Automatically translated from Basque, translation may contain errors. More information here. Elhuyarren itzultzaile automatikoaren logoa

"The most interesting proposals of the moment are created on the margins"

  • Clown and feminist, it's two derogatory words, but considered as flags, and she doesn't lack work. Virginia Imaz proposes a new look beyond the main discourse. Donostiarra at birth founded the theater company Oihulariklown 30 years ago. We were in Galdakao in November, on the occasion of the IX Equality Conference, on the theme Women in Literature and Performing Arts.

16 January 2014
Virginia Imaz. (Arg: Myriam Garzia)
Virginia Imaz. (Arg: Myriam Garzia)
Zarata mediatikoz beteriko garai nahasiotan, merkatu logiketatik urrun eta irakurleengandik gertu dagoen kazetaritza beharrezkoa dela uste baduzu, ARGIA bultzatzera animatu nahi zaitugu. Geroz eta gehiago gara, jarrai dezagun txikitik eragiten.

In the Equality Days, you also do organizational tasks, in the end.

Laura Pinto and Begoña Ormaetxe, Councillor, have been working on the gender perspective in Galdakao for some time. I have been involved in activities called clownclusions. We've known each other for a long time, and they turned to me to help me find speakers. In the end we have been organizing the days together and for me this opportunity has been like writing a letter to the Olentzero. In this case, in addition to making clownclusions, I have participated as a lecturer. It has been a great honour for me, for dealing with an issue that is not usual, and for the grave crisis that culture is experiencing today. For me it's been a double gift.

Breaking stereotypes gives work.
 
Both in literature and in the performing arts, women have little room to participate in the game. After all, who manages culture? Who runs? What resources do you have? Who chooses the works that are staged? There are stereotypes, but on the other hand, the most interesting creative proposals of today are emerging on the margins. The proposals that women are making in the current landscape are impressive and surprising, because they do not address the usual discourse and offer a new look. And if that woman, for example, is Black or Euskaldun, the proposal will be more innovative, because it will break those stereotypes by itself.
 
There is a great deal of struggle around the roles and relectures are taking place such as that of Medea or Penelope. The same goes for fairy tales, classics like Snow White. After all, women are reviewing the myths they have told us. There are very interesting proposals.
 
Does the public also need a new look?
 
Every work shown educates the public. However, the artwork has a different echo for each person. Some works are based on the usual lie, others make you feel uncomfortable, wake you up, provoke you, or once and for all they say what you thought. That's why they're artworks. We cannot fall into the point of view of the ever-present pamphlet... That's the most important thing that the work of art has, that it's able to create different echoes. Things are changing, I have a lot of confidence in what is going to come. The economic crisis has not had such an impact on the creation of women, as we are accustomed to working in a shortage of money. It is therefore a good time for everything that is being created on the shore to move forward.
 
At the time of the fall in aid, several companies have fallen, but who has the key to survival? People used to working in smallness. That's where the most interesting creative proposals come from.
 
Do art and feminism agree?
 
Feminism serves to shake people's consciences, but there are many forms of feminism. Mine is more funny, more humorous, coming from empathy, laughing at myself, and people see themselves right away in me. Provocation occurs at different levels. Among the performing arts workers, there is a belief that art is above anything, that art is neutral. But of course that is not the case. The language, content or form that art uses are not neutral or the context in which it is immersed. Everything is significant, even when it does not show an attitude, you show an attitude.
 
They've taken us crazy. Feminist and payasa, poor me! The word clown itself has been taken with contempt. The same has happened with feminism. After all, feminism is a form of humanism that defends that men and women have the same opportunities. Men and women are not equal, we do not have to, but we have to have the same opportunities. That is a problem of justice, more needs to be given to those who have little, and what has not been taken into account must be put at the centre of the scene. I'm a woman, and I have a story to tell, who is going to see me? In the main discourse, the gender perspective is totally discarded.
 
Do creators have a lot of responsibility when it comes to focusing things?

We're an example, we have a direct influence on people. In the performing arts of Euskal Herria, there are several women creators who have gone from being actresses in the last 20 years to being scriptwriters or directors and who have reviewed the stories that are told. Why? Because they didn't have a job, because nobody hired them, except for decorations! The violence suffered by women is of all kinds, one of which is symbolic violence. Canonical literature, literature that immerses itself in the main discourse, misogynistic and sexist literature that speaks badly of women, needs a critical look.

