FEMALE GAZE

In the organizer's words:

Cecilia Bengolea, nasa4nasa, La Ribot, Göksu Kunak, Lenio Kaklea, Catol Teixeira, Ruth Childs with Cécile Bouffard and others.
Curation: Carolin Brandl

Performances 22-24.08.25

Exhibition and screening program 22.-31.08.25

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Under the artistic direction of Carolin Brandl, FEMALE GAZE 2025 brings together international artists such as Cecilia Bengolea (Argentina/France), nasa4nasa (Egypt), La Ribot (Spain/France), Göksu Kunak (Turkey/Germany), Lenio Kaklea, (Greece/Germany) Catol Teixeira (Brazil/Switzerland), Ruth Childs with Cécile Bouffard (USA/Switzerland/France) and others in a special constellation. and others come together in a special constellation in the Schinkel Pavillon.

The new edition presents an exhibition and performance program with video, sound and sculpture.

In its second edition at the Schinkel Pavillon, FEMALE GAZE once again invites choreographers to counter male gaze and the traditional view associated with it with their contemporary positions.

In a game of deception, FEMALE GAZE will show works that together offer several readings and perspectives, creating an awareness of the space that performers and viewers share.Female gaze, originally a term developed in the context of feminist film theory as a counterpart to male gaze, the format FEMALE GAZE 2025 questions basic patriarchal premises, as well as those of the binary gender construct.

The artists explore bodies and their representation, the micropolitical power of gestures, (voyeuristic) gaze relations and stereotypes, among other things, in which they decipher codes and common attributions.Last but not least, the exhibition addresses how the perspective of the female gaze changes over time so that works can be reinterpreted and the viewer's gaze can be included. All of the invited artists share a background in choreographic practice on the one hand, but also their cross-genre work of translating experimental approaches into the performative on the other.

Works will be shown that have been specially developed for FEMALE GAZE or are being presented in Germany for the first time. FEMALE GAZE curatorially spans the spectrum from internationally renowned to young positions with perspectives from South America, Egypt, Turkey and others.

Performance program

Opening: 22.08.2025
Friday, 7:00 pm

nasa4nasa, Egypt

Salma AbdelSalam (she/her), Noura Seif Hassanein (she/her), Hend El Balouty (she/her), Mona Gamil (she/her), Shaymaa Shoukry (she/her), Sound: Ismail Hosny

The young collective nasa4nasa from Cairo will be presented at FEMALE GAZE 2025: Their work Sham3dan is a transformation about collective presence, burden and balance, in which synchronized movement becomes a silent act of resistance and explores the deconstruction of stories, bodies and movement.

23.08.2025,

Lenio Kaklea (she/her), Greece/France

Saturday, 18:00

In her work Untitled (Figures), Lenio Kaklea reflects on the act of a "coming out" of protagonists in art history - men and women, without biographical framing.

Göksu Kunak (they/them), Turkey/Germany

Saturday, 8.30 pm

From Hollywood to Turkish soap operas to cinematic madness: in Girl JOY she conjures up the disturbed, the desirable, the tragic - in a flow of performances: monsters, psychotic lovers and soap opera ghosts. Somewhere between exorcism and excess, the piece focuses on crisis, collapse and glamor.

First presentation at FEMALE GAZE 2025.

24.08.2025

Sunday 16:30

Catol Teixeira (they/them), Brazil/Switzerland

Catol Teixeira's work Ode is dedicated to gaps, ruptures and transformations. It is a homage to what does not happen, what never really solidifies. Ode thus becomes an exercise dedicated to the unfinished.

La Ribot (she/her), Spain/Switzerland

Sunday 18:00 and 20:00

Winner of the Golden Lion at the Biennale di Venezia for her life's work (2020) performs herself in two performances at FEMALE GAZE 2025.

A variation of one of her earliest works will be shown, a striptease:Socorro ! Gloria ! (1991). It will be juxtaposed with a current performance that has only been presented once before.

In Pièce distinguée N°59 (2023), La Ribot and her male performance partner, Juan Loriente, dissolve identifications in an archaic ritual - an extinction of memories and history, between destruction and fusion in the sunset.

Ruth Childs (she/her) & Cécile Bouffard (she/her)

Sunday, 6:30 pm

Ruth Childs, niece of postmodern pioneer Lucinda Childs and representative of a new generation, shows a series of changing motifs of irritating identities together with the sculptures of sculptor Cécile Bouffard Delicate People.

Cecilia Bengolea (she/her)

Video/Exhibition

FEMALE GAZE 2025 presents Cecilia Bengolea. In a series of screenings, several of her works from different periods will be curatorially juxtaposed.
A version of her latest video work will be shown for the first time at FEMALE GAZE 2025.

Female Gaze is a format supported by Hauptstadtkulturfonds