NOC WALPURGII / VALPURGIS NIGHT FESTIVAL
April 30th 2010 at CDQ, Burakowska 12, WARSAW, POLAND
Entrance: 5 Euro/ 20pln
Bands, DJ'anes, artists, performances, workshops, distros and more to happen.
www.myspace.com/nocwalpurgii
http://cdq.pl/
http://www.muranow.gutekfilm.com.pl/
This year's NOC WALPURGII FEST is combined with 1st RAW CUT FILMFEST 1-2.05. WARSZAWA, KINO MURANOW, ul. Gen. Andersa 1 Anyone interested in participating or visiting festival please contact us for more details. We're also interested in screening films and documentaries related with Punk, hardcore, radical politics, DIY culture at our filmfest. Feel free to contact us if you have any filmoffer.
BANDS:
FROM THE DEPTHS (North Carolina, USA)
Female fronted intense heavy-hardcore mixed with melodic anarchopunk unlike A.P.P.L.E. or Signal Last w/ members of CATHARSIS, REQUIEM and Crimethinc. Collective.
http://www.fromthedepths.info/ http://www.crimethinc.com/
SPECIESxTRAITOR (Turku, Finland)
Multi-gendered Political Vegan Straight Edge.
STE McCABE (Manchester, UK)
Ste McCabe is Manchester's political queer pop-punkster, blending big punk guitars and 80s-style beats with a snarling, sarcastic view of the world. Ste's been playing at various queer, riot grrrl and DIY events wowed musos and audiences around the country full to the brim with homophobe-baiting, pro-feminist, anti-church, fun and angry pop music.
www.ste-mccabe.co.uk
EX BEST FRIENDS (Berlin, Germany)
all-girl band with their sound combined influences from riot grrrl, mid 80s DC bands and punk rock.
EL BANDA (Warsaw, Poland)
One of the strongest Punk band in Poland of the recent years. Catchy and powerful female fronted punk w/ members of POST REGIMENT, DELICJE etc. (+ performance)
http://www.myspace.com/elbanda23 www.pasazer.pl
Female fronted Hc/Punk with over 15 years of experience.
http://www.myspace.com/antidotumband www.nnnw.pl
3/4 girl melodic anarchopunk in the vein of Ballast.
http://www.myspace.com/lifescarspunk www.nopasaran.pl
Rockin' HC/Punk with dose of garage.
http://www.myspace.com/blinddatepunk
2nd floor (start 21)
DJanes:
DJane Tina Pornflakes (Berlin) - synth elektro 80ties
DJane Katharandale (Berlin) - electro pop&techno
DJane Pinkshot (Warsaw/Berlin) - klasik shot'79
also:
Crimethinc. workshop (16.00) & distros (Crimethinc., Emancypunx, Refuse, No Pasaran and more) & vegan food and more
1.05. TOFU ATTACK - vegan brunch in Cykloza (Warszawa, Hoża 62, start 12)
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NOC WALPURGII 2010
www.myspace.com/nocwalpurgii
Emancypunx Records: www.emancypunx.com
Refuse Records: www.refuserecords.prv.pl
CDQ: www.cdq.pl
about the event
Noc Walpurgii festival started in 1996 in Warsaw, Poland and its being organized every two years. It was pioneering event in Poland taking issues of struggle against sexism and homophobia and promoting girl-fronted bands and activities.
This issues often were not taken seriously inside of the punk, DIY or antifascist scenes and we felt the importance to show that most forms of discrimination like racism, sexism, homophobia are linked and that fighting against these forms of oppression is basic for antifascist, leftist, anarchist and hardcore/punk movements.
As a pro-feminist and pro-women festival, we support anarchist-feminist activities as well as other forms of feminist and anti-patriarchal struggle. We were also supportive to any kind of all female and female fronted punk and hardcore bands, as it was clear back then that local scenes used to have small amount of women involved. It was even worse with openly queer, gay or lesbian participants in DIY culture. We worked with queer, lesbian and gay activists, spoken word artists, drag queens, drag kings, djnes and other activists.
