Irene Ros

WOMENSTATE

Field: Performance City: Wrocław

Since it was founded, Jubilo Foundation organizes projects dedicated to people threatened by social exclusion. Through their artistic activities, such as theater and dance workshops and creative writing classes directed to people with experience of mental illness, physically and mentally disabled teens, Roma minorities, homeless, prisoners, seniors, troubled youth, refugees, and occasionally female prisoners from Prison no 1 in Wrocław and dependents of the St. Albert Shelter for Homeless Women and Mothers with Children, they try to draw attention to the problem of insufficient cultural offer for these minorities.

Microresidency “Womenstate” is dedicated to women threatened by social exclusion and facing difficulties accessing culture. Three female artists – Italian theatre director proficient in the subject of women's rights – Irene Ros, actress and activist connected with the Foundation –  Agnieszka Bresler and a photographer accompanying them, organized a series of meetings and workshops in three places – female detention facility, shelter for women and mothers with children and one of social welfare centers in Wrocław. For the artists, these meetings became a starting point for creating their original performance/act, inspired by the exploration of woman's condition in the modern world.

 Particularly interesting about this residency was the position of artists, who became intermediaries between the world of women staying in three partially or completely isolated places, and the usual outside world. Using their artistic forms of expression, based on the experiences from the workshops, the artists expressed in performative-theatrical form the emotions, problems and subjects women in all these facilities have been facing. This allowed to show to a wider audience the specifics of an environment, that's normally inaccessible. Additionally, these workshops had important meaning to the participants, they opened them up to other people, their own emotions and bodies and taught them how to handle public situations.

 Ros and Bresler experience in projects addressed to women threatened by social exclusion turned out to be especially valuable when working with such a delicate subject. A variety of used measures (theater workshops, creative writing, photo exhibition) allowed to show the specifics of each group in the fullest possible way. Their final performance and an exhibition of photographs taken during their visits met with great interest of the audience.