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Otilia’s Enigma, Notes on the Performance

Feminist Collective
Alexandra Tatar
February 2021
The performance, which was done within the frame of the Fucking Solidarity conference at the University of Vienna on 22 September 2017, interrogated the mythical construction of the bodies of post-socialist eastern European cis-women and their affinities, using the tools of western beauty concepts and behavioral expectations. The cosmetic and pornographic gaze appropriated through the new cultural invasion after the fall of communism (television, women’s magazines, pop culture, and nightclubs) was critically questioned. Selling/Promoting/Creating the ‘beautiful, but cheap’ brand will be seen in its ‘integrity’ as a heterotopic space in Romanian society, where through beauty – the availability formula, access to a westernized lifestyle is granted. Consuming the other only works if that other fits the phantasy of the other (heteronormative, patriarchal), in other words, if it knows to play its role.
Rus

По следам выставки «Художественные гендерные и сексуальные разногласия и создание сообществ»

Feminist Collective
Салтанат Шошанова
jj
October 2020
Этот текст рассказывает о выставке «Художественные гендерные и сексуальные разногласия и создание сообществ», которая прошла в Венском государственном университете в сентябре 2017 года в рамках конференции «Разъебывая солидарность: квирим концепции о постсоветском пространстве / с постсоветской перспективы». Три года спустя Салтанат Шошанова, кураторка выставки, вспоминает и переосмысливает работы худож_ниц из разных стран, которые представили свои работы, рефлексирующие на темы капитализма, идентичности, сексуальности и квир-солидарности.
Eng

A Guide to Cooperation with Allies

Feminist Collective
Hagra
September 2020
Hagra is a Russian queer artist. While he started working under this name in 2012, it was only after the first exhibition in 2013 that he has started to consider pursuing the professional career of an artist. His main activities are carried out on the Internet. Although he does not limit his work to any particular topic and draws everything that catches his eye, the current social and political environment drove Hagra to focus on the issues of sexual orientation and sexuality in general, gender, and social stratification.
UkrEngRus

Principles of Good Work for an Activist Collective

Feminist Collective
Yosh
March 2020

The text contains reflections on work in the public sector, in particular in the team of “Feminist Workshop”. The activity under analysis is based on flat and self-organizing methods, as well as the principle of "practice what you promote." The following principles flow from them and should help the activist collective to exist harmoniously and sustainable. I wrote them for a discussion in activism, which I am terribly lacking, to comprehend our activities and to form guidelines for the future. Also, this set of principles is aimed at reducing the pressure of productivity on people, which is carried out by external factors (such as competitive culture, conditions of economic instability, donor requirements, expectations of relatives), at least within the team. Read the full text in Russian.

EngRus

The Unwomanly Face of Chechnya

Feminist Collective
Elena Smirnova
February 2020

This documentary essay conveys the author’s thoughts and feelings regarding the homophobic campaign that developed in Chechnya since the beginning of the 2017. It tells about that place, or that empty signifier, that was assigned to women in the coverage of this tragedy, and about the personal experience of the author as a volunteer of an association in France supporting LGBT+ refugees from the North Caucasus. Read the full text in Russian.

UkrEngRus

We Speak From the Side of the Road

Feminist Collective
Vishnya Vishnya
geo
Syaivo
February 2020

According to my view of the world, there is heterogeneity present in it - not diversity we are told of, but heterogeneity. A conflict is inherent to it because these different layers are not compatible due to historic inequality. There are people and institutions that hide and erase this heterogeneity - re-write the history because they benefit from creating and supporting hierarchies. Because of this, marginalized people and social groups emerge. For me, 'marginal' as a word designates something that has been pushed to the side of the road. This concept is very important to Zboku because we speak from the side of the road and try to work with contexts laying "on the side”. Read the interview in Ukrainian.

UkrEngRus

Lines from Seamstresses` Life

Feminist Collective
Mariia Lukianova
Rina Winter
October 2019

Our conversation has two tasks. One is to show the awareness of our own privileges: we work in a horizontal structure according to a scheme reducible to the formula “on ourselves”.  Another certainty of this mutual interview is that even in our format there are problems of sewing labour in Ukraine (and in other countries). We decided to talk with each other to make the work that consumers rarely think about more visible. And all this – only from our own experience.

UkrEngRus

What Is New in My Backpack

Feminist Collective
Mariam Agamian
November 2018
In Ukraine, racism is usually discussed in comparison to other countries, primarily as a contrast. And it is mainly white experts who do all the talking. It appears that denying racism today is a sign of one's good manners. There is even a golden collection of arguments. Presumably, “we don't have racism, because everyone is white here,” “racism does not exist here because we did not have slavery, Ukraine did not colonize anyone but was colonized itself,” “technically, it's not even racism, because this is a matter of class, not race,” “if whiteness is about access to privilege and wealth, then everyone is racialized in Ukraine” and so on. (The full text is available in Ukrainian).
UkrEngRus

“I would never say: this poem is about lesbians, that one is about price increase for public transportation, and those poems are about the horrors of capitalism”

Feminist Collective
Mariam Agamian
October 2018

"Regarding queer-poetry, it is everywhere in Ukraine. No matter how the ultra-right dudes want to make their dreams about purity and holiness true, this country has never been homogeneous. It’s difficult not to drown in the variety of stories that in one way or another push to think beyond simple oppositions. Contradictions that surround authors in the Ukrainian context are inexhaustible material." (The full text is available in Ukrainian.)

UkrEngRus

A Ballad of Pride

Feminist Collective
Lesia Pagulich
July 2018
What does it mean to be proud and free and to keep fighting against dehumanization and attacks on racialized and poor populations, to keep resisting the groups that want to decide whom and where to live, denying the presence of the marginalized groups in public space? What does it mean to talk not only about sexuality, when people’s lives depend on many resources (such as health care, housing, education, transportation, etc.), while access to these resources is being increasingly limited? Is it enough to “include” a certain group in the demonstration without addressing the issue of redistribution of the resources in the society? How will we think of pride if the Pride’s agenda takes a strong stance against the anti-Roma pogroms in Ukraine and against pathologization of trans and intersex people? How then will we imagine solidarity and coalitions that are based on mutual support? After all, this is a "tradition" of Prides. (The full text is available in Ukrainian.)

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