The Center for Girls successfully organized the second ArtFemine Festival, which was held in the period from July 16 to July 19, 2015. The second ArtFemine Festival was called The Feminist Action.
ArtFemine Festival is supposed to make Niš youth more familiar with feminism, activism and feminist art. Also, ArtFemine Festival is supposed to open up feminist space for the feminist youth from the city, country and region that would enable them to get associated, empowered, and to take action.
ArtFemine Festival was organized with the financial support from OAK Foundation and in cooperation with Niš Media and Reform Center, Super Radio and Student Cultural Center.
Four activists and ten associates of the Center for Girls were involved in organizing and holding the Festival. There were 21 participants from Macedonia, Bosnia, Croatia and some other cities in Serbia, who were joined by 13 participants from Niš and even one girl from America.
The Second ArtFemine Festival was officially opened on Thursday, July 16, 2015, with the exhibition of the works from the Feminist Art Colony, which was held in the period from June 23 to June 29, 2015 in Sićevo. The exhibition was opened at Art55 Gallery at 20:00. The works of the following 14 young artists were displayed at the exhibition: Sara Lupšor, Nevena Kostić, Sanja Solunac, Maja Mrdaković, Aleksandra Branković, Tijana Munćan, Dunja Ćirić, Nevena Stefanović, Katarina Nedeljković, Milena Đokić, Milena Krstić, Bojana Micić, Aleksandra Mirić, and Ivana Stanković. The exhibition opening was accompanied by Jovana Zdravković, a young pianist. The exhibition opening was visited by around 100 people.
The Festival program continued on Friday with the Psychological Workshop held by Marija Zdravković, an activist of the Center for Girls. The workshop was conceived with the idea of giving the participants an opportunity to get to know one another, introduce themselves and their work, and share their experiences, ideas and contacts. The atmosphere at the workshop was great, very emotional at moments, and the participants' energy very positive. 24 girls/women participated in the workshop.
In the afternoon, the second, out of four planned workshops, was held. It was the Theatre Workshop, held by Nataša Milojević. The topic of the workshop was the right to choose: to what extent we are free to choose and accept what our education and culture impose on us. Using the techniques of modern theatre, we examined the attitudes of the society, as well as our personal attitudes on the decision women make and roles they take in the society. The workshop was very inspiring. 20 girls/women participated in the workshop.
Also on Friday, July 17, at 21:00, THE MUSICAL EVENING was held in the garden of Hush Hush Caffé. Femixete played music, and Ana Ćurčin, a delicate singer-songwriter, gave a concert. Olja Wagner was a DJ. The Musical Evening was attended by about 120 people. Judged by their comments, the visitors really enjoyed themselves.
The third day of the Festival was reserved for the Art Workshop, which was held in the morning by Sanja Solunac. The workshop participants had a chance to indulge in their creativity and use art (painting, drawing, collage) to prepare banners, costumes and set for the Feminist Action street performance. The atmosphere was very relaxed and positive. 19 girls/women participated in the workshop.
On Saturday afternoon, the Musical Workshop was held by Olja Wagner. The goal of the workshop was to write the lyrics and music for a feminist-activist song, which would be later performed at the Feminist Action. The workshop participants played unplugged. The atmosphere was phenomenal, and the participants' positive energy quite intense. 22 girls/women participated in the workshop.
On July 18, 2015, at 21:00, a street performance named THE FEMINIST ACTION was held at the entrance to Tinkers' Alley to present everything we jointly created at the Festival. The performance was very effective and drew citizens' attention. About 50 people saw and heard what the Festival participants, young feminists, had previously prepared in the workshops. The atmosphere at the street action was phenomenal. The girls' make-up for the street performance was done by Dunja Ćirić, an artist.
Sunday, July 19, was reserved for the Regional Meeting of Young Feminists, where the evaluation of the second ArtFemine Festival was carried out. The meeting also dealt with the future joint strategy for the development of feminist groups in the region, and with arranging joint actions in the following year. It was agreed that on November 26, 2015, we would organize a joint street action, each one of us in her respective city, with a joint message against digital violence against girls. Two more street actions were planned to be organized by the end of 2015: the first one on October 18 regarding the European Anti-Trafficking Day, and the second one on December 18 regarding the International Migrants' Day under the name Face the Wall. At the end of the meeting, we officially closed the second ArtFemine Festival. 15 girls/women participated in the workshop.
Here are some of the impressions of the participants at the second ArtFemine Festival:
Here's how local media reported on this year's Festival: