Earlier this year the Female: Pressure network of
musicians and artists released a series of
statistics on the proportion of female artists appearing across
European and North American experimental electronic music
festivals. Some failed to have any women on the bill, some as few
as one or two. The statistics were widely covered (including in
this magazine), and sparked discussion on various channels. Despite
the fact that some statistics were inaccurate, even with
corrections the results still showed up an enormous imbalance.
Buoyed by the media coverage, Susanne Kirchmayr (aka
Electric Indigo) and the network (which includes around 1300
artists) decided to stage a festival. A mailout asking for
suggestions produced a list of over 200 female artists, and now the
inaugural Perspectives
festival will run 12–13 September at About Blank in Berlin,
with 11 DJs and 15 musicians on the bill, including Islaja and
Gudrun Gut, plus panel discussions and introductory workshops for
aspiring female musicians.
Kirchmayr claims that the festival is not meant to be
making a political statement: "We are a network – a kind of swarm
of people," she says. "We are not a group of people who are
political activists. Our main agenda is to make art. What we really
want to do is to create and to make art under positive conditions,
and the festival is one way to create these conditions."
The aim is to present a showcase of the Female:
Pressure network, which will buoy young or aspiring female artists:
"As more female artists are present in media and get recognition by
the audience and the public, the more female newcomers you will
have," says Kirchmayr, "so that's our aim – to give motivation to
young women, to start and create."
Gudrun Gut sees the showcase as key to addressing
some of the issues that result in low representation of female
musicians in live contexts. "I play all these international
festivals," she says, "and I'm mostly the only woman. And I think
it is so fucking boring."
"There are a lot of women, but they don't get the
chance to play," she continues "and if you don't get the chance to
play, you won't get any better."
Programming a festival based solely around female
artists risks ghettoisation – separating female acts off from their
male peers doesn't do anything to redress gender imbalance. The
issue of how many men to book began as an ideological discussion,
but ultimately became pragmatic: with limited space on the line up,
it seemed a compromise to give a slot to a male performer when
there's a network of 1300 female artists wanting to be
involved.
Also, forcing the issue risks encouraging positive
discrimination – women being chosen for reasons of gender rather
than skill. But Kirchmayr believes positive discrimination as a
necessary evil, and points out that society hasn't reached a state
where equality exists, a social reality that extends to the
electronic music community. "Electronic music is not a different
planet," she says, "so we deal with issues that the whole society
deals with.
"We're in a kind of transitional phase. I would love
to say that gender doesn't matter, and that we don't have to think
about this question which is sometimes really annoying. But for
now, it's a good thing, and I don't think any artist at a serious
festival gets booked only because she's a woman – it's always about
the effort and the artistic potential that person has."
"It's not equal in the so-called modern music scene,"
says Gut. "Music is a very important thing in our lives, so why
should it be dominated by men? I don't get it. It's really
important to have an equal female voice, even if they're saying the
same thing, I still like to hear it."
In reaction to Female: Pressure's statistics, some
festival organisers said that it was harder to find and book female
artists of a high enough profile, simply because there are fewer of
them. Gut rubbishes these claims, and says that festival bookers
should be looking harder. But now Female: Pressure is booking its
own festival, have they run into similar problems, in particular
when thinking abut booking notable enough names to sell tickets?
Kirchmayr says no, and that bigger acts like Grimes were avoided,
partly because the festival is meant to be a showcase, partly for
budget restrictions, and partly because of numbers – About Blank
couldn't fit an enormous name. "My personal opinion was that we
don't need big acts," says Kirchmayr. "We are great artists already
and we have great creative potential. In Berlin we draw a lot of
people, so that wont be a problem."
Gut has a different take on the imbalance: "If
festivals get money from government bodies, I pay my taxes. Women
pay the same taxes as men, so if it's a government funded thing,
you should have a quota – you should reflect the population."
Perspectives
Festival takes place at Berlin's About Blank 12–13
September.
