Contextual Face
Curated by Evelin Stermitz (Austria)

Various women artists are including their own face as an iconographic object and symbol bearer in their art works, or using the face of others, the former photographic portrait, transcending into the moving image. This video series addresses variant meanings of the woman’s face in a context of women’s issues when embedded in a socio-cultural heritage. The face can be seen as more then a signifier of our cultural norms, in the context of women often foregrounded not only as indicator for individual remembrance, not only associated to cultural norms such as beauty stereotypes, objectification of commodified women in advertisements, and not only as a surface for self-creation when mirroring the self to others, but read as political text and statement in a broader context. www.artfem.tv

		NoHomeVideos© Code II, by Duba Sambolec (Slovenia) 2000, 1’32’’ Video performances CODE I, II, III and IV form one work. Nevertheless, each one of them might be presented separately. They are based on automated repetitive speech and on dialogs between two women where one woman dominates the conversation and sets up the momentum for the other one to answer illogically. The characteristic of the video CODE II is a repetitive authoritative command to the viewer that might provoke anger/resistance and/or despair. http://www.artfem.tv/duba_sambolec/
		I hate you, by Michelle Handelman (USA) 2002, 2’48’’ In a moment of self-loathing narcissism, Handelman riffs off of Bruce Nauman’s early performance tapes and chants this negative affirmation into a song of personal endearment. www.michellehandelman.com
		Water Portrait I, Portrait of Carmen Lipush, by Evelin Stermitz (Austria) 2010, 2’06’’ This video series faces women’s portraits of images mirroring from the water surface, filmed at the Ljubljanica river in Ljubljana, Slovenia. These video portraits reveal experiences of violence against women, dedicated to the water. The form of this video work is an expansion of the former silent photographic portrait. Text and voice by Carmen Lipush. www.evelinstermitz.net
		Migraine, by Ana Grobler (Slovenia) 2007, 5’23’’ The video is some sort of a migrainic self-portrait. It was made in the time of a migraine attack, from shooting the scenes to the montage. The whole process of making the video is consequently permeated with those sensations. Video effects are used not only to show, but to draw near and to assist the spectator to feel the condition of a person in the time of the migraine attack. Migraine headaches experiences 10-12% of the population, a major part of the patients are women in childhood the number of boys and girls who suffer from migraine is similar. But in the adolescent period the number of women increases steadily. In the ages 35-40 the ratio is even 3 women to 1 man. At the end of the video the spectator is confronted with a question of the origin of this phenomenon. Is it biological condition or occurrence stimulated by society?
		Like Me, by Liana Zanfrisco (Italy) 2009, 1’30’’ A video camera films my face, while I change one pose every second, and every second a part of my face is hidden by faces cut from newspapers. Sound videodrome by Roberto Incelli. Performance and video by Liana Zanfrisco. www.lianazanfrisco.com
		Ecstasy Poem, by Kika Nicolela (Brazil) 2006, 2’46’’ Side by side, two faces of the same woman looking at the camera are in an extreme slow motion. All nuances of her expressions can be perceived. In one portrait, she’s young, at the peak of her beauty. On the other one, she’s about 60 years old. The woman is the actress Liv Ullman, acting in two different films by Ingmar Bergman. www.dilemastudio.com
		Endless Game, by Vesna Bukovec (Slovenia) 2006, 1’32’’ Contemporary advertising no longer directly sells products, it sells emotions, desires and fantasies. Advertisers teach us how we have to look and behave to be competitive in today’s world. Most of the advertising uses eroticism as the primary force of attraction. Who is the target audience, male or female? Even if the product is made for women, the imagery addresses both sexes. A woman has to buy the product that will transform her in such a way that she can enter a man’s fantasy. And a man has to buy some other product to attract women that look and act like the ones in advertisements. The endless game of seduction is present everywhere. In case we forget, the first advertisement will remind us. www.vesna-bukovec.net
		Sit Stay, by Alison Williams (South Africa) 2008, 3’20’’ Gender abuse video - a woman has the right to her own voice, to speak out and be heard. Alison Williams - performance based video - gender based works / anti gender abuse - pro women's rights art.
		traumraum revised:insomnia, by Angelika Rinnhofer (USA) 2009, 4’41’’ For “traumraum revised: insomnia”, I drew from my desire as a child to become a ballet dancer and used this experience to examine the relationship between memory, pain, dreams, and ambition. The process of working on “traumraum revised” affected my own conception of memory as a force to make art and to use it to speak about cultural issues such as gender and society’s expectations related to it; feminist art; but also to touch on the randomness and pliability of one’s narrative. www.angelikarinnhofer.com
		What I Worry About????, by Grace Graupe Pillard (USA) 2007, 2’57’’ Worry...worry...worry...what keeps me up at night and in the morning and afternoon! Personal issues such as aging, career, appearance, all contribute to the lines on my forehead....done with humor and pathos.
		Collecting, by Dominique Buchtala (Germany) 2006, 4’ The video work Collecting is a kind of examination of a common action. I asked myself: What happens if I collect as much spittle in my mouth as I can? Am I able to collect so much spittle, that I will burst in the end? How much time will the process take? Will my mouth have been hurt? Will I swallow during the process of collecting? The video presents my face in a chewing movement to accumulate spittle in my mouth. During the movement the lips automatically get wet. Through this a continuous process starts, which brings the collection to an end after four minutes have gone. The spittle just flew out of the mouth.
		Rose is a Rose, by Evelin Stermitz (Austria) 2008, 3’52’’ This performative video work shows a woman engaged in covering her face with rose leaves. As a metaphor for the absurd above and beyond term "beauty", the fragility of beauty and the canons of beauty, the video reveals an obscure image of woman, which is also shaped by transiency and impermanence. Excerpts from the poem "Sacred Emily" by Gertrude Stein, in which she created the sentence "Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.", form the sound collage to the video work. www.evelinstermitz.net
		ONDAS: Guerrilla Girls 2009, 4’49’’ The Guerrilla Girls are a bunch of anonymous females who take the names of dead women artists as pseudonyms and appear in public wearing gorilla masks. We have produced posters, stickers, books, printed projects, and actions that expose sexism and racism in politics, the art world, film and the culture at large. We use humor to convey information, provoke discussion, and show that feminists can be funny. We wear gorilla masks to focus on the issues rather than our personalities. Dubbing ourselves the conscience of culture, we declare ourselves feminist counterparts to the mostly male tradition of anonymous do-gooders like Robin Hood, Batman, and the Lone Ranger. The mystery surrounding our identities has attracted attention. We could be anyone; we are everywhere. www.guerrillagirls.com