INTERNATIONAL LINK BEETWEEN FEMALE VIDEO ARTISTS 1 Favorite 

Practitioner: 

Date: 

Jun 7 2012

WHAT IS FEMLINK

Who we are ?

We
are Independent visual artists.

Since
the creation of FemLInk in 2005, 145 artists from 62
countries have accepted to participate (the 4
continents are represented).

http://www.femlink.org

Why do we
created FemLink ?

In
2005, two artists, Veronique Sapin (France) and Cathy M. Judge (USA) decided to
create common art-works which can include women-artists from every where in the
world.
Both,
they had the same questions about how can they help women artists who live
outside Europe and USA and who have difficulties to create, promote, distribute,
exhibit and screen their art work. 

They
launched FemLink just with this utopian idea to
build a link throughout the world between
women video artists and their work.

What is
the concept ?

The structure is simple: one artist / one country create a short video
for FemLink (2 min. maximum) around a common topic. 

We created :

FRAGILITY (32 artists - 32 videos - 60 min); 

RESISTANCE (32 artists - 32 videos - 57 min.); 

PREOCCUPATION (34 videos, 34 artists  60 min); 

MALE (32 videos - 32 artists - 58 min), 

WONDER (in progress; 21 videos - 21 artists - 37 min)

AGGRESSION (in progress; 20 videos - 20 artists - 34 min)

VITAL (in progress; 24 videos - 24 artists - 42 min)

our current topic are : PROTEST

General objectives of our organisation;

Every artist aspires to universality, but women were not allowed
to do so for centuries; not only were they forbidden access to creation but
also to training and teaching. Either female artists were overlooked by history
or those who transgressed the rules were regarded as inferior and relegated to
what was derogatorily called "female art." Today, many women feel
still ostracized in too many parts of the world and of course not only female
artist. Our video collage will speak to women is this situation. As artists,
they must be acknowledged -- this forms a major component of our mission.

Our video collage, will solely involve women, hoping, a crazy hope,
to interfere with the movement of history around the world. It's why with the
project to edit a professional collection of our video-collages and to send
them and also to organize exhibitions and screenings, we think that we can
promote this idea.

Why the
existence of FemLink is very important 

- Responds
to contemporary society :
With this project, we wish to gather the grand, encompassing power
of culture and art to serve human values, create dialog, promote equality of
genders and acknowledgment of others; in doing so we create change in this
world, change that make our world more human.

- International outreach : Cultural diversity
is no an empty slogan for us, whose very name points to the link between female
artists throughout the world, beyond nationalities and cultures. Our video-collages
speak to everyone who is convinced that a work of art should ‘make human
sense’.

Cultural diversity is the root of our video collage; its sustenance
and richness. Both autonomous and singular, the works of this video collage
echo the world, in their own artistic way, opening prospects, offering new
views and providing possibilities.


- Interacts with a
diverse audiences : One of our reasons that FemLink exists, is to give
self-confidence and self-esteem to every woman around the world who can see
that women can create and be present in a high level of international wellknown.

 

The context
our organisation works in;

Thus Femlink travels
around the world until it can create a network which, far from imitating

the Web, aims at tying real bonds between the women of the
association. Such a network can live only through living connections: aesthetic
connections between works, artists and public. Our hope is that our video
collages may, as it is broadcast and widely exhibited, contributes positively
in a just way to our diverse world.

 

How are
choosen the artists ?
The curator of FemLink is Veronique Sapin. According to the topic of the
collages, she invites the artists to participate to one or several collages in
creating new videos.

 

How do we
work in the organization ?

To have a legal statement and to have the
possibility to organize events for FemLink and around the video-Art, Veronique
Sapin and C. M. Judge choose to create a
legal association in France : VADIA (Video Art
Development International Association).

                 
                 
This
organization is based :

                 
                 
In France, in Tournefeuille (next to Toulouse).

                 
     

There is a Board : (the name is in France "Association law
1901") with a President (Laurence Gaubert) and with a Secretary/Account
manager (Marti Capel).

                 
    

                 
   
Funds from
Uncesco

The funds from Unesco Programm was obtained in
2007 to organize training in video for women artists from african countries.
The training tooks place in the Videofemmes Centre, in Quebec (Canada).

 

                 
    
What we
organise ?

- We organise visual arts activities on an international
scale, offering alternatives to commercialised and closed art circuits around
the globe :
Since our premiere, in February 2006, our collages has been welcome by
more than 80 Art-Centers, Museum, Galleries... from 33 countries

 

- We organise training in video art for artists from countries where
it's difficult to find oppotunities with new medias' training. In 2007, we
associated with Unesco to train 4 women artists from 4 african countries
(Congo-Brazzaville, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Togo).

- We develop the research about
art-therapy with video; we organised art-therapy sessions in the Philippines
inside a humanitarian organisation to stimulate bonds of attachment to the
mother-teenager and their children.

 

 

Posted by Veronique Sapin on