For one week, we displayed our installation in E… Varza.
The choice of venue, whilst initially seeming a little strange, in reality added an extra element of interest to the installation. Indeed this kind of familiar public place where people come to relax, share ideas and opinions around the same table, revealed itself to be the perfect place to stimulate discussion about the controversial topic the installation was inspired by.
Thus we easily met people with whom we shared our opinions and different points of view, reaching a new approach of gender stereotypes. It was really interesting to see how people reacted and had their own ideas concerning the meaning of the installation, depending on their personal situation.
“Which differences between men and women can be considered like natural because coming from biological differences? Some different instinct dating of the first human beings, comparable with some animal’s instincts: reproduction for male and maternal instinct for women, for example, still have a kind of inconsistently influence?”
Other people thought that it was not really relevant to deal with gender stereotypes, for the simple reason that “nowadays in Romania they don’t exist anymore”. Of course, the installation appeared quite exaggerated in some ways- I choose to approach this topic by using symbols which implied a meaning. Moreover by this approach people were more stimulated to be involved, and reflect about it because some freedom of interpretation is left.
For some it wasn’t shocking enough: “ you should have shown a woman being beaten by a man…” . The point is that to show such scenes were not my purpose! I didn’t want to put women like the only victims of stereotypes even if some stereotypes can seem to favour men. Through this installation my goal was to show how women and men can be equally manipulated and shaped by stereotypes coming from different instances. And being aware of them is often not enough to remain unaffected by them, because they are deeply implanted and spread everywhere. Especially in our mass culture.
Finally, a person said to me that I was too young to present and to deal with gender stereotypes in the ways I did. Indeed as I have still not passed by all these pressures until now because of my age, it wouldn’t be relevant and credible.
But, personally speaking, it seems to me even more worrying that even without having experienced and suffered of all these pressures regarding gender stereotypes, I am already aware of what those pressures will be. It’s a sign of their importance in our society. Knowing how to define the possible future pressures from which I could suffer appears to me quite frightening and shows also how difficult it is to defy these artificial models.
To conclude, it was really enriching to be able to meet, talk and exchange ideas and opinions with a lot of different people, to realize how many different interpretations are possible of the same installation.
March 17, 2010
Categories: Campaign . . Author: evsgirls . Comments: 2 Comments