The event achieved its goals as it became attractive mixed crowd of females and males, queers, lesbian, gays or straights, punks, HC or others who wanted to be a part of it. Its impressing feeling to see so many different people having fun at the dance floor or during the shows. We respect needs for self-organization and needs for space for all those discriminated or oppressed, but the festival idea is not to create a separated place fot just one certain type of people. Noc Walpurgii is more about connecting each others and building fundamental structures for strong and diverse DIY culture - free from any kind of discrimination and prejudice.
Its open to anyone interested in supporting the issues of the festival; bands or artists. It's important to us to connecting people each other, to speak about political or personal.
We felt the importance to make events friendly to everyone involved, to have fun and feel welcome in a safe environment so were standing in opposition to all kinds of violence at the shows, violent dancing or macho behaviours. It was importance to us all to see more women taking up the space or having fun during the shows.
Throughout the years the festival became one of the most important events in Poland related with DIY underground hc/punk scene. Each festival there is around 400-1000 visitors.
Every time there is more and more visitors from other countries, foreign bands or artists.
Noc Walpurgii its now the oldest DIY orientated hardcore/punk festival in Poland.
Throughout the years many international bands/artists were guest at the festival like LYNNE BREEDLOVE (TRIBE 8), HARUM-SCARUM, RE-SISTERS, ACTIVE MINDS, INNER TERRESTRIALS, SCATTERGUN, DAISY CHAIN, BEYOND PINK, GREG BENNICK (TRIAL), HIGHSCORE, THE TANGLED LINES, SHORT FUSE, LORENA & THE BOBBITS, DE FATWAS, LADY! DIE, OIL, AMANDA WOODWARD, AGATHA, USAISAMONSTER, LIFE CYCLE, DIASPORA, N.K.D. , DEATH BEFORE WORK, CINDER, VICIOUS IRENE and more.
Also we were honoured to have at the fest many great local bands at the fest like POST REGIMENT, HOMOMILITIA, GUERNICA Y LUNO, ZLODZIEJE ROWEROW, SANCTUS IUDA, EYE FOR AN EYE, EL BANDA, REGRES, EXMISJA, DULDUNG, SILIKONFEST, WHITE RABBIT and many others.
We had always lots of non-musical activities during the fest like workshops, performance, exhibitions, spoken word, Drag Kings & Drag Queens, DJ'anes, movies or demonstrations (Take back the night, Gay Pride) with people from Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, Sweden, UK, USA, Argentina involved.
Noc Walpurgii since the beginning was organized by Emancypunx Records (who remained from anarcho-feminist collectives KDP and Emancypunx) and Refuse Records.
Our goal was that Noc Walpurgii would me more than annual festival but an event who can give inspiration for new projects, bands and activities with girls and/or queers involved, but also any kind forms of DIY activism.
torek, 30. marec 2010
Valpurgis Night Fest in Warszawa, Poland
sreda, 24. marec 2010
OFA Kollektivet in Vienna
was in im arsch at the imagetanz festival.
„To finish imagetanz off, we will be hosting a closure party with the last butts standing. Welcome to the final butt, a performance, a celebration, a conquest and an ending: Danceoke, Erotic Toilet, The Stairbutt to Heaven, Psychoanals, Pimp Your Needs, DJs, Freudwomen, Bed of Roses and White Trash Poker. We’ve got it all, everything for you all evening, no butts!“ ÖFA
ÖFA ist ein feministisches Kollektiv aus Schweden, das 2003 gegründet wurde und im schicken, aufgeklärten Norden derzeit voll durchstartet. 24 Frauen – Tänzerinnen, Journalistinnen, Lehrerinnen, Sozialarbeiterinnen und Musikerinnen – haben mit ÖFA ein soziales und kreatives Netzwerk erschaffen. Zum Abschluss von imagetanz zeigen ÖFA die Party-Performance imarsch und gehen damit dem immer noch rätselhaften Festivalnamen auf den Grund. http://www.ofakollektivet.se/
ÖFA is an up-and-coming feminist collective from Sweden that was founded in 2003. To conclude the imagetanz festival, the social and creative network presents the party-performance imarsch in an attempt to get to the “bottom” of this still truly puzzling festival name.
