Pitchwise-First Festival of Women Arts

Fondacija CURE (Foundation GIRLS)

The PitchWise festival-the first BH festival of women's art will take place between in Sarajevo, September 14-17, 2006. This creative, one of a kind, BH venture is the result of a commitment and hard work of many volunteers affiliated with the Foundation CURE.

Almost all PitchWise activities will take place at the Museum of History BiH (previously the Museum of the Revolution). Selecting the location for the festival was an activist action and effort to retrieve and remind of the historical importance of this institution.

�As passers by, we were always appalled by the fact that a Museum located in the centre of the city can be left to look so oppressive and depressing. We realized that without an elaborate effort, this cultural and historical institution has a strong potential to have its greatness back. We decided to arrange a meeting with the directress of the museum, and agreed to arrange the horticultural concept, and clean up the garden for, in return having the Museum as the main venue for PitchWise Festival. We organized a series of actions; picking weed, shovelling, and later painting and creating four thematic gardens�, CURE said. (Taida Horozovic, Andreja and Danijela Dugandzic, Jadranka Milicevic).

PitchWise is the first women's arts festival in BiH and it aims is to create the platform that will serve as a link for artists from BiH, Southeast Europe and from across the world. The four days of festival and series of exciting events will provide a great opportunity for artists, academics to share experiences, knowledge, skills among each other, the festival participants and the broader publics.

The Festival program is designed in a way to create a network of artists in a creative and innovative manner, and a network that could focus on positive social change in respective communities of Southeast Europe. An exceptionally interesting event is the revisited dialogue between the women who organized the first feminist conference in former Yugoslavia (Dunja Bla�ević, Nada Ler Sofronić, Vesna Pusić...).

Bojana Pejić will guide the participants through a conversation about women allegories in public space, also addressing the position of women in former Yugoslavia after World War II. Ivana Pavić and Ana Hu�man will talk about the Creative Commons (CC) licence, what do �some rights reserved� mean, and kind of freedom it embeds.

The festival workshops are sheer delicacy: POI and spinning/twirling with MashWatri, comic with Komikaze, Djaning with Djana Jasmina, and workshop focusing on the process of creating an art piece with the art students of the Academy of Arts in Sarajevo. Street actions are planned as well and open to those who want to say, sing, dance or even scream something in public space.

Everything started 2 years ago. The founders of CURE said: We had one very old and slow computer, an abundance of enthusiasm, good will and support for each other. We were in the apartment with an insufficient heating, and a gaping hunger for changes in our every day lives. We seized the moment to do something from the heart, without money, and openness to different possibilities. Results and positive reactions we generated through the 16 days of activism 2004 were surprising. That lead us to believe that not only are we doing the right thing but we need to continue.

Other workshops, street actions followed, such as: V-day, anti carnation March 8th, 16 days of activism 2005, support for the action Food not bombs, and engagement to movement Dosta and their action on the Square of BiH.

Thus, PitchWise is yet the coronal of our work to date. Aside form the numerous and diverse workshops, Festival will be the place that will gather persons from across the region, mainly women who are feminist activists, students, artists and other. All participants will provide results as part of the process of public awareness and social change related to the issues identified as essential for women human rights and gender equality. For this, and many other reasons, PitchWise is the Festival where you can surely find your place and anticipate the continuation thereof.

Once PitchWise � Always PitchWise.