Femme In Arts 2024
From November 21 to 24, Centre d’Art Lo Pati will host a new edition of Femme in Arts – Visibles a escena, a festival that brings to the stage the knowledge created by women and dissident voices. Themes like passions, the body, identity, and feminism will be explored through art, philosophy, and reflection. With a rich and interdisciplinary program, this edition aims to rethink dominant narratives and offer an alternative view of the world, inspired by authors and thinkers such as Monique Wittig, Agnès Varda, Louise Bourgeois, and Alejandra Pizarnik.
“If traditionally the white, heterosexual, pater familias man has been the one to shape reality, in this edition of Femme in Arts, we want to highlight the essayistic and thought-provoking contributions of both classical and contemporary female authors, who provide a diverse, complex, and original way of understanding society,” explains Anna Zaera, the festival’s curator.
Femme in Arts will kick off on Thursday, November 21, with Paraules d’amor, a video essay by visual creator Núria Güell, exploring themes of passion, the links between love and violence, and the unconscious or structural mechanisms that generate it (6:30 pm). Following this, there will be a dialogue between the artist and art historian Júlia Lull (7:30 pm), an intriguing conversation on love, violence, and pleasure.
The next day will feature Un cos (possible) i lesbià, a stage performance by Brigitte Vasallo and Alba G. Corral (6:30 pm). Developed during an artist residency at Baladre, managed by Lo Pati in the Delta de l’Ebre, this piece reflects on the lesbian body as a body deemed “useless” by the system: unobjectifiable, unprofitable, impossible. Later that evening (9:00 pm), Lo Pati will transform into a radio studio for the live broadcast of the program Les dones i els dies from Catalunya Ràdio. Directed and presented by journalist Montse Virgili, it’s a reference space in Catalonia’s media landscape that brings feminism to the forefront.
On Saturday, November 23, Laura Llevadot will lead a philosophical creation session titled Esculpir, pensar, filmar: Estètiques feministes, dedicated to artists like Louise Bourgeois, Agnès Varda, and Luce Irigaray (5:30 pm). Building on Beauvoir’s idea that “one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman,” the session will delve into the works of three women who embarked on creative processes aware of the political construction involved in being positioned as women in the social and political world. Next, author Eva Baltasar will present her novel Ocàs i fascinació, in a discussion on the construction of female characters from a social critique perspective (7:00 pm). Helena Herranz, psychologist and founder of La Romàntica bookstore in Amposta, will moderate the conversation with the author. The evening will close with a gender-conscious rap concert by the band Aina Koda (8:00 pm), a Valencian rap band consisting of Aina Nogueroles (vocals and lyrics) and Adam González (producer and DJ).
The festival will conclude on Sunday with a screening of Micro Visuals, an audiovisual piece created by high school students from *Institut Ramon Berenguer IV* in Amposta, focusing on forgotten female figures in history (11:00 am). A ritual performance titled Alminal (12:00 pm) is also scheduled, led by the Dones Artistes Rurals (DAR) collective with Antònia Ripoll, Gemma Ginovart, and Sarah Misselbrook, curated by Clara Albacete, the collective’s creator and director. The festival will close with Grito de Mujer entre los Muertos, a monologue performed by actress Fuensanta López, based on the work of Argentine writer Alejandra Pizarnik, combining theater, butoh dance, and music to explore themes of death, madness, and redemption (7:00 pm).
Femme in Arts is organized by Lo Pati – Centre d’Arts de les Terres de l’Ebre, in collaboration with the Drets Socials i Ciutadania department of Ajuntament d’Amposta, the Servei d’Informació i Atenció a les Dones of the Consell Comarcal del Montsià (SIAD), and the Servei d’Intervenció Especialitzada de Terres de l’Ebre (SIE) of the Departament d’Igualtat i Feminisme de la Generalitat de Catalunya, managed by Fundació Montsià in Amposta.
