Ausstellung

Feminist Cities. Mexico – Bremen

Latin America, and Mexico in particular, is characterised by a strong women’s movement that has gained international visibility in recent years with its fight for equal rights and against violence against women. Many of the concerns raised by this movement are particularly urban or related to specific urban conditions. Issues addressed include access to and participation in public spaces, including safe movement day and night, domestic violence, raising children in an urban environment or the free expression of cultural differences and gender choices.

The exhibition presents some of the protagonists of this movement, their positions and perspectives, and initiates a dialogue with Bremen on common concerns. In doing so, it provides a space for reflection on what is needed and possible to be done to achieve more just and inclusive public spaces and cities – in Bremen, Mexico and elsewhere.

Feminist and queer-feminist collectives from Guadalajara and Mexico City will be presented in short video documentaries and with excerpts from their work. In a workshop, collective and counter-hegemonic mapping techniques will be tested and transferred to Bremen. In dialogue with this, artistic positions of students of the School of Architecture Bremen at the HSB will be shown. The exhibition opens up a space for reflection on the situation in Mexico and Bremen, and thus contributes to the realisation of equal rights and participation/inclusion on both sides of the Atlantic.

• Lugares posibles – spaces of possibility!
  Critical mapping from the perspective of motherhood and childhood // Mamá Urbana collective // With: Sofía Valenzuela Fuentes, landscape architect and founder/coordinator.Mamá Urbana was born out of the need to occupy the city and create possible spaces for childhood and healthy motherhood. We are a group of women who walk the city, mapping places, routes, gardens, itineraries, swings, cafes, and “children-friendly” spots as we go, with the aim of filling the city with childhood and women exercising their rights freely and healthily. Similar to other populations who are victims of systematic violence, it is necessary to bring visibility to the population that is being victimized.
• Insumisas – disobedient.
  Feminist expressions from urban Mexico // Canal Catorce // With: Ana Álvarez, content coordinator Canal Catorce, and Quetzali Nicte-Ha, filmmaker. “Insumisas” is a space for listening to and reflecting on the new and diverse feminisms that are being expressed in Mexican cities. The series by public broadcaster Canal Catorce shows organised women defending their rights, their territory, their bodies and their identity. The women and female collectives step in front of the camera with determination, disrespect, tenderness and joy to tell us who they are, what they have experienced and learnt. All of them are “insumisas” = disobedient.
  
  
• Femist Spatial Practice. Activating Alternative Futures – Elective module at the School of Architecture Bremen, Hochschule Bremen – With: Claire Waffel, artist, and students from the School of Architetcure Bremen.The seminar explored the complex relationship between feminism, architecture and public space, focussing on themes such as collectivity, performativity and ecology. The works presented in the exhibition outline critical spatial/architectural practices and invite visitors to project and activate alternative futures.

The exhibition “Feminist Cities. Mexico-Bremen” is embedded in the activities of a group of institutions that coordinate their WiA events in Bremen to raise their voices together and jointly contribute to more equitable and inclusive cities and planning, design and building practices. It is realised with the support of Die Senatorin für Bau, Mobilität und Stadtentwicklung der Freien Hansestadt Bremen.

In Lateinamerika, und insbesondere in Mexiko, hat sich eine starke Frauenbewegung ausgebildet, die in den letzten Jahren durch ihren Kampf für Gleichberechtigung und gegen Gewalt an Frauen internationale Aufmerksamkeit erlangt hat. Viele der von dieser Bewegung vorgebrachten Anliegen beziehen sich dabei auf spezifisch städtische Bedingungen. Die Ausstellung stellt Protagonistinnen dieser Bewegung, ihre Positionen und Perspektiven vor und initiiert einen Dialog mit Bremen über gemeinsame Anliegen. Sie bietet Raum zum Nachdenken darüber, was getan werden muss und kann, um öffentliche Räume und Städte gerechter und inklusiver zu gestalten – in Bremen, Mexiko und anderswo.

Feministische und queer-feministische Kollektive aus Guadalajara und Mexiko-Stadt werden in kurzen Videodokumentationen und mit Auszügen aus ihrer Arbeit vorgestellt. In einem Workshop am Mittwoch, dem 25.6.25 werden kollektive und gegenhegemoniale Mapping-Techniken erprobt und auf Bremen übertragen. Im Dialog dazu werden künstlerische Positionen von Studierenden der School of Architecture Bremen an der HSB gezeigt.