The 5th Mexico City International Feminist Arts Festival
ARTIST
The 5th Mexico City International Feminist Arts Festival is an event that gathers feminist women from different parts of Mexico and all over the world through disciplines of art such as literature, theatre, music, visual and audiovisual art, among others.
This festival is autonomous and self-managed, organized by feminist women of Ímpeu Centro de Estudios A.C with Vulveidad. We do not work with outside funding of any kind, except our joy and feminist methodology. Throughout the year, we offer courses with a small fee, which allow us to organize our own activities.
The festival is for and by women. Women only spaces have been posed by feminism as a need, as places where we can meet to share experiences and knowledge somewhere we feel safe, without external vigilance that forces us to work, be and do for men, as it usually happens in historically patriarchal societies as the ones we live in.
Women only spaces are great to share the lives we live from our bodies, female assigned, which have been systematically silenced through history.
For this edition, that will take place on the 12th and 13th of October of 2019, we are calling for feminist women who are also *art makers within different disciplines and who want to share their work during the festival. Also, we look for women whose feminism vindicates our bodies and experiences.
*We call “art makers” to the feminist women who develop their political activity around art, but not necessarily consider themselves artists.
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Gynosocieties
The theme for this 5th edition is gynosocieties, that is, groups, clans or communes formed exclusively by women and have existed in this world during different times and locations. Gynosocieties are the first record of lesbian existence and, as such, the sub-categories proposed are the following:
-Ancestral gynosocieties: Works that gather or re-interpret vestiges of women exclusive societies which existed hundreds or thousands of years ago.
-Current gynosocieties and gynealogy: Works that recover ancestral knowledge, the life stories of our grandmothers, mothers and all the women who came before us in an original lesbian existence.
-Future gynosocieties: Works that imagine and dream of groups, clans and gynosocieties in a far and near future
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Basis
→There is no age limit to participate in this call
→ The work presented by the art makers must be done by women for women from a feminist, anticapitalist, anticolonialist perspective, which must be critical of heterosexuality as a political regime
→ Works which value our bodies (everything related to the uterus, vulva, clitoris, menstruation, pleasure) will be prioritized
→ Works which recognize, value, encourage and heal the bonds of love between women will be prioritized.
→ We Will NOT accept work centered on men or which theoretical approach derives from men: masculinity studies, GBT+, queer theory or transactivism
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All artists must send a file to the e-mail address festival@impetumexico.org with the following information:
→ Full name and official ID of the woman or women involved (we need the ID for security reasons, the information will NEVER be shared with third parties)
→ Country, city of origin and zip code
→ Age (of the woman or women involved)
→ Sub-category in which you wish to participate, as well as an explanation on why you chose it
→ A detailed description of the artistic work and how you want to present it and participate in the festival. Remember that the more detailed the description, the better. If we have enough information about you and your work, it will be easier to evaluate the proposal.
→Photographs, images, video and any sample of your work. We highly value video and script samples for plays or any stage work, as well as for musical presentations
→ Time, material and facilities required for the presentation.
→ Filling the application that will be sent as soon as we receive the previous documents
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To participate, you also must take into consideration the following:
We’re looking for women with work in literature, music, visual arts, Street arts, performance, plastic arts or any other form of artistic expression who identifies herself as feminist within the female gaze.
We will never justify or accept oppressions of any kind. Any proposal that reinforces stereotypes or patriarchal violences (racist, heterosexual, classist or fat phobic) will be dismissed, as well as any that erase or pretend to erase the struggles of women
All work presented must be of the authorship of the art makers. Plagiarism is cause of immediate dismissal, as well as works which don’t contain the proper references, in case of derivations.
Participation can be individual or collective, and all parts must send the documents previously described. This means that ALL the women involved must send their names, IDs and the way they are collaborating.
The call closes on July 10th, 2019.
The selected women art makers will have an assigned space and time to present during the festival. They can also offer or sell their work during festival hours, even outside the assigned time. The space of the Mexico City International Feminist Arts Festival also intends to be solidary with the diffusion and creation of economic networks among women.
The festival doesn’t have funding to pay for travel expenses of the art makers, but if notified ahead of time, solidary accommodations can be provided by volunteers and partners.
*The poster illustration was made by Lesbilais based on the book Lesbian Peoples: Material for a Dictionary by Monique Wittig