Super FEM
Foster, Empower, Mobilise
Artworks
In this section you can find all artworks produced in the course of the “Super FEM – Foster, Empower, Mobilise” project. Here you can access the catalogue of the artworks, as they were presented in the exhibition “Femscapes: Persistence and Prospects”, in 8 – 10 March, at Bagkeion, Athens.
I come from: Hara, Boyka, Mata
Mata Kastrisiou
video poem
8’
Greece,
The texts on which the work is based are pieces of original material by women who participated in the Creative Writing workshop coordinated by Mata Kastrisiou in January 2024 in the framework of the Super FEM project organised by Inter Alia. The inspiration for this idea was the poem Where I’m From by George Ella Lyon.
video design-direction-mock-up-sound-curation: Mata Kastrisiou
Camera:
Intro & Outro: Marc Lepson
Boyka: Alex Aristopoulos
Mata: Mata Kastrisiou (with phone)
Sound mixing-mastering: Manolis Lianis
the texts were recorded at Tender Sounds studio in Galatsi, Athens
Everything she missed
Desilia Dimelli
painting
70 x 70 cm
Greece,
This painting illustrates the path to adulthood and the delicate rope between the child and adult self. To what extent have our childhood memories shaped us, and when did we see the world more clearly? The memories of the fairy tales from my childhood that shaped me and how I see myself in the present are depicted in a painting centred around femininity in a patriarchal world.
Exhuma
Alex Drăgulinescu, Ana-Maria Mihailidis, Arina Gheorghe, Cabiria Morgenstern, Laura Spătaru
5 digital portraits
420 x 594 mm
Romania,
They say that if our own inner child is not happy and doesn’t feel like they are enough, the adult in us cannot evolve either. In these portraits, we can observe the genuineness of childhood, compared to the tension of the present, whether we are talking about photos that express joy, enthusiasm, concentration or sadness. No one is born hating their own body, we learn to do this throughout our life from our families, school and society.
On my way home
Marcus Soddano
painting
Acrylics, airbrush, acrylic marker and embroidery on canvas
114 x 103
Norway,
My painting ‘On my way home’ captures the moment when a cat, symbolising independence and curiosity, joyfully rolls on the grass under a clear starry sky. The painting encapsulates the essence of the security of growing up in Balestrand, where the starlit sky cradles familiarity and the grass beneath the paws provides stability. The tranquil scene evokes the feeling of home, of belonging, and of peace of mind. It is a timeless moment of simple joy and childhood memories.
Sit like a Lady
Ana Gjorgjievska
painting
Germany,
From a young age girls mostly remember being given dolls for every birthday, every celebration. As well as this, from when we are small they prepare us for failure… don’t sit like that, only boys can, don’t talk back, go help your mum in the kitchen… it’s long overdue for a change.
We used to play the same games
Marinela Neralić
short documentary
15’
Croatia,
This work presents the universal need for play, as a spontaneous activity done by children and as a source of cheerfulness for both kids and adults. I wanted to exhibit the most common games that Roma played as children, but I discovered that I myself used to play identical games with my peers. Some of these are still played today while others evoke nostalgia for past times, such as a game with an elastic band called usa-usa [Bayashi] i.e. gumi-gumi [Croatian]. Simple things like pebbles or sticks are enough for a child to play with. In this video, I also presented inserts from my private life where I play with the children of my friends and family as a certain parallel of the same kind of joy, similar desires and impulses, but on the other hand, unequal social positions due to discrimination of Roma children and unequal prerequisites for education compared to Croatian children.
Just A Girl
Sonia Zorba
song
3’
Greece,
Am I a woman or am I a girl? The answer will be given by us, the older ones, as we know that, although we are already women, the girl within us always exists.
Generated Markets
Alex Drăgulinescu, Ana-Maria Mihailidis, Arina Gheorghe, Cabiria Morgenstern, Laura Spătaru
video
3’
Romania,
Patriarchy keeps us in constant competition with each other. At first, we learn to carry on this toxic behaviour in order to gain extra points on the imaginary scale of the male gaze. We considered it essential to reflect the lack of solidarity between women as a major factor in the deconstruction of self-confidence and the feeling of self-sufficiency.
