Power to Change! - seminar
Seminar at Bergen Public Library on feminist and human rights activism in art
Tuesday April 9th ::: Place: Bergen Public Library : free entrance
Program
10:00 Helga Nyman - Art and Feminist Activism. Transforming power structures?
11:00 Joanna Rytel - Presentation of previous works
11:45 Arne Skaug Olsen - presentation of "Contained Environment" and "Sex Workers Manifesto". Re-thinking the working conditions of Norwegian sex workers
12:30 Lunch
13:15 Afrah Nasser - "Resistance to Women's Political Participation is Futile"
14:00 Steven Dixon - "Rape Culture, Activism and Intellectual Intimidation”
15:00 Discussions
19:00 The documentary Gulabi Gang at Bergen Kino (KP4)
Bios
Helga Nyman (b.1983) is an art historian with a special interest in architecture, contemporary art and feminist theory. Nyman studied at the University of Linköping in Sweden, and at the University in Bergen from where Nyman holds a MA in art history. Helga Nyman´s thesis took upon archive, storytelling and remembrance in contemporary art. Helga Nyman works at the Stavanger Art Museum and as a freelance curator. Based in Stavanger.
Joanna Rytel (b.1974) is a feminist artist working with performance, video, photography and text. Themes in Rytel´s practise includes sex, racism, abortion and male infertility. Joanna Rytel holds a MA in fine art from Konstfack in Sweden 2004. Rytel has exhibited extensively in Sweden, and also internationally. Based in Stockholm.
Arne Skaug Olsen (b.1974) is an artist, curator, art critic, writer and a publisher. Skaug Olsen writes for kunstkritikk.no, Camera Austria and Billedkunst, and is an editor of the publishing house Ctrl+Z Publishing. Arne Skaug Olsen is teaching regularly at the Bergen Academy of Art and Design, Oslo National Academy of the Arts, The Art Academy in Trondheim, and the Nordland Art and Film school. Based in Bergen.
Afrah Nasser (b.1985) is a freelance writer and blogger since 2010 focusing on women's rights, democracy, and politics of Yemen. In April 2011, Nasser´s blog was featured as one of the 10 must-read blogs from the Middle East by CNN.com. Afrah Nasser has worked as a reporter for Yemen Observer newspaper 2008-2011, and the Swedish International Radio 2012 and currently works at Kvinna till Kvinna. Afrah Nasser has contributed to 2 books and co-founded the Yemeni Salon in Stockholm initiative. Nasser is a public speaker on Yemen's affairs and regularly writes columns about Yemen for publications in Yemen, Sweden, UK, Kuwait, US and UAE. Based in Stockholm.
Dr. Steven Dixon (b.1954) is an artist and a writer. Dixon holds a Phd in philosophy and teaches theory at the Bergen Academy of Art and Design. Dixon´s interests lies within ideology in relation to art production, gender issues, feminism and new media. Based in Stockholm.
Gulabi Gang (image)
In Bundelkhand, India, a revolution is in the making among the poorest of the poor, as Sampat Pal and the fiery women of her Gulabi Gang empower themselves and take up the fight against gender violence, caste oppression and widespread corruption. Enter the badlands of Bundelkhand and you have entered a place of desolation, dust and despair. And yet it is hope that we discover as we follow the pink sari-clad women of Gulabi Gang. These women travel long distances by cart and tractor, bus and train, to wrest justice for women and Dalits, undeterred by sneering policemen and condescending bureaucrats. Sampat Pal, their leader, is a rough-and-tough woman with a commanding personality. Despite her lack of education she has evolved her own brand of feminism and egalitarian politics. Her strength lies in her words. She is constantly on the move – today investigating a young woman’s suspicious death, tomorrow protesting against a corrupt official. The gang encounters resistance everywhere – whole villages connive in protecting the perpetrators of violence. As the film pulls us into the centre of these blazing conflicts, it uncovers a complex story, disturbing yet heartening.