RZ on GrassrootsFeminism.org
by Red Chidgey
"personal highlights? These have to include the Queen of Eggs exhibiton replete with swinging ball bags for visitors made from water ballons and tights, the I Ass Jazz dance performance and the opportunity to hug a girl on stage whilst she recited Beyonce lyrics as poetry, a session on remembering Uckermark concentration camp for "unsociable" girls, and hanging out with some very cool ladies indeed".
zine table in MizzartRead the whole article.
nedelja, 21. marec 2010
Reclaiming the media in Croatia – Talking to Gabriela the editor of Cunterview.net
Gabe, cunterview.net ,foto:JK
“I don't watch TV, nor do I read the newspaper”, Gabriela frankly tells me. The reason for her decision is not indifference, but exactly because she cares, she cannot stand what the mainstream press in Croatia has to offer her. Freedom of speech is a myth. This Frustration brought a couple of feminist women in Croatia together, one of them being Gabriela Ivanov, to initiate the platform Cunterview.net for alternative media coverage focusing on topics of emancipation, women rights and queer spaces.
“Cunterview?” Jasmina sitting next to us notices my puzzled face: “You know, the view from a cunt”, underlying it with explaining gestures. “Ah, yeah”, I say and look it up on wikipedia afterwards: “Cunt a vulgarism referring to the vulva.” “Many people I am working with don’t even know what the word means” I am relieved not to be the only one. Gabriela was inspired by the book of Inga Muscio “Cunt: the Deceleration of independence”, which reclaims the word cunt and reappropriates it removing the negative connotation. As the press in Croatia is very much dominated by commercial yellow press everything female is limited to bodies and sexualized representations, basically reduced to being cunts. The name cunterview ironically reverses the meaning ascribed to femininity and contrasts it with something else: “women who are not typical, not just make up, not just stupid, not just celebrities, not just naked women.” This stereotypical image is supposed to be subverted through the texts, films, and podcasts produced by cunterview. “Things which are actually common sense” at least for Gabriela, who thinks of the platform as something which is able to empower women that their desires and needs are to be spoken out loud and to be approached.
Cunterview first appeared in 2007 without any funding. The big motivation from the beginning slowly deteriorated and the whole Croatian network was becoming a little weak as everything was still based on voluntary work. Many donators did not understand the sense of supporting this kind of platform. To sustain the work of cunterview the NGO Common Zone – Expansion of gender and media culture was founded. From than on more and more women became involved and tried to adress their issues.
Art, Media and Women are the key words, which will lead an internet user through google to cunterview. Their contents are news, databases of female artists, information about different collectives . And in a lot of cases they ironically profit from the rigidness of croatian media censorship. Those journalists affected, are glad to be able to publish their texts on cunterview.
Gabriela comes to the Red Dawns Festival already for the 5th time. This time she is enhancing the festival with her knowledge about web publishing. While we talk, complex mind maps are evolving on her notes, drawing lines from one key aspect to another, just like in her everyday life: spinning the thread, connecting and bring women together. “I want women to collaborate.” Often women still are marginalized, especially in the creative field. From Gabrielas impression they would rather claim their art to be their hobby, used for recreation from work or household duties. A Strong network is supposed to empower them and inspire women to collaborate and to support each other, with the goal to make them economically independent.
While I am writing down my notes she keeps on networking: “Yes we can see if we can do this homepage, it is all a question of arrangement…”
Mirjam Baumert
The Explosiveness of Everyday Life – The Zine-Exhibition in Mizzart
Red Chidgey of grassrootsfeminism.net
There was a small sign “Zine-Expo” really worth following through the halls of Metelkova during the 11th Red Dawns Festival. In Mizzart gallery you found a very inviting room, where compilations of printed papers were hanging on strings at the windows: Zines of various kinds. Their attractive, repulsive, provocative sometimes cryptic names tell a lot about their different contents: clit rocket, the anarchy of queer, girl frenzy…
This was the work of Red, some helping festival hands, and borrowed zines from the www.grrrlzines.net archive and Metelkova’s own zine bus. A self claimed DIY feminist historian originally from England, now living in Salzburg, Red collaborates on the Web archive www.grassrootsfeminism.net with Austrian feminist Elke Zobl. She came to the Red Dawns Festival this year to exhibit a part of her project. This web portal is the intersection of present day projects and a wide variety of past feminist media projects from all over Europe.
