Regarding the name and history of the festival

The festival took its name from a resourceful child of the streets, the penniless heroine of the children's book Die rote Zora und ihre Bande, by the German writer Kurt Held, where children orphaned by the war realise that they can only defy the unjust world of adults by sticking together. The red-haired Zora (Dawn) was also the inspiration of the feminist activist group Rote Zora, which has been linked to terrorism since the 1974 and the first explosion that went off in the judicial palace of Karlsruhe. Their goals are still relevant today: Rote Zora argued for the fundamental right to abortion and also fought for greater visibility of women, their right to express themselves and to assemble in public spaces, which it defined in its own un-hierarchical, un-exploitational and anti-capitalistic manner.

The creativity, the work and the mingling of the participants of Rdeče zore – whether they take part in the festival as performers, visitors, organisers or even don’t distinguish these roles – question the boundaries we take for granted, boundaries that don’t distinguish between gender but between people. No wonder that the common mind just shakes its head at the sight of the red dawn and predicts bad weather. It remains silent when faced with hopes the festival Rdeče zore has been placing in the redness of the morning for six years now.

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In 2000 a small group of women who initiated the women’s festival Rdeče zore were active in Metelkova, Ljubljana, in the associations KUD Mreža, ŠKUC-LL and the no longer existing Women’s centre and Monokel-Kasandra. The festival first took place in four Metelkova venues, opening its doors to the production of women working in Metelkova and inviting authors from the Balkan and Central European neighbourhood. The assembly of low-budget and voluntary periphery with an inevitable political centre point travelled to other locations in 2001 - Podlaga (Sežana), Pekarna (Maribor) and Mostovna (Nova Gorica) – thereby considerably widening the circle of contributors.

The Alkatraz Gallery, KUD Anarhiv, Radio Student, DZAČ, CrossConversationCut Society, kamera REVOLTA and Cinema iNVISIBLE are the groups and associations, together with many individuals without titles, who have joined the planning and organisation of the festival since 2001. They were brought together through questioning the position of women in the tangled mesh of art, culture, politics and everyday life, even though many of them do not identify with any feminist theory. But the feminism of Rdeče zore is apparent – form the first, second, third, fourth, fifth and now sixth event before us. Should we say it like it is? For the women, and the men, and everyone in between – imagination, time, space, wine, bread… with condiments, baked beans… freedom and each other!

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This year the festival will take place in AKC Metelkova venues in Ljubljana (Klub Monokel, Menza pri koritu, Klub Gromka, SOT-24,5, Galerija Celica and Galerija Alkatraz) and in Murska Sobota (MIKK), Maribor (Pekarna) and Koper (MKC).

RDEČE ZORE 3 / 2002

RDEČE ZORE 4 / 2003

RDEČE ZORE 5 / 2004

© RDEČE ZORE 6 . Email . Oblika: Phant&Puntza