When we talk about the oppression or discrimination of an individual or a group by other groups, we usually think about its legal and social aspects. Some individuals and / or groups happen to be excluded or forced to live by the rules that they did not create, but that tell them where they can exist, what they are allowed to do, who they are or can become, and what their bodies are for. Second wave feminists defined private as political and noticed the connection between power and a human body. Until today liberation movements have been trying to emancipate bodies from social and political control, in order to give them back to theirs owners. Health, reproductive rights, sexuality and the right to autonomy of any person are the topics where the female body is still a battlefield.

The zine exhibition presented by Bildwechsel Warszawa focuses on this battle and attempts to liberate bodies from definitions and the control of other people. At the exhibition you will find underground press created in women’s and alternative movements on topics like: sexual violence, rape, abortion, children’s upbringing, transsexuality, transgender and health.

The zines will be available during the Days of Reproductive Justice in Warsaw , Oct. 24-25th at UFA (Al.Solidarnosci 82)

www.sprawiedliwoscreprodukcyjna.pl

www.u-f-a.pl

‘Experiments In Living’ is the Bildwechsel theme for 2009, and of our week long meeting in Glasgow (17th – 23rd September).

Our focus is on artists’ and women’s and queer communities, groups, ways of organising and working and living. The screening this evening includes work submitted following our joint Call for Films with LaD.I.Y.Fest Berlin, as well as work from the Bildwechsel archives.

A Year of Sisterhood – Åsa Elzén and Sonia Hedstrand, Sweden, 2005 (excerpts 18′)

Safe Slut – – a carnival through Valla Torg, Theresa von Hofsten and Therese Kristianson, Sweden, 2009 (6′)
The New Beauty Council presents the documentation of a staged midnight carnival performed by a group of women, challenging the values and social rules maintained by society with their own bodies as a tool and the masquerade as a strategy to move between different identities.
It is an investigation and action dealing with ideas of safety, danger, rape, the body, gender and space.
The group had beforehand met at several occasions to plan the performance and to discuss the potentiality of appropriating space with ones’ own body – if this experience on a personal level could change the meaning of the space and values given to it?
Collaborators: Thérèse Kristiansson & Theresa von Hofsten, Hannah Goldstein, Karin Drake, Maria Breide, Sara Ullman, Emma Lundqvist, Hedvig Nathorst-Böös. And many thanks to Memona Khamara and Line Dalmar for painting our outfits. http://www.newbeautycouncil.org/

Moving Home – Inger Schwarz, Koln (2′)

Im Gartenhaus – Eva Kietzman and Sabine Rollnik, Hamburg, 2008 (5′)

Reality Recycling – Kori Klima and Gaby Wiegelmann, 2009 (2′30″)
A photomachine in a learning process…

Zeroes and Ones – Catalina Jordan, Berlin, 2009 (5′43″)

Family – Nosheen Khwaja, Glasgow, 2009 (7’)

Gender Poo – Riot Coco, 2005 – 2009, Montreal (1′35″)

Der Park – Regina Assmann, Berlin 1994 (2′30″)

Project website (a work in progress) http://europesupportsartists.wordpress.com

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AN INVITATION FROM FEEL TANK CHICAGO TO: NOT FADE AWAY

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18th 2009
6:00 pm – 8:30 pm
@ bildwechsel’s ‘Experiments in Living’, at The Albany, corner of Ashley St and Carnarvon St (please use Carnarvon St entrance), Glasgow

Everything’s going to hell in a hand basket. Or perhaps you’re feeling optimistic that the collapse of everything from the economy to your body is an opening to reinvent living…

Who’s to say?

You are.

Feel Tank Chicago invites you to a participatory performance of collective thought about aging now.

We’re going to play some cards, eat some grandma candy, tell some stories about the hands we’ve been dealt, and re-imagine life.

