Women on The Move. Open Call for Artists to Explore Gender and Migration Through Mural Art

4 responses

1. 

   Judith Gor

   October 28, 2024

   thanks

   Reply
2. 

   Judith Gor

   October 28, 2024

   can you mail me some picture of te location ?
   judigor@gmail.com

   Reply
3. 

   Roos van Geffen

   November 4, 2024

   Dear people, thanks for sharing… but then I read: “which will aim to address the intersection of gender and migration within the wider contexts of coloniality, capitalism, and environmental concerns” and that feels like some kind of armor to pour all contemporary problems into. The opposite of freedom… all political themes in one artwork checked off. I wonder what your view is on this.

   Reply
   1. 

      Re-Wiring, KU Leuven Team

      November 15, 2024

      Dear Roos van Geffen,

      Thank you for your comment, bringing to our attention this issue of language used in the Dutch translation of the Open Call: ‘Women on The Move’. It is important to receive feedback and engage in a continued critical conversation about these topics and terms. Below we try to respond to both of the two points brought up in your comment / email.

      1.
      It is clear that the Dutch translation of the original English text doesn’t fully convey the intent of the original English language text. In the original text, it says that “the mural should aim to challenge and disrupt gendered stereotypes…”, not that it ‘must’ do so, nor how it might do so. Thus, here we do have a clear translation problem. However, the lens through which an artist might aim to challenge “gendered stereotypes related to women and migration” has not been specified, thus leaving it up to the artist’s own interests and situatedness.

      2.
      In our project, we understand ‘migration’ not as a standalone issue, but as a phenomena that is deeply embedded within, connected to, and often caused by colonial logics and global capitalism. Think of, for example, migrant workers having to leave their homes and families to contribute to the wellbeing and development of other countries and other families at a cost to their own wellbeing, and loss of their own cultural traditions, and so on. Or think of the gradual effects of extractive colonial logics and global capitalism on the environment effecting climate change, including for instance the rise of sea-levels, floods, loss of livelihoods, and in turn mass migration. In our project, we also depart from an understanding, backed up by research, that the experiences and effects of migration are not the same for both women/girls and men, but that these experiences and effects are gendered. In our project we want to engage with such complex, interrelated, and as we see them always intersectional matters. Not by conflating such terms and concepts into one thing, but by trying to lay these connections and relations bare by inviting artists to respond to these interrelated phenomena through their own situated experiences and perspectives.
      Squeezing lots of information into the short format of an Open Call, some of such complexities can quickly become snowed under. We hope that the above has helped to clarify and answer your concerns.

      Warmly,
      Re-Wiring, KU Leuven Team

      Reply