Femmes br@nchées #32 :: Feminism in the year 2000 + International Web Artists

Studio XX was delighted to open its season of salons Les Femmes Br@nchées with Feminism in the Year 2000, presentations from two of our members, Sophie Bissonnette and Sheryl Hamilton as well as special appearances from international web artists Melinda Rackham and Olia Lialina. Throughout the evening our guests reflected on the role of feminism in the year 2000, in a society that is increasingly digital. Questions of identity, of history, of activism and intimacy were explored in their work.

Sophie Bissonnette is a Montreal filmmaker. She is active in defending the place of an independent, auteur documentary cinema and is a founding member and vice-president of Les Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal. Her first feature documentary UNE HISTOIRE DE FEMMES/A WIVES’ TALE (1979) which chronicled the involvement of women in their husbands’ strike against Inco remains a Canadian cinema verité classic. In 1985 she directed QUEL NUMERO WHAT NUMBER a feature doc about the impact of new computer technologies on women’s work. She is presently in production with a feature documentary on the Women’s World March as well as a film about the life of labour organizer and feminist Madeleine Parent. She will discuss her current projects.
* The film, A Score for Women’s Voices is now finished and available through the National Film Board. Visit http://www.nfb.ca/partitionvoixfemmes to learn more about this important documentary.

Sheryl Hamilton is a long-time and proud XX’oise. She teaches communications at McGill University, has a regular MediaWatch column on CBC Radio 1, and used to be a fencer and a lawyer. Her presentation is titled Virtual Gender or Virtually Gendered?

"Since the 1980s digital technologies have grounded a variety of techno-metaphors to theorize and mobilize feminist politics. I will explore some of the possibilities and pitfalls of one of these notions: virtual gender. Is virtuality a powerful way to rethink cyberfeminism for the twenty-first century or does it leave us virtually gendered?"

Studio XX was very pleased to welcome two international Web artists on their visit to Montreal.

Melinda Rackham (Australia): empyrean.alpha, 2000

Olia Lialina (Russia): Will-n-testament, 1999

They were in Montreal as part of the web art exhibition, L’autre monde /Out of this World (Montreal Biennale 2000) which took place at 1650 Berri, September 28 to October 29, 2000. Sylvie Parent was the curator of this exhibition.