An archive of feminist cabaret and theatre posters from 1977 and onward
I recently decided to chronicle a certain mode of production in a certain historical period through an idiosyncratic gathering of visual material, primarily posters. It is idiosyncratic due to the personal motivation behind it and, in that sense, the project can be read as a string in my biographical musical instrument, an acoustic guitar probably, which began resonating in 1977.
The act of archiving and chronicling is at odds with my usually more immediate method of production. I am not necessarily meticulous and thorough in my work life and the task of archiving demands patience, indepth research and perseverance. My wish to archive is, in this case, an attempt to hold the world together, to feel a connection to history, to renegotiate personal experience. In this text I contain thoughts and hold ideas together.
In 2007 I started a similar, although less specific, project, called Queer Arts Archive. It failed. The Queer Arts Archive was, in its unidentified and wilful approach towards un-authoritarian methods of collecting and to history writing, a monster that would have killed the archivist, had the archivist not killed the monster first. The archivist is no postmodern Prometheus.
The conclusion is: The more specific the better. This means: In order to create the archive, a more guided approach is necessary. The more focused the archive is, the sharper it is, and the sharper it is, the better, and that is the reason why I am adding 'local' to the title of the project.
An archive of local feminist cabaret and theatre posters from 1977 and onward
The term 'local' is vague and in the case of the archive's title, it affords no direct meaning, since the term 'local' alone does not hint at any specific place or geographical mark. Local' is, however, a flexible term that, like the zoom function in Google Map pans between long-distance and street view, from out of focus to sharp in movements that run in all directions. Another strength of the term 'local' is that it conveys a certain sense of community. Speaking of the 'local' thus has the potential to become more than a matter of setting geographically- or language-based boundaries by instead embracing ideals of movements, emotions and urgencies borne individually but shared collectively.
I have chosen a first focal point for the archive: The organisation Danmarks Demokratiske Kvindeforbund (DDK, Denmark’s Democratic Women’s Association). The organisation was founded in 1947 and had attracted 10,000 members by 1950, with 50 subdivisions around Denmark.
DDK was itself a subdivision of Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF), explained in The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979) as being: “an organization that unites women regardless of race, nationality, religion, or political opinion, so that they may work together to win and defend their rights as citizens, mothers, and workers, to protect children, and to ensure peace, democracy, and national independence (charter of the WIDF). The federation was created in December 1945, at the International Women’s Congress in Paris.”
DDK experienced a decline after its first ten years, but regained popularity and urgency in the late 1960s. The charter for DDK states that the organisation is not connected to specific political parties but is working against fascism, imperialism, the arms race and inequality. In the crisis-ridden years of the 1970s and 1980s, however, the organisation built strong bonds with workers’ unions supporting a leftist political agenda.
The WIDF and its national organisations (including DDK) coordinated, among other activities, mass protests against the American imperialist intervention in Korea and campaigns of solidarity with the struggles of the Algerian and Vietnamese peoples against French colonialism. They also campaigned against the aggression of the USA in Indochina and of Israel in the Middle East.
How to ensure that An archive of local feminist cabaret and theatre posters from 1977 and onward does not become a fetishist play around aesthetics from a seemingly naïve era unaware of the complexities of global economy, the fall of the Soviet block, the sovereign reign of consumerist ideology and aesthetics that were to come in the too-near future? The fetish cannot and will not be avoided – instead it will be embraced by adding the parenthetic '(for my mother)' to the title.
An archive of local feminist cabaret and theatre posters from 1977 and onward (for my mother)
The women in the cabarets were warm and had a different smell to my own mother and to other mothers. They would make cheesecakes and slice kiwi fruits and play the piano wearing ironic sexy lingerie with unshaved, political armpits. They made costumes, designed sets and wrote satirical love songs to Ronald Reagan. They could harmonise and sing with open mouths. My mother was a member of DDK but didn't participate in the cabarets. She held the world together differently, more tightly, and almost never sang the words to a song but hummed the melody with her mouth closed. The archive is not for my mother specifically, but for me. It is a question of biography and history and writing the stories of the cold war.
…and onward. The organisation Danmarks Demokratiske Kvindeforbund closed down in 1990 and this event could suggest that feminism and feminist cabaret and theatre closed with it. Maybe that is not the case; however, changing ideologies, the shift in power relations and the general changes In the global order had a destabilising effect on the specific organisational mode that DDK represented.
From that perspective, a gathering of materials from this era is an investigation of certain modes of organisation and of community constructions. The potential for an artistic production of a cabaret or a theatre play could very well coincide with the potential for organisation and constructions of community.
If an organisational principle ceases to exist, modes of production cease to exist with it.