Zines were also the key for Red to get involved with feminist ideas. To talk about love, sorrow, politics and power from a very personal and everyday life perspective. “It is this explosiveness of life narratives and autobiographical stories, which can change things,” Red expresses her enthusiasm with wide open eyes. Although writing zines has been many times discredited as soft-activism, while “the real thing” supposedly happens on the street, they always had the power to bring people together, to talk about topics expressed in zines and stand for the power of articulation. Pictures, stories, puzzles, drawings are able to portray the struggles and the heart blood.
“The embodiment and the experiences are what are touching people. Tied to Passion and Anger it has the power to disarrange something.” The personal verve Red brings in cannot be over seen. The current of poetic expression she finds for her subject of interest is without a pause. However, she does know in which boundaries this all exists.
“Queer is really where my heart beats, but I know its limitations. Sometimes other feminists’ call it a Feminist Zoo,” she laughs. Red names all the traits of subtle exclusion, which are also running through the Idea of Queer: Predominantly it is a very white middle-class, academic movement. “Politically queer hasn't been pushing forward! The substance is missing!”
Zines, as part of queer and feminist subcultures, also face these limitations. There are seldom transgressing their own boundaries. If they do, they are often turned into something totally different by outside forces, as the example of the decentralized UK e-zine “The F-word” shows. There the editors are portrayed in the mainstream media as “THE feminists” and are often invited for public discussions and panels to represent the feminist perspective. “It became tokenistic, they were asked to become icons, basically rent-a-feminists.” It seems as if feminist topics are granted space in the mainstream media only if they can be fixed under the niche label of feminism. The media produces a few faces to be recognized so that their supposedly pluralistic and object coverage is realized.
“How do zines influence activism? You can never measure. Maybe you can talk about lines, lines of thoughts, lines of activation...” So the lines are also crossing the red dawns festival this year with reds’ exhibition.
Mirjam Baumert
* * *
Here are some more photos from the Zine Expo, added by Tea Hvala.
ponedeljek, 8. marec 2010
Wanda & Nova Deviator (Slovenia), Frozen Images
Irena Tomažin & Liz Allbee(Slovenia/USA/Germany)
Koncert improvizirane glasbe
Enajsti mednarodni festival Rdeče zore je tudi letos v različnih prostorih Metelkove razprostrl številne vsebine, ki se dotikajo feminističnih in queer vsebin na ravni umetnosti, teorije in delavnic ali – kot v primeru improvizatorskega glasbenega srečanja domače vokalistke Irene Tomažin in v Berlinu ustvarjajoče ameriške trobilke Liz Allbee – zgolj »ženske« ustvarjalnosti.
Znotraj konteksta svobodno improvizirane glasbe, v katerega se umešča koncert, lahko v glasbi in zunaj nje razbiramo odnose podrejanja, ki vznikajo iz spontanosti dogodka, še posebno, če se v nastop vpne tudi performativna gesta, kot v primeru pričujočega dueta. Irena Tomažin, na sledi glasu, ki izstopa iz pomenskega horizonta govorice (a hkrati v polju glasbe vstopa v pomenskost, prav tako v polju dediščine zvočne poezije), in Liz Allbee na presečišču šuma in artikulirane glasbene govorice trobente (Allbee ima izkušnje tako z delom ob Anthonyju Braxtonu in Fredu Frithu kot z udejstvovanjem v sodobni elektroakustični improvizirani glasbi) sta vzpostavili navidezno krhko tvarino, prepleteno z gesto, iskanjem sozvočij (predvsem v uvodnem delu nastopa z dolgimi, rahlo variiranimi toni, vpetimi v daljše premolke), odbijanj, presečišč, dvogovorov in vrzeli. V zadnjih dveh so v nastop vdrli tako dialoškost in imitacija na ravni zvoka ter odzivi na okolje, ki so delovale prej zabavno kot posiljeno, predvsem pa so bile smelo umeščene v nastop, ki ga je ohlapno zaokrožila performativna gesta (na ravni giba in postavitve v prostoru). V njej vedno tli potencialna nevarnost, da se glasbeno-zvočna govorica sprevrže in zdrkne v nastopaštvo.
