Archive of City of Women: In Between Remembrance and Contemporary Feminist Praxis

Zlatović, Nataša (author), Antić Gaber, Milica (mentor), Bartulović, Alenka (mentor)

This thesis is the product of ethnographic fieldwork conducted within the feminist cultural and artistic organization City of Women (Mesto žensk), based in Ljubljana, Slovenia. It situates the emergence of City of Women (1994) within the broader socio-political transformations following Slovenia’s independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. Founded by the government’s Office for Women’s Politics, City of Women began at the highest institutional level, establishing itself through the International Festival of Contemporary Arts. Over time, organization’s activities expanded; today, the organization’s work includes a feminist library, publishing and production projects, feminist pedagogy, the creation of performance archive in the Web Museum, and the WoW feminist awards. In this sense, the research is based on archival fieldwork and analysis of the City of Women’s Archives (both material and digital), complemented by personal testimonies of individuals involved in the organization’s development. Theoretically, it is framed through scholarly discussions on community-based archives (Harris 2007; Cook 2002, 2011; Caswell and Cifor 2016; Caswell 2014, 2021), the archival turn in feminism (Burton 2005; Eichhorn 2013; Cifor and Wood 2017), and the affective turn in archival research (Cvetkovich 2003). In addition, these theories are complemented by debates on the importance of ephemeral materials (Munoz 1996; McDonald 2024) in reconstructing the organization’s development. I approach the archive as a process through which the evolution of City of Women is mirrored. This research follows organization’s development since it’s foundational years, with aim to address gaps in post-Yugoslavian case studies of NGO’s, to show potential of archives as source of reconstruction of its development, and contest materiality of archives with personal testimonies and affective relations. This contrast highlights how organization’s history emerges through material documents, and how it’s experienced individually. Finally, this approach shows how both material and affective relations within the archive are not contested but complementary resources for the reconstruction of the history of the City of Women.

• Language: English
• Keywords: activism, advocacy, affect, City of Women, community-building, contemporary arts, feminist praxis, festival, grassroots archive, NGO, Office for Women’s Politics, Slovenia’s Independence
• Work type: Master's thesis/paper
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Year: 2025
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-174550
• Publication date in RUL: 04.10.2025

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Arhiv Mesta žensk: Med spomini in sodobnim feminističnim delovanjem

Abstract

To magistrsko delo je rezultat etnografskega terenskega dela v okviru feministične kulturno-umetniške organizacije Mesto žensk s sedežem v Ljubljani. Nastanek Mesta žensk (1994) umeščamo v širši kontekst družbenopolitičnih preobrazb po osamosvojitvi Slovenije od Jugoslavije leta 1991. Mesto žensk, ki ga je ustanovil vladni Urad za žensko politiko, je začelo delovati na najvišji institucionalni ravni in se je uveljavilo z Mednarodnim festivalom sodobne umetnosti. Sčasoma so se dejavnosti organizacije razširile; danes njihovo delo zajema feministično knjižnico, založniške in produkcijske projekte, feministično pedagogiko, oblikovanje arhiva performansov v spletnem muzeju ter podeljevanje feministične nagrade WoW. Raziskava temelji na arhivskem terenskem delu in analizi arhivov Mesta žensk (materialnih in digitalnih), ki jih dopolnjujejo osebna pričevanja posameznic in posameznikov, vpletenih v razvoj organizacije. Teoretični okvir izhaja iz akademskih razprav o skupnostnih arhivih (Harris 2007; Cook 2002, 2011; Caswell in Cifor 2016; Caswell 2014, 2021), arhivskem obratu v feminizmu (Burton 2005; Eichhorn 2013; Cifor in Wood 2017) ter afektivnem obratu v arhivskem raziskovanju (Cvetkovich 2003). Te teorije dopolnjujejo še razprave o pomembnosti efemernega gradiva (Muñoz 1996; McDonald 2024) pri rekonstruiranju razvoja organizacije. Arhiv obravnavam kot proces, skozi katerega se zrcali razvoj organizacije Mesto žensk. Raziskava sledi razvoju organizacije vse od njenih začetkov, pri čemer želi zapolniti vrzeli v postjugoslovanskih študijah primerov nevladnih organizacij, pokazati potencial arhivov kot vira za rekonstrukcijo njenega razvoja ter soočiti materialnost arhivov z osebnimi pričevanji in afektivnimi odnosi. Ta kontrast razkriva, kako se zgodovina organizacije oblikuje skozi materialne dokumente in kako se jo hkrati izkuša osebno. Nenazadnje ta pristop pokaže, da materialni in afektivni odnosi znotraj arhiva niso v nasprotju, temveč se medsebojno dopolnjujejo kot viri za rekonstrukcijo zgodovine Mesta žensk.

• Keywords: aktivizem, zagovorništvo, vpliv, Mesto žensk, gradnja skupnosti, sodobna umetnost, feministična praksa, festival, skupnostni arhiv, nevladna organizacija, Urad za žensko politiko, osamosvojitev Slovenije