Waiting to Jump (poem)
Kjersti Wøien Håland
poem
Norway,
Participating in Super FEM has been a very interesting process. After our preliminary meeting online I wasn’t sure what to expect from meeting and interviewing our young participants but after arriving in Balestrand I quickly realised I would get loads of inspiration from meeting these young women. They were really outgoing and full of energy, especially when talking about their joys and frustrations around growing up in a small town. It was clear that the community they had made with their dance group gave them purpose and confidence, but they still had thoughts on what could make things better for their age group in general. I also personally felt a lot of connection to what they were saying about growing up in a small town as I grew up in the same type of place. After our weekend had finished I had the idea to write a poem that reflected a world getting smaller as you grew older, as that was something I got from our conversations. Being a child in a safe and quiet small town can be magical, the feeling of possibility is endless, but when you become a teenager the same smallness and quietness can lead to restlessness and the feeling of being observed. Wanting to grow up and feel free but still receive guidance is the kind of mixed emotion a person can have when figuring out who they want to become. I reflected on the fact that growing up requires space, mentally and physically. I wrote my poem in an hourglass shape to reflect the time passing, but also the space getting tighter, then opening up again.
Waiting to Jump ( blackout poems)
Art students of Sygna High School
15 blackout poems
420 x 594 cm
Norway
Through the Super FEM project, we have been exploring what it means to be a young person in rural areas and the wonderful and challenging aspects of it. Sygna high school art students also joined us! They have used the “caviardage”, or “blackout poetry” technique, to create paintings for this project. Art students used the poem “Waiting to Jump” by Kjersti Wøien Håland.
Caviardage is a technique that combines writing and artistic expression by removing words from a text until a single message is visible.
Flowers of Good
Ana Gjorgjievska
painting
Germany,
Many women have spent their lives denying their femininity due to being told not to cry, and not to be weak. So they’ ve strayed away from a lot of things that have been deemed feminine. Taking this, I wanted to show that we can be fierce, and powerful, and beautiful and everything we want to be.
Meta-MorFosis
Stefania Mizara
28 photographs
30 x 40 cm, 30 x 50 cm,
40 x 50 cm, 40 x 60 cm
Greece,Meta-MorFosis
the change in physical state
MetAmfiesi
change the look of someone with clothes, make-up so that they are not easily recognized
cover up reality with various tricks
MetaShimatismos
change the shape
formula for calculating a mathematical object when the reference system is changed, i.e. how it is measured
Metalaxis
In biology, mutation or mutation is any change that can occur in the nucleotide sequence of an organism’s genetic material.
Mutations happen in a random way, but that does not mean that they are not subject to the influence of the environment.
Can’t help myself
Alex Drăgulinescu, Ana-Maria Mihailidis, Arina Gheorghe, Cabiria Morgenstern, Laura Spătaru
durational performance
Romania,”One is not born, but rather, becomes a woman” is the opening line of Book II of “The Second Sex” by Simone de Beauvoir. In this cyclical artwork, we want to revisit the concept of gender performance. Gender as something subconsciously engraved in daily practices, thought patterns and behaviours.
Judith Butler claims that neither gender nor sex are completely natural and that both are performative phenomena that become naturalised over time. Acts like putting on makeup become part of our safety or social legitimacy. Nonbinarity becomes shameful. Daily habits become forms of confinement, escapism, or self-soothing. We conform to one of the two genders.
Vanda
Dinko Kreho
short story
Croatia,
In the short story “Vanda”, I attempt to pose the question: to what degree are we capable of grasping human experiences that radically differ from our own, can art help us with that, and is such comprehension even necessary for solidarity? I felt these issues were too heavy and too important to try to tackle them from a realist or documentary perspective, so I went for weird fiction — which to me seems like a better solution.
We are stronger together
Farzaneh Sourighiasvand
5 ceramics
22 x 22 cm, 10 x 10 cm
Croatia,
Every human being has the right to call a piece of land their homeland. We build life through strength and we find joy and happiness in union.
