Feministival 4 is On Its Way!!!

Feministival, the festival where feminism meets the practice and embraces the everyday life is on its fourth year! Just like the previous years, this year we are in quest of 'doing' things, supporting our creations, producing, sharing, cooperating and having pleasure all together. Against the perfectionist and professionalizing masculine temporalities and profit hungry capitalist competition we are upholding an amateur spirit while giving heed to producing without consuming practices such as do-it-yourself as well as supporting creative ideas, never-heard-of poems, never-performed-musical compositions, unsent letters and uninscribed bodies. For a non-profit do-it-yourself Feministival:

-You can share your experiences and talents, organize or come up with ideas for workshops.

-You can offer technical support during the festival or cooperate.

-You can open your doors for the activites.

-You can accommodate those traveling from outside Istanbul at your place.

Self Portrait

Subjectivity, body, representation, and image have always been issues of various feminisms. Especially areas of autobiographical literature, image, and performance have been providing a ground for a lot of women and transgender individuals to destroy the stereotyped gender perception and roles, to create their own self-expressions, to tell their own stories. Besides self-representation, auto portrait can also be a tool for speaking about broader issues, the still images that we create might destroy our self image, transform it and might also open a gate to become someone else.

In this workshop, first we will briefly talk about the history of feminist auto-portrait and present different works and approaches. Later, we will think over various photography components and how we can use them for setting up our self-portraits. At the end of the workshop, after a few exercises we will enjoy by experimenting our auto-portraits with participants. At the second day, we will play and do post editing on our trials and enjoy with the process.

Would be great if you bring the objects, costumes, accessories that you would like to use in your auto-portraits. You can also bring your previous auto-portrait trials or the works that you like or find interesting. We can talk about them as well.

If you have a camera or tripod please bring them on too!!

Participants: 15

Spoken Poetry Workshop

SPW, starting off from the spoken word/poetry trend flourished in 50’s’ America, will be a physical workshop aiming to examine the relationship between discourse and speech in daily life, in private realm and in public space as well as to bring out and enrich the various timbres of female voice. The participants are expected to bring a text (not necessarily poems) with which they have an emotional bond. They are advised not to consume coffee, tea, chocolate, bakery or dairy on the day of the workshop. There will be sound recording during the workshop. Moreover, on the second day the participants will prepare a brief performance to be presented on the festival party.

Bike Repair Workshop

 Bikes are not just boy's toys! So why the idea of fixing bike able a "guy" thing? 
We learn with experience and by sharing experiences. Here is what we will do in this workshop: we will go over the required tool (and their names), know what you need to do what. We are going to share some details about the basic things we need to know to repair our own bikes. Tightening the brakes, adjusting the wheel, fixing the holes, oiling the chain, etc... 
Leave a space to travel green in your life! No buses, no traffic, no stress... bring your bike, let's be in a relaxed, in an open air environment, and get your hands dirty, fix your own bike!

Dream Matrix Workshop

This is what happens during the social dreaming matrix: someone starts the matrix by
telling a dream she saw, and through free association someone else from the group
tells her dream that was reminded to her by the previous dream that was told, and this
continues for a while.

To persist and to create an alternative to the system that aims at creating profit-oriented,
purpose-oriented and self-oriented minds, social dreaming matrix aims at rereading
dreams as social experiences and informations networks and use them to uncover
the consciously repressed connections between experiences. here, what is significant
is not to reveal which person saw which dream; although dreams are traditionally
taught to be individual experiences, they can as well be regarded as the perceptions of
social interactions. therefore, for the social dreaming matrix, what is significant is the
communication, similarities and repetitions between dreams. while the patriarchal/capitalist
system determines and dictates which information and which methods of distribution of
this information is legitimate, it is upto the dear mind of feminism to arouse the repressions
through alternative methods! come and bring your dreams with you to this workshop!

Participants: 15

Silicon Dildo Making Workshop

We can also do our own dildos ourselves With our desired shapes and sizes!
In this workshop we are going to cast our own silicone dildos by way of plaster molding. 
We will use food grade silicone, which is healthy and easy to clean. During the workshop we will mainly focus on two things: How to make a plaster mold and how to work with silicone. At the end of the day our dildos will be dried and ready to be used for the strap on workshop.

The material will be ready to use at the workshop space.
If you have a request for a special design, please tell us on your registration mail.

Participants: 15

Plastic Knitting Workshop

We found a way to finally get rid of those millions of plastic bags that are hanging around every kitchen!  In a relaxed environment, we will show some examples of recycled production... Bags made out of knitted plastic, necklaces done with tin tops. We will prepare the materials for you and show step by step how to build them. The choices are many, you can choose the colors, the sizes and shapes you want. If you have knitting needles, bring them along, if you have plastic bags with colors you like, bring them too :)

Participants: 15

Modify Costume Workshop

Let‘s bring old or clothes that are not in use anymore or clothes we are fed up with. Let’s try to find different ways of using one cloth and give it a different and new meaning. Or let’s just pimp up the old versions! Let‘s share information and ideas on working with clothes and lets support each other by doing this!
For the sewing we have one ‘normal’ sewing machine and one ‘overlock’. So of course let’s share our teknik skills!

What to bring?

-    Lets collect old or clothes that are not used anymore!

-    Lets bring all sorts of textiles, buttons, elastic band, glue, wool, wire, tires, cable, old umbrellas, and all we can think of!

-    We can use the clothes from the garage sale that were not sold!

-    We can collect material from garbage that can be useful for this workshop (I just found a hoop skirt... and got very happy about this... so I would say the workshop preparation has started!)

Lets get ready for crazy funny modifying experiences together!!! I’m looking forward!

Fem Expression Dance Workshop

Has to be esthetic? Has to be beautiful? In the right rhythm, due to classic dans schools, only with a lot of discipline?

What does that mean? Our bodies are ours – the way we wanna express ourself, the way we feel fine and free makes body moves an esthetic dance!

Let's gain our own free space! Let us be ourself!

Just bring comfortable clothes and yourself...

Participants: 15

History of Tattoo Workshop

Firstly, we’ll  talk about art of tattoo when and how into human life, historical journey of women who the first practitioners of this art.

We’ll demonstrate reflections to tattoo by the exclusion of women in so many areas with the constructions of social roles, to look today’s time.

For example, we’ll share information about tattoos what built by women and women's tattoos, especially tattoos what built by the women in the prisons.
Finally, we’ll learn construction and implementation phase of temporary henna tattoo.

Materials: Black Indian henna, Oxygen water, Henna stone, toothpick or skewer,  a small bowl of henna. (I’ll bring the all materials.)

Participants: 15

Naked drawing workshop

This workshop was thought as a silent naked drawing workshop, in the sense that we would all get naked and draw each other... This was the original idea, but it is not demanding that everyone takes their clothes off. There will be nudity, so if you are not comfortable with that it is your choice to join or not. Who wants to be naked can feel free to do so. Who doesn't want to be naked should also feel free to come! You can also be naked and leave just a scarf, a hat or any thing you want on...

We will start with an introduction about some notions of perspective, how to take measures with your eyes and pencil, how to know that the drawing will fit the page, how to choose colors, etc.

Before drawing we will do a short warm up session with some stretching exercises. Also to warm up we will draw... We are going to start with 3 drawings of 10 minutes each. We all have different rhythms, so these first drawings intend that each of us get to know our own drawing process, how long do we need for the outlines, how long do we need to perceive what we are drawing. After, we should find a position which is comfortable to do as less movement possible, and make 2 more drawings of 30 minutes each :) here we will have time to experiment detail and color.

We will give you paper and pencils, you should just bring some colors and a thick pen. Also, it would be great if everyone could bring a small pillow and a small blanket so we can cover the floor and be as comfortable as possible.

The workshop has some rules. During the drawing periods there should be silence, and most important: there is so space for jokes neither harassments!

We can have small breaks during the workshop but it would be great if we could start on time. In order to have privacy and concentration, the door will be closed as soon as we start warming up.

Participants: 18

Found Footage // Experimental Cinema Workshop

Our collective memories and conscious is full of images from old melodramas which have always tried to show us what is it to be a woman and a man. They claim to show us how a woman should look, behave and simply "be" while she cannot mostly be more than a faithful mother or a vamp whore. In this workshop, we will look at some old Yeşilçam Films and re-edit them in a way to break their iconographic representations. 

Note: If participants have laptops with editing software in they can bring them along.

Participants: 15

Fotoroman (Photo Novel) Worksop

Before television and soap operas there were photo novels! Until 70’s to middle of the 80’s passion, jealousy, betrayal and murder leaked into our homes, our love and our relationships with photo novels. Romantic ”jeunes”, reckless…, femme-fatales, backsliders, woman who clinged the life…Sometimes we desired them, sometimes we become one of them. With that “…look” we charmed someone or just like them we kick out the door and go. ….

At workshop we will mix, cut the old fotoromans and add speaking bubbles; create our own dramas. And then chat about our creations, our dramas.

Participants: 15

Strap-on / Harness Workshop

This workshop is created for us to make our own handmade strap-ons for using our dildos. First of all, we're gonna provide the necessary equipment by shopping the stuff with the feministival team. There are two different materials to make harness.. One of them is the tube of a bicycle tyre. (these can be used for making other toys such as whips) The other alternative is a hard knitted material which used in backpacks. And we'll need some combining materials like snap fasteners and plastik fasteners.. That's it!

If anyones prefers to use stitching method, they may bring their sewing machine and yarns. To decorate personally, you may bring your own belt-buckle etc.. Apart from those, we'll provide hammer, iron to pound, belt borer, scissors etc.  (it's recommended to bring your own hammer if you don't want to wait for others to finish) and the thing we'll produce in the end will be looking like this.

Participants: 12

Program 2012

Warm Up Party, Friday, 28 of April

Address: C47, İstiklal caddesi bekar sokak no/23 kat/3, Beyoglu 

At 21.30...