The Social Art Festival Art-Sobes 2009. “Okna M/G Rosta”

 

From 10th till 20th of October 2009 the German-Russian Exchange organization together with other public organizations navigates the festival of Social Art dedicated to the promotion of the ideas on gender equality in the sense of equality of possibilities for differentiation, but not as the equality of the sameness.

This festival intends to navigate group of events in autumn 2009 in St. Petersburg (Russia). The providers of the festival are planning to show different images of masculinity and femininity and present unusual, creative and constructive decisions that are taken by men and women in different social spheres and in different social roles. This could be viewed as a possibility to broaden old fashioned ideas on the abilities and borders of human beings and on what they can do despite strict regulations and stereotypes.

For these purposes the participants of the festival are to develop the topic of outgoing from the frames of the standard ideas on “femininity” and “masculinity” in the modern Russian society with the help of means of artistic creativity. In this context the social art marks the problem of difference, uncover burning problems of every day life that are connected with the various types of inequality and exclusion and shows spheres and roles in which the double standards of what is to be done and could be done by men and women today are expressed in the brightest manner.

The aim of the festival is to present successful social projects made with the help of art, which were good at helping different socially excluded groups and which shown the new meaning of “diversity” and “equality”.

The artistic form of expression is based on the desire to present this social problem in the most vivid and bright manner to the wide public and to get the reaction and response from mass media and public opinion.

During the project it is supposed to navigate a number of exhibitions, performances, artistic actions dedicated to the issue of new ideas of “femininity” and “masculinity”; to organize a set of round tables, public lectures and master- classes with the representatives of specialists from different branches of activities. It is also planned to work out the concept and model of social (gender) brand which purpose is to form the positive image that will be useful in order to revise the stereotypical understanding of “masculinity” and “femininity” and open the horizons of the future self realization of men and women in different spheres of activities.

During the festival the information about already existing but unknown social projects and forms of social art on the gender equality topic will be spread. One of the results of the festival should be the promotion of cooperation between existing organizations and initiatives that deal with the issues of gender equality as well as with promotion of solidarity on the different levels of social work.

Reference:
 Public noncommercial organization “German Russian Exchange” (GRE) during a number of years has been navigating the set of events dedicated to the attraction of the public attention to the burning social problems of modern reality with the help of art and culture. This way during the festival “Art -Sobes” in 2006 several artistic projects that were aimed on the promotion of the new ideas and ways of actualization, on the gaining of experience, on development of cooperation between civil initiatives, noncommercial organizations, socially accountable business and state sector were realized.

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