Vendar sta Liz Allbee in Irena Tomažin v »vmesju« vdiha in izdiha, spleta glasbene in zunajglasbene govorice (toni, petje, grleni zvoki, tleski, hropenje, kriki na ravni glasu in toni, pridušeni toni, grgljavost in šumi, poki ob raztelešeni trobenti) tudi s posluhom za postopno grajenje, umeščenost in izven idej, utelešenih v zvoku, v primerni kratkosti nastopa kljub nihanjem ohranili vso intenzivnost, ki se je med njima razprla.
Luka Zagoričnik
Vzeto iz tiskane izdaje Dela; petek, 12. marec 2010; http://www.delo.si/tiskano/html/20100312/Delo/0
Theatre des Sens(Italy), I Wannabe Maria
Klub Gromka, March 6th (Photo:JK)
More photos from the performance on Red Dawns here.
ÖFA-kollektivitet: I Ass Jazz
Menza pri koritu, March 5th (Photo JK)
More photos from the performance on Red Dawns here.
http://www.ofakollektivet.se/
"Teme življenja se enako tičejo vseh"
V okviru feminističnega in queer festivala Rdeče zore, ki se je začel sinoči in bo do ponedeljka potekal na različnih lokacijah v Metelkovi mestu, se bodo danes ob 20. uri v Menzi pri koritu predstavile tri plesalke iz švedskega feminističnega gledališko-umetniškega kolektiva ÖFA-kollektivet, Amanda Apetrea, Emma Tolander in Lisen Rosell, ki se jim je pri pogovoru pridružila še četrta, Emelie Garmén. Kolektiv ÖFA ima sicer trenutno 22 članic, ki vsaj večinoma izhajajo s področja sodobnega plesa, režije in koreografije, toda med njimi so tudi novinarke, socialne delavke, glasbenice, učiteljice in druge.V vsakem njihovem performansu je po navadi udeleženih približno deset članic, tokratni predstavile se bodo s projektom I Ass Jazz pa je po številu nastopajočih nekoliko manjši.
Svoje dejavnosti kolektiv ne omejuje zgolj na plesne in gledališke predstave, ki tvorijo glavnino njihove dejavnosti, ukvarjajo se tudi z organizacijo klubskih večerov, publicistiko ter s prirejanjem različnih delavnic, predavanj in razstav.
Predstava I Ass Jazz, ki jo boste izvedle nocoj, je vezana na kabaret. Ali so vaše predstave tudi sicer bolj kabaretne?
Amanda Apetrea: Pri predstavi I Ass Jazz smo se mnogo bolj posvetile raziskovanju jazz baleta, muzikalov, kabareta in glasbenih spotov MTV, kot smo to počele prej. Tokrat smo se vsekakor bolj zavestno ukvarjale s to formo predvsem pri konstrukciji koreografije. Toda že v osnovi smo sestavljale predstavo iz različnih točk.
Emma Tolander: Če bi že morale govoriti o stilu predstav, ki jih delamo z ÖFA kolektivom, lahko rečem, da pravzaprav delamo s precej tradicionalnimi postopki gledaliških dramaturgij in dela na odru, čeprav jih uporabljamo precej nespoštljivo, jih prekinjamo, mešamo, trgamo.
Kako ste sploh ustanovile kolektiv?
Lisen Rosell: Začele smo kot neformalna skupina, ki se je srečevala zato, da bi se pogovarjale o vsakodnevnem življenju in delu. Najprej smo oblikovale spletno skupino in vse, kar smo na začetku počele, je bilo povezano s tem, kar smo objavljale na spletnem forumu. Še danes ta stična točka na spletu igra pomembno vlogo pri komentiranju in koncipiranju projektov.
Če si želimo komunikacije s širšo družbo, je v tem pogledu nekoliko problematično, kadar ustvarjamo javni prostor, ki ga zasedajo le ženske. Kdo sestavlja vaše občinstvo?