Our chapters (song)
Thea Hjelmeland
song
4’
Norway,
Through conversations, the dance group indicated that the issues they were confronting in their local environment made them feel less free. Less free to express themselves, to be exploring life and its options, to test limits and to make mistakes. They had reflections about whether it was the same for all genders, and about how they themselves were possibly able to confront or have a new perspective on the expectations projected onto them. Were they as limited as they thought? What would happen if they took charge of the stories told about what was possible for them to create? During workshops together, the dancers have created the project and asked for certain moods and atmosphere in the music. So as an artist I have functioned as a tool. They expressed the story they wanted to tell, told me their needs, and we have together created an environment for them to express themselves. During the choreography they go from the freedom in their childhood to teenage years with society’s expectations weighing them down, and in the end liberating themselves and taking their power back. The dancers know what they want and have a vital energy to express and take charge of this.
Our chapters (choreography)
TEMPORARY
dance performance
4’
Norway,
The Dance Group collaborated with musician Thea Hjelmeland to express different chapters of life through their dance performances. Their performance encompassed three main timelines, each representing distinct aspects of life:
Peaceful Childhood in Balestrand: The first part of the performance portrayed the tranquil essence of childhood in Balestrand, manifesting in a harmonious play on the stage.
Hardships of Youth: The second part delved into the challenges of youth, capturing feelings of insecurity, societal pressures, and the sensation of being trapped.
Future and Hope: The final segment of the performance focused on themes of hope and the prospects of the future.
Throughout their art, the dance group also explored the emotions of loneliness and emphasised the importance of belonging to a community. Despite the hurdles of youth, they conveyed the message that friendship and self-trust can pave the way for new opportunities and experiences.
Overall, their collaboration with Thea Hjelmeland provided a platform to express the multifaceted journey of life through the medium of dance.
Labels
Dijana Delić, Marina Horvat, Severina Lajtman, Josipa Lulić, Rosa Oršuš, Dušanka Oršuš
forum theatre performance
Croatia,
Forum theatre performance “Labels” offers an intersectional view of the lived experiences of young Roma women. The play talks about prejudices and the affixing of discriminatory labels to Roma women.
Erosion
Ana Gjorgjievska
painting
Germany,
When the earthen materials are you, and the natural forces include your family or your peers, one side won’t always be supportive. So, a person may go through life hiding themselves even from their closest ones.
The Fool, The Priestess, Death, The Devil, The Sun
Eleni Tezapsidou
5 paintings
210 x 297 cm
Greece,
Fate or free will? The tension is always present when looking to empower ourselves through divination and predictive tools such as tarot. My view is that there is a dialogue between the two. Regardless of where we fall within this binary, there is a reason that the archetypes of tarot continue to be interpreted and relevant to this day after centuries of use. They contain the bones of the stories that we tell ourselves personally and collectively, and mirror tensions and challenges that still speak to our contemporary experience. This project was created by flipping the divination process on its head. During one session, and without knowledge of tarot, five women imagined their future, after which they narrated to me their process and what it evoked for them. Based on the integrated symbolism of and links with the tarot, each future was then matched to an archetype of the major arcana: telling stories of courage to face our expansive desires, embrace our transformation processes, and accepting our shadows because they are a precondition for our light. These pieces are the conclusion of this dialogue between these women’s vision of their future and that of the tarot, produced with ink and watercolour.
Femifesto
Alex Drăgulinescu, Ana-Maria Mihailidis, Arina Gheorghe, Cabiria Morgenstern, Laura Spătaru
manifesto
59.4 x 84.1 cm
Romania,
This manifesto tries to show different aspects of day-to-day life as a feminine-presenting person drawing parallels to humorism, as it is, maybe, the most prevalent ancient physiology theory. Through the four humors: blood, phlegm, yellow, and black bile, the ancient Greeks attempted to explain organic and emotional ailments as imbalances. Our poem aims to show the imbalances of said humors in as disparities in commonplace areas of life from a feminist queer perspective. The final stanza is our attempt at rectifying them.
Yellow
Ana Gjorgjievska
painting
Germany,
We aren’t being prepared for actual jobs for the future. We’re being sabotaged, and prepared to take on motherly roles because these are the things that people expect from women. This is an image we have seen multiple times throughout our childhood all through adolescence and even later in life. It’s a cycle of people making dolls out of us.
Campaigns
Here you can explore the campaigns that were developed during the course of the “Super FEM – Foster, Empower, Mobilise” project.
Toolkit
Here you can find the Toolkit of Super FEM, detailing all the methodologies and processes of Super FEM, from the local sessions, to the awareness and advocacy campaigns and workshops.
