Intimate Revolt

The words ‘intimate’ and ‘institution’ are like oil and vinegar, they do not exactly mix, but when combined they have a distinctive flavor. When a group of international women, like ourselves, with such a range of different nationalities, ethnicities and cultures come together in an institution like FAMU, a reaction happens that no sorcerer could have imagined. One positive product of globalization is our ability to encounter one another in Prague’s kavarnas, despite our disparate and far-reaching origins, and new technologies, like Skype, keep us linked together even when circumstance of our lives have taken us far from central Europe – Perhaps to a Middle Eastern desert or to the cornfields of the American Mid West. Our lives and our relationships have the possibilities for both an intimacy and a dynamic that have not been possible for any of the generations of women before us, because of our era’s unprecedented complexity. As we are faced with a multitude of choices each of our cultures’ notions of traditional gender roles are dissolving into something more ambiguous, which leads us to search for a more solid definition of our own selves. Each of us in this exhibition has a unique set of cultural influences that contributes to her understanding of herself. The values and customs of the culture(s) we are raised in are the foundation for our initial understanding of the world and our place in it. By crossing cultural boundaries through living abroad each of us faces new social norms and values, which either reinforce or challenge our initial idea of individuality and the constructions of our cultures that we carry with us. While values, customs, and rituals vary from place to place, what links our lives together is that we all have been confronted with a spectrum of traditional gender roles. Now we must respond. Each of us must decide which characteristics of our culture’s idea of traditional gender suit us, which characteristics we will adhere to, which from other cultures we will adopt and which we will ignore. Thankfully, although our paths are quite different, none of us are alone in this process.Curator: Gülbin Özdamar -Helena Musilova

The artists featured in “I own my identity” are:

1. Gulbin Ozdamar (Turkey)
2. Molly Radecki (USA)
3. Vilma Samulionyte (Lithuania)
4. Dorothea Bylica (Poland)
5. Kristyna Muller (Sweden)
6. Sitara Ibrahimova (Azerbaijan)
7. Zuzana Podolska (Czech Republic)
8. Natasha Kosmerl (Slovenia)

Exhibition Places

1- Galeria Velryba, 2007, Prague, Czech Republic
2- Nod Gallery, Prague, 2007, Czech Republic
3- Dog Gallery, Ljubljana, 2008, Slovenia.
4. Union Prospekto gallery, 2009, Vilnius, Lithuania
5. Harfiyat Karaköy Gallery, 2009, Istanbul, Turkey.
6. AFSAD Gallery, Ankara, 2009, Turkey.

Grants

2007, Grant from the City of Prague (Czech Republic) for exhibition “Intimate Revolt”

2008, Grant from Cultural Ministry of Lithuania for exhibition “Intimate Revolt”