Emelie Garmén: Ko smo začele, smo kolektiv večinoma sestavljale ženske med 22. in 29. letom starosti, zato smo predvidevale, da delamo predvsem za ženske naše generacije. Že pri prvem performansu pa se je izkazalo, da so tematike, o katerih smo govorile na odru, zanimale za nas povsem nepričakovane skupine ljudi.
Emma Tolander: Lahko bi govorile tudi o naši zadnji premieri, ki se imenuje ÖFA skrivnosti. Bila je posebna, ker smo jo pripravile za šolajoče se otroke. Učitelji so nas na začetku spraševali, če bo performans v prvi vrsti namenjen deklicam, ker smo na odru same ženske, a izkazalo se je, da so bili dečki enako zainteresirani. Za tematiko smo vzele svoje življenjske izkušnje in izkazalo se je, da se s podobnimi situacijami lahko do neke mere poistoveti kdor koli v publiki.
Amanda Apetrea: Med delovnim procesom smo se veliko pogovarjale o tem, kaj pomeni, da so teme, ki jih obravnavamo, pogosto zelo radikalno feministične in queer. Pomembno je predvsem, da si hkrati zelo prizadevamo, da teh tem pravzaprav ne bi komentirale, da bi le uprizarjale situacije, ne da bi poskušale občinstvo poučevati o nečem.
Emma Tolander: Zanimiv komentar je ob neki priložnosti ponudila Lisen, ki se je vprašala, zakaj se nam ne zdi nič problematičnega, da so v glasbeni skupini Metallica le moški. Zakaj se ne sprašujemo, ali je njihova glasba namenjena le dečkom?
Nocojšnja predstava naj bi govorila predvsem o željah in poželenju. Ali bo imela neko jasno zgodbo, pripoved?
Amanda Apetrea: Predstava ni narativna, a mnogo se ukvarjamo s podobami, s klišeji, zato so različni deli predstave zelo jasno prepoznavni očitno je, o čem govorimo, a hkrati ne sledimo neki zgodbi. Predstava je bolj podobna nekakšnemu pobiranju koščkov tega sveta in njihovemu postavljanju na oder.
Verjetno pa vsebuje mnogo humorja?
Amanda Apetrea: Vsekakor! A čeprav izhajamo iz zelo resnih tem, smo si prizadevale, da pri tem ne bi bile ironične.
Emelie Garmén: Švedski gledališki prostor je v zadnjem času preplavljen z ironijo. In če nisi ironičen, postane občinstvo precej zmedeno, ker tega enostavno niso navajeni. Sprašujejo se, ali je to, kar gledajo, resnično ali je zgolj šala, ali želimo nekaj povedati? Zmeda je vsekakor nekaj, kar nas zanima. Vse v predstavi je pravzaprav popolnoma pretirano.
Koliko pozornosti vam namenja širša javnost? Ali so vas že kdaj povabili v priznane umetnostne institucije ali delate na margini?
Emma Tolander: Kraljevo dramsko gledališče Dramaten se je v zadnjih letih začelo nekoliko odpirati za različne eksperimente. Ponudili so nam, da en večer popolnoma samostojno oblikujemo program. Na ta način so pridobili novo publiko, mlade ljudi, ki sicer večinoma ne zahajajo v to gledališče. Tudi za nas je bila izkušnja zanimiva, čeprav se zavedamo, da Dramaten na neki način izkorišča nevladne skupine, kot je naša, za širjenje občinstva.
Vzeto iz tiskane izdaje Dnevnika; petek, 5. marec 2010;
http://www.dnevnik.si/tiskane_izdaje/dnevnik/1042342467
petek, 5. marec 2010
Deseirdeeler (Italija/Srbija): War and Alone
Klub Gromka, March 4th (foto: JK)
More photos from the performance on Red Dawns here.
Mojca Pišek (Slovenija): Genderfuck
Umetnica–umetnost preživetja
četrtek, 4. marec 2010
Stefania Azzarello (Italija/Nizozemska): Videokracija in populizem v Italiji
Projekcija/pogovor , A- infoshop, 3.marec
foto:J.K.
