Description provided by the artist: .'WITHIN / Infinite Ear' is a collaboration between artists and researchers but also local communities, and consists of an exhibition with images and objects, but also performances and a film programme, all investigating the experience of deafness, sound, and hearing. I'll just copy paste something here: .'To what extent do we hear? What can hearing and deaf people learn from each other’s abilities? In what ways can such knowledge improve political representation of the diversity of hearing? How can it influence the way we understand sound performance, its space and instrumentation?. .Since 2013, Tarek Atoui and Council have worked with Deaf and differently-hearing persons to create spaces to explore, understand and represent the diversity of the hearing experience. Combining the scientific history of hearing with the history of sonic arts and Deaf culture, these sites seek to renew the ways we relate to sound perception. .This research has led to WITHIN / Infinite Ear, an exhibition consisting of a number of collections (of instruments, recordings, books, films and artworks) that will grow and shift as the project progresses.'. .What I love about this project is that it brings people together in a space and allows them to interact with things, or experiences things, knowing that they are all .experience it differently. Deaf people and non-deaf people will hear the performance concert together but different, or the exercises will have different experiences for .them. I think examining sound as a material experience has a lot of potential for our interest in equality otherwise and embodied discomfort.. .This artwork is part of the project Footnotes on Equality: http://footnotesonequality.eu/all/
Description provided by the artist: .This poem opens the Introduction to 'She Grrrowls. The Anthology' edited by Carmina Masoliver. She is the founder of the feminist spoken word night 'She Grrrowls' in London, UK. The book reunites the poems that have been performed on the stage and it was published in 2017 by Burning Eye Press. .The poem addresses the traditional roles that have been assigned to young boys and girls.The text is intentionally in an editing format as if an unseen patriarchal hand is correcting the text to find the mistakes and discover any inaccuracies related to how young girls and boys should be brought up. Carmina Masoliver is highlighting through language how easy we assign roles and invites the reader to ponder upon the implications these roles have throughout the lifetime of young girls.. .This artwork is part of the project Footnotes on Equality: http://footnotesonequality.eu/all/
Description provided by the artist: .The image is a poster of Silvia Albert Sopale’s play No Es Pais Para Negras, which was performed in the city of Oviedo last December. The performance was organized by CODOPA, a local NGO.. .'No es país para negras' is Silvia Albert Sopale's first solo performance and probably one of the first plays written and staged by a black woman in Spain. Born in San Sebastián from Nigerian and Ecuatorial Guinean parents, she has participated in other performances such as a version of 'La casa de Bernarda Alba', 'Memories', or 'Pallasas Power', where black female subjectivity has been put at the center. .Determined to open a space for black women artists in Spain and to make female authorship visible, she introduces her play as a 'legacy' and as her way to change the world, to raise awareness and encourage reflection. It is a work that is self-referential while giving voice to African descendants in Spain, a fight against covert racism and paternalistic views on Africa. 'No es país para negras' is, as she states, a play that 'speaks of a place that is inside one's own' as she reveals her personal journey of rejection, acceptance and fight for recognition throughout her performance.. .This artwork is part of the project Footnotes on Equality: http://footnotesonequality.eu/all/
Description provided by artist: .The photo was part of a project called 'Step in Inequality', designed by the artists Chandani Karnik in collaboration with Kazunori Shiina. The concept image represents an underground staircase. Women are asked to climb the traditional stairs, which takes longer and more effort, while men can use the escalator.. . .In the labour market, women are not only underpaid as compared to men, but they also have to work harder to make their mark and work their way up the corporate .ladder. The installation aims at visually representing how gender inequality can manifest itself, particularly in the business world by asking people to take two different .sets of stairs in order to show how 'the road to the top is not the same for men and women'. The concept image represents an underground staircase. Women are .asked to climb the traditional stairs, which takes longer and more effort, while men can use the escalator.. .This artwork is part of the project Footnotes on Equality: http://footnotesonequality.eu/all/
Description provided by artist: .The banners were gifted to the researcher after the event 'Duckie's Tea Party' as part of the LGBT50 festival marking the 50 year anniversary of the partial decriminalization of homosexuality in the UK. The banners were part of the decoration for this particular event and spread across the central square of Hull entitled Queen Victoria Square.. .The banners stand as a reference for the festival which celebrates the LGBT+ community and gender/ sexual equality in the UK. The argumentation of such equality is based on the legal developments in the past 50 years. However, a festival in such manners expressed through these banners immediately raises the question of the lived reality of gender/ sexual minorities. Sexualities, love and idenities are subject to celebration for festivals. However, particularly in the city of Hull, the experience of marginality is still prominent throughout community, as even within the LGBT50 celebrations transphobic, homophobic assults were registered.. .Therefore, the banner in its particular display allows to question the difference between a momentary celebration and visibility of LGBT+ communities and the continuous realities of a supposedly gender/ sexual equality.. .This artwork is part of the project Footnotes on Equality: http://footnotesonequality.eu/all/