An archive of feminist cabaret and theatre posters from 1977 and onward
I recently decided to chronicle a certain mode of production in a certain historical period through an idiosyncratic gathering of visual material, primarily posters. It is idiosyncratic due to the personal motivation behind it and, in that sense, the project can be read as a string in my biographical musical instrument, an acoustic guitar probably, which began resonating in 1977.
The act of archiving and chronicling is at odds with my usually more immediate method of production. I am not necessarily meticulous and thorough in my work life and the task of archiving demands patience, indepth research and perseverance. My wish to archive is, in this case, an attempt to hold the world together, to feel a connection to history, to renegotiate personal experience. In this text I contain thoughts and hold ideas together.
In 2007 I started a similar, although less specific, project, called Queer Arts Archive. It failed. The Queer Arts Archive was, in its unidentified and wilful approach towards un-authoritarian methods of collecting and to history writing, a monster that would have killed the archivist, had the archivist not killed the monster first. The archivist is no postmodern Prometheus.
The conclusion is: The more specific the better. This means: In order to create the archive, a more guided approach is necessary. The more focused the archive is, the sharper it is, and the sharper it is, the better, and that is the reason why I am adding 'local' to the title of the project.
An archive of local feminist cabaret and theatre posters from 1977 and onward
The term 'local' is vague and in the case of the archive's title, it affords no direct meaning, since the term 'local' alone does not hint at any specific place or geographical mark. Local' is, however, a flexible term that, like the zoom function in Google Map pans between long-distance and street view, from out of focus to sharp in movements that run in all directions. Another strength of the term 'local' is that it conveys a certain sense of community. Speaking of the 'local' thus has the potential to become more than a matter of setting geographically- or language-based boundaries by instead embracing ideals of movements, emotions and urgencies borne individually but shared collectively.
I have chosen a first focal point for the archive: The organisation Danmarks Demokratiske Kvindeforbund (DDK, Denmark’s Democratic Women’s Association). The organisation was founded in 1947 and had attracted 10,000 members by 1950, with 50 subdivisions around Denmark.
DDK was itself a subdivision of Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF), explained in The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979) as being: “an organization that unites women regardless of race, nationality, religion, or political opinion, so that they may work together to win and defend their rights as citizens, mothers, and workers, to protect children, and to ensure peace, democracy, and national independence (charter of the WIDF). The federation was created in December 1945, at the International Women’s Congress in Paris.”
DDK experienced a decline after its first ten years, but regained popularity and urgency in the late 1960s. The charter for DDK states that the organisation is not connected to specific political parties but is working against fascism, imperialism, the arms race and inequality. In the crisis-ridden years of the 1970s and 1980s, however, the organisation built strong bonds with workers’ unions supporting a leftist political agenda.
The WIDF and its national organisations (including DDK) coordinated, among other activities, mass protests against the American imperialist intervention in Korea and campaigns of solidarity with the struggles of the Algerian and Vietnamese peoples against French colonialism. They also campaigned against the aggression of the USA in Indochina and of Israel in the Middle East.
How to ensure that An archive of local feminist cabaret and theatre posters from 1977 and onward does not become a fetishist play around aesthetics from a seemingly naïve era unaware of the complexities of global economy, the fall of the Soviet block, the sovereign reign of consumerist ideology and aesthetics that were to come in the too-near future? The fetish cannot and will not be avoided – instead it will be embraced by adding the parenthetic '(for my mother)' to the title.
An archive of local feminist cabaret and theatre posters from 1977 and onward (for my mother)
The women in the cabarets were warm and had a different smell to my own mother and to other mothers. They would make cheesecakes and slice kiwi fruits and play the piano wearing ironic sexy lingerie with unshaved, political armpits. They made costumes, designed sets and wrote satirical love songs to Ronald Reagan. They could harmonise and sing with open mouths. My mother was a member of DDK but didn't participate in the cabarets. She held the world together differently, more tightly, and almost never sang the words to a song but hummed the melody with her mouth closed. The archive is not for my mother specifically, but for me. It is a question of biography and history and writing the stories of the cold war.
…and onward. The organisation Danmarks Demokratiske Kvindeforbund closed down in 1990 and this event could suggest that feminism and feminist cabaret and theatre closed with it. Maybe that is not the case; however, changing ideologies, the shift in power relations and the general changes In the global order had a destabilising effect on the specific organisational mode that DDK represented.
From that perspective, a gathering of materials from this era is an investigation of certain modes of organisation and of community constructions. The potential for an artistic production of a cabaret or a theatre play could very well coincide with the potential for organisation and constructions of community.
If an organisational principle ceases to exist, modes of production cease to exist with it.