On May 5, 2022, the exhibition "10 years of feminist street activism" had its grand opening at the Arthub Gallery in Bucharest. The exhibition brings together images and texts from the most representative feminist public events in the last 10 years, in Bucharest, Cluj, Sibiu, Iasi, Timisoara, Seaca Valley, Giurgiu, Alba Iulia, Targoviste.
The exhibition starts in October 2021 with the Slutwalk Bucharest event and ends in October 2021 with the flashmob "33 women killed".
The first event captured by the exhibition is by no means the first feminist civic event in Romania. The first (of what has been documented so far) was in the year 2000, when women protested against a Playboy magazine's article "How to beat your wife without leaving marks".
Later, in the 2000s, there were other sporadic public events. But from 2011 onwards, there is a continuity in civic events, which is why the exhibition starts from that year.
For the exhibition we selected images only from public events, therefore civic actions such as leaflet sharing, participation in fairs, outdoor festivals, etc. are not included.
Chronologically displayed, the events reveal the recurring themes of public demonstrations included in the exhibition, mainly related to the issue of gender violence, restricting women's access to abortion or discrimination against Roma women, but also singular themes, such as the 2020 sex workers’ decriminalization protest organized by SexworkCall Association or the June 2020 flashmob, in front of the Presidential Palace, in reaction to the ban of gender references in schools and universities..
Some protests were organized as a public reaction to a serious situation. For example, the 2019 protest in front of the Ministry of the Interior, following the Caracal tragedy, when the police arrived too late at the desperate call of a kidnapped and raped girl. The 2013 protest against the inclusion of rape and domestic violence in the Mediation Law is also a public reaction. Or the protest by ERomnja Association and women and girls from Valea Seacă community from Bacău against the lack of police intervention in cases of sexual violence.
Other demonstrations have been initiatives to change the state of affairs, such as the flashmob for the introduction of sex education in schools. Others were gestures of solidarity with women in other countries, such as the protests in front of the Spanish (2014) and Polish (2016) embassies against law projects to ban abortion.
Some of the events had an important creative side. Politically engaged members of the cultural-artistic sphere were involved in their organization, creating a beneficial combination between art and civic action, which enhanced the message. This includes events such as the "feminist liturgy of March 8, 2020" in front of the Cathedral of the Salvation of the Nation and the performance of "March 8 means fighting" created by artist Veda Popovici in 2016. Other events were part of international feminist movements, such as as SlutWalk Bucharest (2011), part of the movement initiated in Toronto in 2011, and the flashmob “The rapist is you” (2020), part of the movement initiated by Chilean feminists in 2019.
Last but not least, the exhibition also shows videos captured as TV reports, live broadcasts on Facebook and live videos made by people from the organization of events or allies to the cause.
The exbition is part of the project "EGALIS: Gender equality through social change and education", developed by the Partnership for Equality Center, in partnership with the Front Association, AnA - the Scientific Society for Feminist Analysis, ACTEDO - the Action Center for Equality and Rights Association Man, PLURAL Association and SEX vs The STORK Association, with financial support from Active Citizens Fund Romania, programme funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Grants Grants 2014 -2021.
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