Leda Garina

“Documentary theatre is a theatre without mediators. Frankly speaking, mediators fatigue. When you work with professional actors, playwrights and places, your statement often turns out to be plain gloss. And you immediately want to scribe it away. Because often there’s actually nothing under this gloss. And then you feel nastily and bored. But when you listen to the stories of the flesh-and-blood people, very ordinary – those who are afraid of something, or clumsy, and nearly never happy – you get the possibility to immerse into another world, real. The world of fractures and pain, which twist above your head with their branches, as a forest. A frightening forest. The forest which cannot be conveyed with the help of the gloss of professionalism. Because only lies will come out. Moreover, journalists, writers, and playwrights always interpret women’s images and voices. They explain them. Unfortunately, they often explain even not their own point of view on the character, but the public opinion related to all the women as a whole. And usually it’s misogynic. How long will it last? Let women say for themselves.”

Born in 1981 in St.Petersburg. Graduated from St.Petersburg State Theatre Academy, specialization – stage director of a musical theatre, works in “Zazerkalie” theatre. Staged plays for children – “Where Do Children Come From”, “Crocodile. Hamlet”, and also documentaries “Vagina’s Monologues” and “Behind a Stone Wall”. Acted as the scriptwriter and the director of the plays “Sleeping Beauty”, “Why Am I So Dumb” etc. The initiator and the curator of the “Eva’s Ribs” festival. Besides, she is an author of a series of performances and projects dedicated to the political and civil issues, and also to the problems of gender oppression.

 

Anastasia Vepreva

“According to the definition by the art historian Roselee Goldberg, ‘historically, the art of performance has become the media that changes and breaks boundaries between disciplines, gender, between private and public, between regular life and art; as well as the media that does not follow rules.’ Performance directly engages the artist’s body, allowing them to influence the audience, their mind and emotions at the same time, unlike simple picketing for instance. In case of a conversation about gender-based violence, the body becomes not only a battlefield against its alienation but also a tool for emancipating action, a place for the act of winning back its own strength.”

An artist and curator from Saint-Petersburg. Born in Arkhangelsk in 1989. Addresses problems of systemic oppression through different techniques. Graduated from the School of Involving Art “Chto Delat”; has Master’s degree from the faculty of Independent Arts and Studies, Saint Petersburg State University. She is co-curating the Lucy Lippard Feminist workshops. She participated in NORWIND festival, PLURIVERSALE III, IV Moscow international biennale of young art, VI Moscow biennale, Manifesta 10, XXXV Moscow international cinema festival. She has several personal exhibits and has published her work in Colta.ru, Aroundart, Art Leaks Gazette. Her web-page.

 

Maria Kolosova

“Forum-theater allows building a dialog. The goal of forum-theater is to ‘give a voice’ to the people that have something to say but often are not heard by society. The stage of the forum-theater is always a question that we are asking the audience and inviting them to answer it on stage. The actors never have the right decision, we always have a dialog with the audience and we expect them to try to change the situation and find answers. We are searching for alternatives together. This is exactly why I think that forum-theater is a useful method for working with the subject of gender-based violence. If at least one of the spectators in the room will have a wish to get out of the situation of oppression, to change their attitude and start to speak out, then we didn’t show the scene in vain.”

Coordinator of the theatrical project “Vmeste”. Has performed as the theater teacher in the “Teenage theater against xenophobia” and as the director of the school of documentary theatre in the Central Telecom Museum n.a. Popov. She is curating projects involving the “forum-theater” system for such organizations as “Soldiers’ mothers of Saint-Petersburg”, “Saint-Petersburg Election Observers” and “Children of Petersburg”.