This symbolic violence comes from cinema, literature, television or theatre. But paradoxically, a single action that moves away from this point of view is enough to create a new look. Who does not agree with that usual central discourse? The minority, both cultural and social. Creators must have that critical look, and we have it in general. After all, creators, we usually look at what they don't see and don't want to see, we do it as a channel for the community.
 
And sometimes that creativity takes you to a place you don't know, because after all, it's looking to create. But just put your eye there for people to look in the same direction. Art is a good thing because it shows the invisible. Literature and theater have been a way of denouncing things. And imagine another possible world. So I say that the work of the scene is a channel job.

How can we destroy the myth that the art made by women is for women and the art of men is for everyone?

As a creator, my creation is for everyone. But unfortunately, at a time when the public is in crisis, men do not go as far to the theater as women do. I see that the public is mainly female, that is, about 70% are women and 30% are men. I think cultural programmers don't make real programming. It is programmed for a white man, heterosexual and with great economic capacity, but that kind of spectator does not go to the theater!

In this kind of leisure, women are the protagonists. I personally live thanks to women's associations, because every time I have something new, they call me, because they like what I do. But what does this mean? There are many professionals in this trade who have never seen me working, because I'm not in the right spaces. I am already used to working in school canteens, but it is clear that the theater is the ideal place, which is not the school dining room. But I don't do it for myself, because what matters to me is people. That's why many programmers don't take me into account, because I work for women, at least they think so. I'm invisible to a lot of people.

Nork bere gela, nork bere denbora
1979an Oihulariklown antzerki taldea sortu zuen Virginia Imazek. Maskara antzerkian eta klown teknikan oinarritutako hainbat antzezlan egin ditu, ordutik. Oraintsu publikoaren aurrean jarri da berriro ere, baina aitor du sudur gorririk gabe agertzea “kosta egiten” zaiola. Galdakaoko IX Berdintasun Jardunaldietan Emakume sortzaileak: Disidentzia eta transgresioa Eszenan hitzaldia eman zuen. Bere esperientziaz mintzatu zen batez ere, emakumeek arte eszenikoetan bizi duten egoera azaltzeko.
 
Emakume sortzaileek gainditu behar duten gaia lana eta familia uztartu ezina dela dio Imazek, ama izatean beren sormen jarduerarekin jarraitzeko duten zailtasuna. Imaz ama da, eta aktore lanak apur bat nomada izatea eskatzen du. Sarri esan omen zioten antzezle lanak utzi beharko zituela ama izatekotan. “Eta, arrazoia zuten”. “Dena nahi duzu” esaten zioten, eta “bai horixe” erantzuten zien hark: “Gizonezkoek dena izan dezakete eta emakumeok zergatik ez? Ez nuen ulertzen”. Uztarketa hori “oso maite zaituztenen lepotik” lortzen dela dio aktoreak, hau da, bikotekideak edo familiak bere gain hartzen duelako umearen erantzukizuna. “Garai batean zenbait aktoresa, bakoitzak bere txikia ondoan zuela, biltzen ginen kamerinoetan”, dio Imazek. Oso irudi profesional txarra ematen omen da horrelakoetan, “lanak uzten dizun denbora tartean erosketa egitea bururatzen zaizulako. Oraindik ez dut ikusi gizonezkorik etxeko erosketa lanera eramaten duenik. Erresistentzia ariketa ona da”. Azkenean, bere konpainia sortzea izan omen zen irtenbidea aktore honentzat, “agendaren kontrola neronek eramatea”.
 
Aktoresen artean profesionalerako jauzia zaila dela nabarmendu du Imazek. Besteak beste, amatasunagatik edo arrakastaren aitortzagatik, emakumeentzat “afektutik pasatzen baita, eta gizonezkoen kasuan, aldiz, aitorpen publikotik dator”. Horregatik, Virginia Wolfek zioen gela propioa izatearen garrantzia izan zuen mintzagai Imazek. “Nork bere gela ez ezik, baita nork bere denbora ere, sorkuntzak horixe eskatzen duelako”.

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