It has been thirty years this year, but who is counting!
As many of you who follow us today have been following the development of the City of Women festival and the Association for many years now, it might seem redundant to remind ourselves of the festival’s history. But reaching the thirtieth anniversary means that the festival has been around long enough to be a reference point for the part of our audience that was not even born in 1995 when its first edition made a ground-breaking appearance. So, let us just briefly recap that the City of Women was first established in the very aftermath of the dissolution of Yugoslavia as an interdisciplinary festival, focusing on theatre, music, film, and visual arts. The establishment of the festival initially focused on the artistic production of women. It was founded in order to stipulate gender equality by the then-existing Governmental Office for Women’s Policy in Slovenia during the so-called transition from state socialism when the newly established state saw lower participation of women in politics and we experienced a general re-traditionalization of gender roles. The festival has been changing since its inception and has been spearheading the promotion and development of artistic and theoretical production of women and gender-nonconforming artists and researchers and/or feminist artistic practices and discourses for years. As professed by Uršula Cetinski, the first festival director, the City of Women festival was initiated as a one-time event only to become one of the first annual festivals of this sort, not only in Slovenia but internationally. What a lack it would have been if it had really ended as a solitary event. Luckily today many people and visitors of Ljubljana have the early October set marked in their calendars as the time to visit the City of Women.
City of Women is a pioneering organisation and an important landmark for thinking feminist artistic, curatorial and critical practices internationally as well as an important actor on a lively artistic and feminist scene in Ljubljana and Slovenia. The City of Women Festival and the Association, which was developed a year after, have, throughout the years, introduced many, at times, opposing positions on feminist art and thinking, sparking important conversations, which have shaped both the organisation as well as the artistic and feminist community in Ljubljana and elsewhere. Invoking, at times, opposing views on issues introduced by the City of Women, many new sisterly organisations and initiatives have sprung up throughout the years creating a lively environment where debate and exchange of values are a commonplace. This rich environment is today a source pool for the City of Women where the latter learns, develops and thrives.
The festival's development throughout the years wouldn’t have been possible without the sisterly relationships of the many people who have participated in, conceived, organised, and followed the festivals' editions. It is only because these relationships have been based on solidarity, understanding of differences, and support that we can proudly celebrate the 30th anniversary of the City of Women festival today. It is dedicated to the many that have dedicated their time and energy to developing the festival and the association as well as to those that have supported and followed our work. We are also immensely indebted to all the people that have fought for gender equality in other fields during all these years that the festival acted primarily in the field of culture. Therefore, this year's festival edition thematises SISTERHOOD, which overcomes differences and enables the coming together of many women, gender-nonconforming people, and our supporters. Being aware of the dangers of adhering to universalist concepts, which sisterhood could be interpreted as, we affirm the understanding of the concept as a fluid and adaptable practice that does not erase the differences in socioeconomic, ethical, “racial”, sexual, and other backgrounds inscribed in the experiences of many women and gender minorities.
City of Women does not view sisterhood as a formulation of unity and equality, aiming to include all women under a common category of "woman." Instead, it sees sisterhood as an inherently contradictory concept, which also includes conflicts, differences, and diversity. At Mesto žensk, through our artistic program, we highlight racism, class differences, different physical abilities, sexual orientation or gender, age, nationality, and the global context, thus remaining critical of the idea of sisterhood as a formulation that ignores the complexity of social reality and views sisterhood as a universal concept. If we are to talk about the feminist movement and sisterhood, we must also talk about disagreements. This year, we aim to re-examine and reformulate the meaning of sisterhood and emphasize that the festival has always been and will remain a space for sharing experiences, knowledge, different perspectives, a space for dialogue and contradictions.
Members of City of Women
Thirty Years of Being Ourselves in the City of Women
City of Women is not only a space (Ljubljana) and not only the time (ten days). It is a cultural phaenomenon, a historical landmark, and a promise of ever more and more demanding projects engaging more and more participants. The missing parts remain...space and time. For the 30th anniversary, instead of best wishes, I would like to propose some reparations regarding space and time.
Space: City of Women should take power over the city of Ljubljana during the festival. E-mail voting, organized beforehand, should procure the names of city representatives, who would take the governing of the city at the beginning of the festival. All decisions made by this temporary Council should remain in place after the Festival. In order to express real people's will, debates about possible measures should precede the e-mail voting. New city services should be presented during this period, in order to examine new possibilities in city governing. Experimenting with new democratic practices should be the leading idea. Ljubljana is a city in which the center is privileged and the periphery is almost forgotten, where young people cannot find accessible housing and where tourist-related business is winning over population's interest. Making the city friendlier for all, including handicapped, old and young, poor, homeless and migrants could be one of the social goals of the city of sisterhood.
Time: In order to achieve some of the goals, the festival should last at least one month of the year. Let it be October, when everybody is back in the city of Ljubljana, the month of plenty, preparations and reserve making for the winter. Let it connect with the last works in the fields, with the rural women, with nature and its cycles.
Let the full activity define the rules. Let us turn away the apocalyptic prophecies about the world's fate. Let us be ready to go from Ljubljana and to make human walls against wars. Let us dream and wake up ready to respond to our dreams! Because we are thirty and we do have responsibilities which we already formulated.
Svetlana Slapšak, honorary president of the association