About the Project
Partner Organisations
Inter Alia (Coordinator) – Athens, Greece
Inter Alia is a Civil Society organization founded in Athens in 2013 and activated at local and European level. The name of the organisation, “Inter Alia”, means “among others” in Latin. Based on a philosophy of cooperation and reciprocity “Inter Alia” works to advance political education, social transformation and collective action. It expresses the intention to stand willingly and joyfully among others, co-create, make concessions, and enable common progress and collective intelligence.
The symbol and logo of Inter Alia is the artichoke, a Mediterranean vegetable symbolising fertility, which in case of IA represents fertility of ideas. It has strong layers of leaves and a tender heart. Placed in the context of political education, social transformation and collective action, this symbol can be interpreted in many different ways. We invite you to find and choose your preferred one.
At its first steps, IA was a self-funded initiative that grew in the shadow of a deepening, multi-faceted crisis. The aim was to create spaces for citizens and communities at local and European level to share knowledge and expertise, and to develop transformative civic action.
IA’s work is based on three fields: a. the Roots School of Critical and Explorative Learning, b. the Heart Civic Intervention Point and c. the Bloom Space for Culture and Arts. Under these pillars fall the organisation’s activities, which are designed and implemented according to strategies developed on the axes of Culture & Arts, Education, Youth and Political Engagement.
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Institute for Roma and Minorities Inclusion – Wuppertal, Germany
Institute for Roma and Minorities Inclusion strives for a society where the target groups enjoy equal access to opportunities regardless of their ethnicity, have a voice in their community and society, whose needs are tackled by the institutions that have a direct impact in their daily lives.
IRMI works in the field of education, social inclusion, innovation and sustainable development at a regional, national, European and international level.
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A.R.T. Fusion – Bucharest, Romania
A.R.T. Fusion is a youth organization active since 2005 in the fields of Education, Human Rights and Global Education. Our mission is to create social change by raising awareness, building capacities and empowering young people to bring change in their communities. We create and offer innovative and participatory learning experiences in order for everyone to be able to contribute in a responsible way to the positive transformation of their communities, both locally and globally.
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Creative Connections Norway – Balestrand, Norway
Welcome art lovers and changemakers to Creative Connections Norway (CCN)! We’re spreading good vibes and unlocking your inner artiste!
Creative Connections Norway (CCN) is established in 2018 within the CIDERHUSET, an apple farm and cidery located in the peaceful landscapes of Balestrand. It is founded by Tuba Ardic and Gard Eitungjerde Høyvik, who are national trainers for the Erasmus+ program in Norway. With extensive experience in international projects, the founders have brought their expertise to the art village Balestrand.
At the heart of CCN’s mission lies its unique approach known as ’’ARTicipation’’ which harnesses the power of artistic expression to promote inclusion and active participation. Through ‘‘ARTicipation’’ CCN aims to create an environment where individuals from diverse backgrounds can engage with art as a means of self-expression and social connection. A recent milestone in CCN’s journey is the establishment of the Balestrand Art Factory. Set to open its doors soon, this dedicated space for artistic expression and creativity will serve as a hub for various artistic workshops, events, and artist residencies. It is located just 1,5 kilometres away from Ciderhuset farm and has a stunning panoramic view over the Sognefjord.
With the vision of becoming a significant contributor to the region’s creative landscape, Balestrand Art Factory embodies CCN’s commitment to enriching cultural experiences and empowering individuals of all ages and backgrounds through art. WE use various types of Erasmus+ projects (KA1-KA2-KA3) and implement local activities. We collaborate with international, national, and local institutions. If you want to join our training courses and activities or if you want to implement a project in Balestrand, please contact us.
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Centre for the Theatre of the Oppressed (POKAZ) – Zagreb, Croatia
The Centre for the Theatre of the Oppressed – POKAZ is an organisation, artist collective and network based in Zagreb, Croatia. We are dedicated to exploring and developing the methods and techniques of the theatre of the oppressed (TO) and critical pedagogy, attempting to use these tools to foster integration, support vulnerable groups, and advance community development. We are active in the fields of culture, arts, education, community organising and social policies, promoting inclusivity, dialogue, and justice with the aim of eliminating oppression and creating a better society. As a wider platform, we also operate as a resource centre for research, development, and dissemination of the methodology of TO and critical pedagogy.
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