WoWmen! 2014

A critical look through rose-tinted glasses
Between International Women’s Day and Equal Pay Day we will be presenting a second edition of WoWmen!, our focus on gender, society and art. Because it is still necessary to take a critical look at the world through rose-tinted glasses without immediately undertaking a Femen action. We do this in theatre and dance performances, an exhibition, films, debates and research.

Research: Gender distribution in the arts sector
Four years ago Kaaitheater and the VTi, the institute for the performing arts, carried out a small-scale study: is the performing arts sector as feminine as it is generally assumed? Well, the results were disappointing! To give just one figure: of the 32 directors of civic theatres and arts centres only seven were women. Four of them worked in youth theatres. Together with the VTi and the Performing Arts Social Fund we have now carried out more thorough gender research, ranging from the 1992-93 season to the 2012-13 season. In addition, we have examined performing arts education. 

Debate: Case study: Turkey and feminism
Gender issues continue to stir the emotions, as we see in the newspapers almost every day. For the two WoWmen! debates we chose themes that have been hot topics in the past year.
In the opening debate we are zooming in on Turkey. This country appears to apply a double moral standard: is the dichotomy between tradition and renewal that you sense in East and West Istanbul exemplary of what is happening on a gender level? We end the debate with a dance duet by Ilyas Odman.
On Friday we shall be hearing a number of experts and activists on the role of women in protest movements and how the use of nudity plays a part in this. From the ‘boss of your own belly’ actions of the past to the part played by women bloggers during the Arab Spring. With, among others, the young Tunisian activist Amina Sboui.

Performances: Hysteria, eroticism and re-enactment
Ilyas Odman portrays the impossibility of and the urge to stay together with a man. Charlotte Vanden Eynde and Dolores Bouckaert start out from the supposedly female nineteenth-century illness of hysteria and talk about deceptive bodies. Anne Juren and Annie Dorsen look at several feminist performances of the sixties from a completely different angle. In her performative talkshow BAUERHOUR, Eleanor Bauer examines contemporary feminism with a number of guests including Emily Roysdon. In his performance the choreographer Pere Faura confirms and undermines the voyeuristic gaze of the spectator. And Ragna Aurich presents a visual performance with three pregnant women.

In addition to these varied approaches to gender, before and/or after the performances you can see the video exhibition, which includes work by the French-American film-maker Marie Losier, who also provided the cover picture. And on the final day we invite you to get busy yourself, in a workshop led by Marijs Boulogne; we’ll also treat you to a concert and a cocktail!

In collaboration with VTi, 0090 and deBuren