In May 2017, Konstmusiksystrar organised their first festival, Ljud och Genus Festivalen (The Sound and Gender Festival), at Atalante in Gothenburg. Konstmusiksystrar was inspired to create a space for new artistic exchanges between young sound creators and established artists, organisers and institutions. The two-day festival was made up of performances, panel discussions, talks and workshops that focused on the intersection of critical dialogue and creative practice in communities of female, non-binary and transgender sound artists and composers. Participants and audience members were invited to take part in an ongoing critical discussion about how the festival was organised including the curatorial process of the artists and how the collaborations and performances were formed or experienced. The festival was organised by Konstmusiksystrar in collaboration with Atalante, Kulturtemplet, 24 sqm, SLKF, Settings, Bastion and Make Equal.
The events of the festival were announced through a "Call for Works" where artists submitted work proposals which were then raffled for the purpose of a neutral selection.
The festival presented a wide range of national and international artists in the fields of sound art and performance art based on the list of Konstmusiksystrar, including: "Neuroplast" by Alba Bergeling and Ida Löfgren; audiovisual work "Aponea" by Rosanna Gunnarsson; electroacoustic work "An almost abstract experience" by Vanessa Massera; "Debut" by Konst and it, explosionsperformances by Klara Andersson.
Konstmusiksystrar curated a lecture during the festival that addressed the conditions of working collectively, the relationship between art and gender and about who is allowed to be an artist.
The festival invited the stage artist Ida Görsch as a guest speaker to a speaker's corner and an interview with the artist Freya Sif Hestnes, who in parallel with the festival program performed the performance "Lost Item Service" - a therapy session where participants got to process the loss of a object they once had.
During the Sound and Gender Festival, Konstmusiksystrar presented Ensemble KS Rock which performed a program of pieces and practices by and inspired by the composer Pauline Oliveros.
Curators:
Kajsa Antonsson, Klara Andersson, Madeleine Jonsson Gille
Performing artists:
Freya Sif Hestnes
Alba Bergeling and Ida Löfgren
Rosanna Gunnarsson
Vanessa Massera
Konst:it and Isadora del Carmen
Ensemble KS Rock
Klara Andersson
Ida Görsch
KS Rock
Ensemble KS Rock emerged as a result of a series of workshops, “KS Rock”, during fall 2016 and spring 2017 at 24kvm in Gothenburg. The workshops were initiated by Madeleine Jonsson Gille, Kajsa Magnarsson and Kajsa Antonsson who at the time were students at The Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg.
The KS Rock workshop for women, transgender and non-binary people, invited participants to explore new compositional and collaborative methods partly based on Pauline Oliveros’ deep listening practice, Sonic Meditations. The participants met once a week as a lead up to the Sound and Gender Festival in May 2017.
To create an atmosphere free of prestige and elitism, the organisers made a point of setting an inclusive and informal tone for the workshop. This was present already in the invitation:
“Bring an instrument (guitar, saucepan, hairdryer) and come play with us. No prior experience is necessary, only an open mind and a will to test out one’s audial wings”.
The aim of the KS Rock workshop was to create a setting which encouraged the participants to explore their personal artistic expressions on their own terms in a safe environment. The exercises focused on listening and responding from a bodily perspective, and were developed in collaboration with the participants. The aim was to induce an openness to receive new information and remove a defining outside gaze or critical eye. What emerged was an experience of creating a collective music space which fostered a dynamic of flow, self-awareness and interplay between the participants.
Members:
Kajsa Antonsson
Kajsa Magnarsson
Madeleine Jonsson Gille
Rosali Grankull
Simone Sylvester
Anna Genberg
Marcella Stéen
Cecilia Alice