Organized as part of the bildwechsel meeting ‘experiments in living’, 17th – 23rd September 2009, Glasgow www.europesupportsartists.wordpress.com

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please print it out, put it up, send it on:  flyer

We have a new addition to the programme for the 21st:

The Fridge Under The Kitchen Wagon – Der Schwarze Kanal, 50’, Line Kühl, Bettina Mooshammer, Sophie Grohmann, Berlin 2008, German with English Subtitles

Documentary about life on the wagonplace Schwarzer Kanal in Berlin Mitte. The queer space is under constant threat of eviction by the city hall, landlord and neighbours.

6pm – Eat What You Find For Free Cafe
7pm – film programme, starting wih Under The Kitchen Wagon and followed by a programme of queer collective-made short films. PLUS the premiere of the new Burnout film Cock and the City!

More info here

Experiments in Living

Facebook page now online at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=273463125334

Culture and Sport Glasgow have stated that one of the reasons it decided to withdraw Dani’s work was to protect the artists, the sh[Out] programme and the LGBT community as a whole from negative press and attacks from other groups that would “negate both the artistic and societal endeavour” of the programme.

This completely misses the point that sh[Out], a “contemporary art and human rights” programme was supposed to address such issues, not shy away from them.   The artists and organisations involved in the sh[Out] programme are fully entitled and much better qualified to make these kind of decisions for themselves.  We are the ones who have been dealing with homophobia and negative and violent reactions all of our lives.  These experiences inform our art/work and are what led some of us to become involved in the sh[Out] programme in the first place, either as exhibitors or as members of the sh[Out] Advisory Group.

My own organisation, Bildwechsel Glasgow, has been well supported by staff within GoMA and recognises that the staff there have been put in a very difficult position.  However, it is has been made clear to the sh[Out] Advisory Board that some elected Glasgow councillors have reservations about sh[Out] which they have made clear to CSG staff.  This, combined with recent Daily Mail outrage over the ”defaced Bible” work, has directly contributed to CSG’s decision to censor, re-schedule and put on hold vital works of art by LGBT artists.

We are deeply concerned that the on-going, in-depth and media-sensitive scrutiny of artworks planned for the sh[Out] exhibition may be inherently homophobic, as no other artists or exhibitions at GoMA have been treated in this way.

We demand that Culture and Sport Glasgow and the Gallery of Modern Art re-instate Dani Marti’s censored work immediately.  They must also re-affirm their commitment to show all the works originally planned as part of the sh[Out] programme, without attempting to make them less visible by re-scheduling or re-locating them.

Culture and Sport Glasgow has a responsibility to promote, explore and celebrate the art and culture of the great diversity of peoples that live in Glasgow and beyond.   If LGBT people have the courage to live their own lives out and proud in the face of hatred and homophobia and under threat of marginalisation and violence, surely we have the right to expect courage and vision from decision-makers and elected representatives.

I would like to ask you to e-mail, phone or write to your own Councillors to make them aware of the situation and let them know your views.

Everyone in Glasgow now has three or four councillors that cover the Ward they live in.  You can find yours and their contact details by entering your postcode here:

http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/en/YourCouncil/Council_Committees/Councillors/

If you want to, you could also contact your Members of the Scottish Parliament, whose details are at http://www.writetothem.com/ or write to the Director, Mark O’Neill, Head of Arts and Museums, at the Gallery of Modern Art, Royal Exchange Square, Glasgow, G1 3AH (You can use the online form at http://www.glasgowmuseums.com/emailform.cfm?staffgroupid=24&staffid=72).  GoMA has received many letters from organised right-wing groups in opposition to sh[Out] artworks.  We think it is important that they begin to hear some other voices.

You can keep up to date on the campaign here http://shoutadvisorygroup.blogspot.com.

Finally, please find attached an open letter from Dianne Torr, an artist who has been affected by CSG and GoMA’s decisions, for some further background and her perspective on the situation.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Best wishes,

Kate Henderson

Bildwechsel Glasgow

this evening is planned to coincide with the Glasgow Festival of DIY Culture and we’ll be showing some queer collective made films and hopefully a film about queer squatting too (check back for more info).

We start at 6pm with our “eat what you can find for free” cafe
Films start at 7pm

More info here

Experiments in Living