Description provided by the artist: .This paper ship comes from the interactive theatre performance 'Dreamlands' of Malmö Communityteater ????? ????? ????? that took place in Malmö on 14th of July. Malmö Communityteater ????? ????? ????? is a theatre group made up of people whose identities are made to fall in so-called categories of citizen, refugee, migrant. The ones who took the stage had used their own experiences to come up with a dreamlike script, which invited the voluntary participation of the audience. I was part of the audience. Before the .performance started (now I think about it, maybe the performance had already started with this), the audience was asked to fill out a form about dreams. Dreams we had as children, dreams we realized, dreams that went wrong, right and to other directions. During the performance, the audience was asked to fold this paper in a specific way with clear directions. We all ended up with a paper ship made out of our dreams. Contrary to the popular belief, it seemed, dreams are not left behind when people risk their lives to .save their lives. They are rearranged in the shape of a ship to prolong living, they are the motor of the ship, they are the life vest and they are the driving force of it all. The ones on the stage moved around in white dresses, slowly danced through the scenes, as the audience was given yet another opportunity to process the visual-event of the refugee taking the ship, once again, but with the new suggestion to see the dream that happened before the ship happened.. .Then there was the question and answer session. The atmosphere was heavy with silence. There were some questions eventually, but you know how memories are. Selective. I remember one person within the audience asking: 'what did the white dress that you were wearing mean?'. The ones on the stage responded by saying that it is open to interpretation, and they chose not to give a definitive answer but rather asked her opinion about the meaning of the white dress. She responded by saying that she didn't .know, but some of them looked uncomfortable wearing a dress. Silence. I wondered, and still wonder, what this question means, and what it does. Feeling the need to make a connection between non-Western (assumed) men wearing a white dress and discomfort. I wonder if it was her own frustration to see them wearing a dress, which does not fit into her accumulated knowledge of what non-Western men can do and be. I wonder if it was the discomfort of her own gaze to see non-Western men in dresses. I wonder if she .indeed felt a discomfort, and fished the dress out as the reason. I wonder even if she was sure of a discomfort caused by wearing the dress, what she thought this question would do. These questions about the question are open-ended but, practically, the question ended the show. For me, this little paper ship is a reminder of this instance. The ways in which the questions we ask about gender are shaped by preconceptions, and can easily be comments in disguise with an excess of a question mark instead of opening further opportunities to share. When asked after being offered a piece of someone's dream, they can do more damage than good, to the extent that they end the show.. .This artwork is part of the project Footnotes on Equality: http://footnotesonequality.eu/all/
Description provided by the artist: .The ethnographic context of my research project on sport and gender equality is a boxing academy in a city in Yorkshire, UK. Founded in the 1940s, the place is a nonprofit voluntary amateur boxing club that includes in its activities sex integrated sessions. Furthermore, it has been a platform for women and men at the competitive level. .In order to collect primary data, I have conducted selfimmersion in subcultural setting as a regular participant to the boxing place. By doing this I seek to establish “an experimental and appreciative relationship with the people” about whom I will write about (McCaughey, 1998:279). In accordance to this, Molnar points out that: “For the sake of understanding the field and rich data collection, an ethnographer often has to make some tough, potentially lifealtering choices to be able to carry out participant observation. In doing so, the researcher may have to put his/her body on the line to become an instrument of data collection.” (Molnar, 2015:3). .The objects that I am submitting in this round are contextualized in my first visit to the boxing gym. My intention with them is to represent on one side my embodiment of the field and on the other the existence of gender stereotypes not only in sportive contexts but also in our minds.. .Boxing is an urban phenomenon where violent physical contact is a key element. Historically it has been practiced by men of working classes even though nowadays women are participating in it and gender relations and identities have being challenged. Women, however, are still underrepresented and discriminated whilst men remain as role models and overall sport still produces orthodox masculinities and celebrates sex essentialist discourses. Furthermore, gender stereotypes remain. For these reasons boxing is a great field for analyzing gender in the frame of the research project “Sport as a site for the production of cultures of equality” which is part of the GRACE Work Package “Urban cultures of gender equality”.. .This artwork is part of the project Footnotes on Equality: http://footnotesonequality.eu/all/
Description provided by author: .The object is an A3 format poster developed by te European Women's Lobby for the purpose of dissemination after approving a list of strategic priorities for the time span 20162020. The poster has a mild yellow background and on one side spells the slogan 'Our Future Starts Now' while on the other sides it has a short list of the five key priorities, each one paired with a small symbol. these are, namely, (1) Ensure Institutional mechanisms for women's human rights, (2) end violence against women, (3) promote a feminist economic model based on equality, wellbeing,care, and social justice, (4) challenge and change the culture of sexism and stereotypes, and (5) position women at the heath of decisionmaking.. .The European Women's lobby is arguably one of the most powerful proequality lobby organizations at the European level. the have been advocating for women's rights and gender equality with a focus on Europe since 1987, and in their strategic objectives the ones referring to 'the culture of sexism and stereotypes' and the one referring to 'a feminist economic model' specifically aim at constructing a culture of equality, together with the other objectives, too, of course.. .This artwork is part of the project Footnotes on Equality: http://footnotesonequality.eu/all/
Description provided by the artist: .It is a necklace with Audre Lorde's portrait. It was given to me by my feminist sisters. To me it symbolizes the potential of sisterhood and the strength of voice, key aspects of the project of equality building.. .This quote is from a speech at the Lesbian and Literature panel of the Modern Language Association’s December 28, 1977 meeting. It has since been published in many of Lorde's books including “The Cancer Journals” and “Sister Outsider.”. .This artwork is part of the project Footnotes on Equality: http://footnotesonequality.eu/all/
Description provided by the artist: .'Uovo s'ode' is made of the inside shell of a Kinder egg (the plastic one containing the surprise) filled with corn seeds in order for it to make noise when shaken. The shell bears the name of a woman victim of femicide in Italy during 2016 and the date of her death.. .'Uovo s'ode' is the name of an ingenious campaign promoted by a Roman social centre in occasion of the 'Non una di meno' rally to protest against male perpetrated violence on women held in Rome on November 26th, 2016. The campaign exploits the word play created by the similar sound of 'uovo s'ode' [an egg you can hear] and 'uova sode' [boiled eggs]. The object (the innder shell of a kinder egg filled with corn seeds) was used to make noise and accompany chants at the 'Non una di meno' rally in Rome on November 26th.. .This artwork is part of the project Footnotes on Equality: http://footnotesonequality.eu/all/