labels, for example the label “the Magdalene project”, which you can fill with your feelings, or “Bildwechsel”, you can use the label for yourself.

margit- Talking about resources. I think the sharing of resources is really important.

au- First, I want to thank the festival. I am very aware, that the festival really pushed me, we have to take care of it, (younger generation) and continue the work. To raise sensitivity in the institutions. The other thing is, that I think it would be good to include a workshop line for the artists, about the strategies of fundraising. This is the work, that uses up our energy. Also, having artist- workshops means that you can get to know each other.

kath- For me it was important, to come into dialogue with artists again, so I am glad to hear that there are ideas of continuing. It would be interesting, to bring the performances closer together. And I want to thank the women from Kosmostheater.

margit- Danke dem Depot. Danke.

Ende


CVs

Shailja Patel

Diese indische Dichterin und Sprachkünstlerin aus Kenia ist im New Yorker Lincoln Center aufgetreten. Sie wurde in London, Glasgow und Nairobi gefeiert. Auszüge aus ihrem Stück "Migritude" wurden im BBC Radio, NPR, dem National Radio Projekt und Pacifica Radio gesendet und beschrieben als "a Godiva bonbon laced with LSD and packed with potent truth and imagery."

Patel, bekannt aus südasiatischen und amerikanischen Medien, ist bei Antikriegsveranstaltungen in Yale und an der Brown Universität aufgetreten.

Sie publizierte in zahlreichen Zeitschriften, Anthologien und auf CDs, und wird 2006 im Internationalen Museum für Frauen zu sehen sein. Auszüge aus "Migritude" wurden in viele Sprachen übersetzt und in Colleges, Mittelschulen und Workshops von Afrika bis Indien und Japan verwendet. Sie wurde mit dem Outwrite 1999 Poetry Prize und dem Voices Of Our Nations Poetry Scholarship ausgezeichnet.

Patel gewann den amerikanischen Lambda slam poetry Wettbewerb und ist eine der dreizehn Dichterinnen, die in der neuen Anthologie über queer slam poetry: Bullets and Butterflies (Suspect Thoughts Press, 2005) vertreten ist.

Geboren und aufgewachsen in Nairobi, Kenia. Sie studierte Wirtschaft und Politik and der Universität von York, in England. Danach Ausbildung als Rechnungsprüferin in London. Sie ist auch Yoga Lehrerin, die in verschiedenen Ländern unterrichtet. Zurzeit lebt sie in Oakland, Kalifornien


Cristina Castrillo/ Teatro delle Radici

Seit über dreißig Jahren widmet sich Cristina Castrillo der Theaterkunst, angefangen bei der Gründung einer der bekanntesten Theatergruppe Lateinamerikas in den 70er Jahren, das TEATRO LIBRE, bis zur Gründung des "TEATRO DELLE RADICI" 1980 in der Schweiz.

Castrillos Arbeit kennzeichnet sich besonders durch ihre Vielseitigkeit, zumal sie als Schauspielerin und Regisseurin tätig ist und zudem noch weltweit international renommierte workshops gibt. Die Suche nach den Elemeneten betrachtet Castrillo als Grundlage für das Schauspieltraining, der Schauspieler selbst steht dabei immer im Mittelpunkt des kreativen Prozesses.

"On the Heart of the Earth" ist eines ihrer bemerkenswertesten Soloprojekte und wurde bei vielen Festivals in Europa und Lateinamerika aufgeführt.

Mit Kollegen des "TEATRO DELLE RADICI" hat sie die internationale "Theatre Lab School" gegründet.

In den letzten Jahren hat Cristina Castrillo folgende Stücke/Projekte konzipiert und inszeniert:
"Tracciato a Matita" (1982), "Trottole" (1983), "Trappola per Tristi" (1984), "Gli Abitanti del Tramonto" (1986), "Trapitos" (1987), "Sul Cuore della Terra" (1988), "Tangram" e "Uno" (1989), "Baguala" (1991), "L'Attimo del Blu" (1992), "Canto di Pietra" (1994), "Il Libro dei Riflessi" (1996), "Pelle di Lupo" (1997), "Le Ombre del Silenzio" (1998), "Umbral" (1999), "Stranieri" (2000), "Sguardo di Cenere" (2001) "Guardando al Sud" (2003), "Il Ventre della Balena" (2004)