Martina Mina & Sabine Schwaighofer dedicate themselves in an essential way, both in their individual work and in their common projects, to the genre of self-portraits. Each artist follows their own ideas and inspirations. Since 2016 these ideas also find expression in common works. For this they take on diverse roles and personalities.
Paola Cavallin’s
Comedia dell’Arte expert and performer, Paola has worked extensively with half mask in Italy with several directors, among many Eugenio de Giorgi of Teatro Olmetto. She trained in Commedia dell’Arte at the school of “Avogaria” in her home city of Venice, with Enrico Bonavera (of teatro “Il Piccolo, Milan) and Carlo Boso.
She is a renowned solo performer of her solo devised shows and she performed at several lesbian events and festivals in Italy and London for the past 20 years.
She is also director and workshop leader tutoring at many drama schools (East 15, Rose Bruford, Central School of Speech and Drama) and Universities in London. In Italy she directed several shows for CreActive, an Anglo-Italian company based in Milan, whilst in UK she directed Scaramouche, the Commedia dell’Arte Musical, which opened at Hoxton Hall, and Modern Times a Commedia show using the traditional masks, but set in a contemporary context.
‘Welcome to LesbiaLand!!!’ show by and with Paola Cavallin
A satire in light of the political situation in Italy: the cultural decline, the continuous attacks of the Vatican against gay
people and the growing of far-right movements.
Synopsis
2050: Planet Earth has reached its breaking point. The ice age is at its peak and the oceans have submerged parts of the dry land. Italy is controlled by a corrupted and sexist regime by more than 50 years. The Vatican has declared homosexuality illegal. A group of Italian lesbian refugees reaches the small island of Lesvos run by an European lesbian government. They follow their dream of an equal and safe society. Here the new refugees meet Clara, their appointed guide of the island, who will introduce them to this new world of sisterhood, solidarity and warmth typical of all lesbian communities. Or at least that is what they hope for!
Hilary McCollum is a novelist, playwright and feminist activist. Her first novel, Golddigger, which spans the California goldrush and the Irish Famine, won the Golden Crown Literary Society award for historical fiction in 2016. Her second novel, Wild, set within the British suffragette movement, will be published in 2018. In 2014, her play, Life and Love: Lesbian Style, was nominated for best original writing at the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival and won the best female performance award. She has written two verbatim plays about LGBT lives in northwest Ireland and a lesbian pirate play, The Pirates of Portrush, which was developed with the support of the Arts Council NI and the Big Lottery. She is currently working at Queen’s University Belfast on a novel set within 1920s London and Paris.
AVOEC was established by Luiza Moraes and Lori Baldwin, who met in Budapest in 2013. AVOEC creates work that disrupts binaries, embraces uncertainty and revels in quiet spectacles. Working between the realms of performance, theatre and live art, their pieces are concerned with the experimental edges of traditional art making.
RMQS (Raising My Queer Self) is a versatile performance that combines text, movement, sound, presence and absence as it engages with issues surrounding being queer – particularly within the process of growing up in an environment that is not accepting of a non-hetero identity. It creates a queer feminist framework for addressing questions of (not) belonging, eroticism and gender. The artists’ personal experiences and questions work as a reference point. From this, they connect to a wider socio-political context, building a score which forms the backbone of the piece. A space of vulnerability and non-invasive exposure is created through the act of challenging an identitiary comfort zone and inhabiting the score in the present moment.
Alisha Doody: Alisha is a young visual artist and activist living and working in Dublin/Leitrim, Ireland. Her practice is centered on issues relating to contemporary society and is focused on understanding how this relates to the personal. Utilising the interplay of medium and subject her working methods are fluid, meditative, including both analogue and digital photography as well as video. Her work has been shown in group exhibitions and she has undertaken a residency at Cow House Studios, Co. Wexford in 2016, as well as this she has also presented her work at the Lesbian Lives Conference, Brighton University, 2017. Her most recent work was inspired by the changing experiences both social and cultural, of lesbians across generations in Ireland and how important intergenerational communication can be to the construction of lesbian identity. This work has received honorable mention in the Inspirational Arts Award, 2017 and has also been longlisted for inclusion in the RDS Student Awards, 2017.
Hayley Fox-Roberts: Hayley Fox-Roberts is a poet, LGBT activist and creative facilitator: her wide
experience focuses on equality and inclusion. Her practice emphasises language as a tool for positive
change; a pert and provocative performance technique lends itself to a variety of settings and engages with a wide range of skill sets. Her experience in rural LGBT development includes establishing a ten-year Northwest LGBT Pride and as the first Regional LGBT Development worker in the Northwest and Border Counties of the Republic (LGBT Diversity, 2010-2012). Performances and workshops include Lesbian Lives conferences in University College Dublin and Brighton University (1999 – 2017); ‘Young, Rural and Queer’ at the CRiSP Youth Conference 2016 and the Wise Woman Weekend 2017. This present collaboration reflects her current direction in developing creative strategies for rural networking and action within dyke communities and is linked to her MA in Sexuality Studies (2017).
