Vienna / Tricky Women Pushing Boundaries Art world patriarchy meets its match at this women-only festival

Text by Step­hen Whelan   |   Publis­hed 05 March 2010 From Dazzed digi­tal

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Fast appro­a­ching its 20th year, the annual Tricky Women festi­val has set its sights on gunning down the male hege­mony of the inter­na­ti­o­nal art scene by crea­ting a cross-cultu­ral women-only space for female thought leaders and aest­he­tic visi­o­na­ries. 



This year’s event kicked off in Vienna yester­day with a packed programme boas­ting a range of spea­kers and exhi­bi­ti­ons from anima­tors inclu­ding Reka Gacs (Hungary), Signe Baumane (Latvia) and Gaelle Denis (France). Low-key and lo-fi, the aim of the festi­val is to foster border-busting commu­ni­ca­tion and colla­bo­ra­tion between emer­ging and esta­blis­hed female artists.



Dazed digi­tal caught up with festi­val direc­tors Waltraud Graus­gru­ber and Birgitt Wagner at the end of day one.



Dazed Digi­tal: So, how did you come up with the idea for Tricky Women?

Waltraud Grasu­gru­ber: In the 90s we disco­ve­red all these video tapes with amazing anima­ted films publis­hed by the BFI and Jayne Pilling – the woman respon­si­ble for kick-star­ting the British Anima­tion Awards. There was one in collec­tion in parti­cu­lar called Wayward Girls and Wicked Women, which really caught our atten­tion. It was an old VHS cassette that had this series of subver­sive films looking at the darker side of family life. That was kind of the start of our shared fasci­na­tion with anima­tion.



DD: Why do you think it’s impor­tant to promote this sort of women-only cultu­ral space?

Birgitt Wagner: As long as women still earn about 30 per cent less than men, it’s vital that there are people out there provi­ding an outlet and a voice to encou­rage grea­ter equa­lity. That fact’s just as true in the art world as it is in the wider economy, so Tricky Women is our small contri­bu­tion to redres­sing the balance. That said, our audi­ence is mixed and we do screen co-produc­ti­ons so long as women hold the central roles – whet­her that’s as produ­cers, direc­tors or crea­tive leads.



DD: Do you think festi­vals like Tricky Women have a respon­si­bi­lity towards nurtu­ring youn­ger artists?

WG: For sure. This year we’ve worked with Ars Elec­tro­nica in Linz to sche­dule a programme of content that focu­ses on anima­ti­ons made by emer­ging female artists under 19.  We’ve also come up with seve­ral works­hops for begin­ners to help encou­rage and empo­wer a new gene­ra­tion to take up the baton and start carving their own space. 

BW: There have been some big shifts in terms of the fact that there are more women than ever looking to gain access to crea­tive roles within the world of video games and 3D anima­tion, but these are still male-domi­na­ted areas. The gene­ral expe­ri­ence of youn­ger artists is that where the budgets are low, it’s easier to break in. We want to help more young anima­tors and desig­ners see that working on projects with larger budgets is a realis­tic aspi­ra­tion.

 

Tricky Women runs 4th-8th March at cultu­re2 cul­ture, Museum­platz 1, Vienna