Flic Flac* A Pilot Model

How many genders are there? Television, commercials, wording on questionnaires, changing rooms, literature, public toilets and probably also the way each of us has been raised all have the same answer: there are two genders—men and women. Feminist research, studies and analysis show: this is not a monumental truth. What do the terms ›man‹ and ›woman‹ mean, to begin with?

The focus of this project is to take a closer look at the powerful effects and the ways in which classical gender categories (and descriptions) have developed throughout history. By looking more closely at the roles (and role models) and equality, together with artists and theorists, interfaces are created where the students' everyday lives, contemporary artistic strategies and current scientific debates converge. In participation-based projects, vocational school students research, examine, and question gender relations, turn social categories/stereotypes upside down, and design new spaces of agency.

Participating artists: Petja Dimitrova, Erika Doucette, Christiane Erharter, Marty Huber, Ulrike Müller

Project team: Elke Smodics, Nora Sternfeld

Photo and illustration credits Video: bini adamczak, mino/majo/ra/ritäten (zauberspiegel I), Zeichnung, 2007; Margot Pilz, The White Cell, Photograhs 1983-1985 © Sammlung der Kulturabteilung der Stadt Wien – MUSA

*Flic flac is the German word for back handspring, an acrobatic motion that turns things upside down and then lands them on their feet again.

Supported by:
MA 57 Frauenabteilung der Stadt Wien
Bildung und außerschulische Jugendbetreuung (MA 13)
Kulturabteilung der Stadt Wien (MA7)
Kultur- und Sportverein der Wiener Berufsschulen
Bundesministerium für Unterricht, Kunst und Kultur (Entscheidend bis du!)
Europäisches Jahr des interkulturellen Dialogs 2008

KulturKontakt Austria