This is a multi-media presentation, delivered by the artist-activists. Participants are invited to witness the lived experiences of rural-dwelling lesbians in Ireland through film and poetry performances and through research conducted across the island of Ireland.The presentation
focuses on intergenerational learning and experience and the development needed to ensure that
lesbian learning is not lost due to geographic and social difficulties. The passing-down of
wisdom and herstories is challenged by these difficulties, and we seek to find ways to overcome
these challenges.
In conclusion, participants will be invited to discuss the themes reflected with a view to
sustainable networking and developing creative actions. Discussion will be led by the
presenters, and recorded for sharing with participants after the conference.
Lovis Cassaris, geboren 1983 in Süditalien, aufgewachsen in der Schweiz, lebt heute in Fribourg. Sie studierte Germanistik, Philosophie und Englische Literaturwissenschaft in Zürich, Berlin und Potsdam. Aktuell promoviert sie im Forschungsfeld der Gender- und Queerlinguistik in Zürich, arbeitet als Kommunikationsverantwortliche und freie Journalistin.
Für manche wäre eine 180km-Wanderung durch Lappland nur eine sportliche Herausforderung. Für Alexandra Roth ist der 5-tägige Extrem-Trek durch den Kebnekaise-Nationalpark jedoch das Einlösen eines Versprechens und das Aufarbeiten des Verlusts ihrer großen Liebe. Eine gute Zuhörerin findet die Berlinerin Alex in der attraktiven schwedischen Fotografin Emma Holmqvist. Während der Etappen der Wanderung, im Tempo ihrer Schritte über Stege, Steine und Pfade, über Bergmassive und Bäche, erzählt sie die Geschichte ihrer Zürcher Ehefrau Meike Janowsky, die nach schwerer Krankheit selbstbestimmt ihrem Leben ein Ende setzen will. Temporeich und mit einer Prise Humor erzählt die Schweizer Autorin Lovis Cassaris diese ungewöhnliche Liebesgeschichte, vor dem Hintergrund der atemberaubenden schwedischen Landschaft.
Lovis Cassaris, geboren 1983 in Süditalien, aufgewachsen in der Schweiz, lebt heute in Fribourg. Sie studierte Germanistik, Philosophie und Englische Literaturwissenschaft in Zürich, Berlin und Potsdam. Aktuell promoviert sie im Forschungsfeld der Gender- und Queerlinguistik in Zürich, arbeitet als Kommunikationsverantwortliche und freie Journalistin.
Für manche wäre eine 180km-Wanderung durch Lappland nur eine sportliche Herausforderung. Für Alexandra Roth ist der 5-tägige Extrem-Trek durch den Kebnekaise-Nationalpark jedoch das Einlösen eines Versprechens und das Aufarbeiten des Verlusts ihrer großen Liebe. Eine gute Zuhörerin findet die Berlinerin Alex in der attraktiven schwedischen Fotografin Emma Holmqvist. Während der Etappen der Wanderung, im Tempo ihrer Schritte über Stege, Steine und Pfade, über Bergmassive und Bäche, erzählt sie die Geschichte ihrer Zürcher Ehefrau Meike Janowsky, die nach schwerer Krankheit selbstbestimmt ihrem Leben ein Ende setzen will. Temporeich und mit einer Prise Humor erzählt die Schweizer Autorin Lovis Cassaris diese ungewöhnliche Liebesgeschichte, vor dem Hintergrund der atemberaubenden schwedischen Landschaft.
maria salamon is an austrian violinist, composer and artist. her musical experience is extremely diverse and multifaceted, ranging from virtuous solo tunes to large scale pieces. her compositions have been performed all over the world. as a violinist, she has been awarded with several prizes, both for her solo playing and for her ensembles.
gudrun salamon is an austrian singer, vocal artist and psychosocial counselor. working with constellations from duo to large choirs, she is able to express her unique voice in a vast musical environment. experienced in the styles of musical, jazz and avantgarde, she performed all over the globe, and enjoys combining different backgrounds and views as well as linking different worlds of life and thought.
fields of tension is an artistic collaboration between life partners. maria and gudrun salamon have been working together since 2011, playing their music at concerts in vienna and around the world. fields of tension is the result of an intense process they have been dedicating themselves to over the last few years, both creatively and personally. combining sound, thought, and emotion, maria salamon wrote the music for this project, whereas gudrun salamon composed the lyrics.
Curator, Filmmaker and woman of culture, Veronika Minder was born in 1948, lives and works in Bern, Switzerland. She is involved in many different cultural events and has been one of the main influences on the Bern cultural landscape for over 40 years.
During her studies – History of Art, Archeology, and Publishing – she took part (under the influence of the Flower-Power and the Hippie movements at the time) in the election for City Council in 1971 with a program called: “A red heart for a green Bern”.
After her graduation in the end of the 1970s she worked in a coop record shop, organized events, fashion shows, and concerts. From 1988 on she was for 12 years deeply involved in the Bern cinema scene. As the managing director of the Kellerkino, and later the Kino Cosmos, she is one of the main instigators of many festivals and retrospectives, as for example the FrauenFilmTage Schweiz (a women film festival later called NouVelles), Queersicht (a gay and lesbian film festival) and the Zauberlaterne Bern (films for children).
Since 2001 until 2010 she has worked as cultural adviser and curator for museums, music and theater productions, festivals in Switzerland and Germany.