“Now might be a good time to rethink what a revolution can look like. Perhaps it doesn’t look like a march of angry, abled bodies in the streets. Perhaps it looks something more like the world standing still because all the bodies in it are exhausted—because care has to be prioritized before it’s too late.” 
- Johanna Hedva (https://getwellsoon.labr.io/)

Hospitals are institutions, living sites of capitalism, and what gets played out when somebody is supposed to be resting is a microcosm of the larger system itself. 

Institutions are set out to separate us from our care systems – we find ourselves isolated in structures that are rigidly hierarchical, and it often feels as if care is something done to us rather than given/taken as part of a conversation. Institutional care, because of its integration into capitalist demand, is silo-ed: one person is treating your leg and only your leg, another is treating your blood pressure, etc. 

Photographer Mariam Mekiwi had to have surgery last month and documented the process. Her portraits of sanitized environments – neon white lights, rows after rows of repetitive structures – in a washed-out color palette reflect a place that was drained of life and movement. This was one of the ways Mariam kept her own spirit alive. It was a form of protest from within the confines of an institution she had to engage with.

The photos form a portrait of something incredibly vulnerable, because watching someone live through their own body’s breakdown is always a sacred reminder of our own fragility. It is also a reminder of the fragility of these care systems, which can be denied to us for a variety of reasons – from not having money to not being in a body that’s considered valuable enough, one that’s maybe too feminine, too queer or too brown.  

Care experienced as disembodied and solitary, that is subject to revocation at any moment, doesn’t help us thrive. And it is very different from how human beings actually behave when they take care of each other. How different would our world look like if we committed to dismantling the current capitalist structures around our health? What would it look like if we radically reimagined it?

Linda Porn is yet another heroine of feminist union organizing and sex worker activism nationally (in Spain) and transnationally.

Originally from Mexico, she has been living in Spain since the 2000s. She is a sex worker, an activist, a single mother and a multidisciplinary artist. Drawing from these different identities, she uses performance, video art and theater to vizibilize struggles at the intersections of transfeminism, sex work, migration, colonialism and motherhood.

She combines art and sex work while caring for her daughter as a single mother.

Linda also belongs to sex workers collectives that fight for their rights, such as the OTRAS union and CATS Murcia. She also co-founded the group 'Madrecitas' - that visibilises and denounces racist institutional violence against migrant families. Violence to which she and her daughter were subjected as a sex worker and migrant single mother.

You can follow her art work here.

تقديم تحليل كفء للأجساد البحثيّة، يستوجب بالضرورة تسخيرًا شاملا لكافّة الأدوات الحميميّة…

أفضّل المقاربة التقاطعيّة لما تشتمل عليه من مداعبة ممنهجة باللسان والأصابع

Feminist movements have changed and adapted tremendously since we last convened in this way - so to remember why AWID Forums matter, we asked activists from around the world to reflect on and share their stories, impressions and memories. This is what we learned.

Discover The Forum Stories here 

This project is built in collaboration with:

Yes! We are currently exploring innovating technologies to allow for meaningful connection and participation.

Feminist Art Walk

As part of our commitment to engage more deeply with artists and the practice of co-creating Feminist Realities, AWID collaborated with an Artist Working Group to advance and strengthen feminist agendas and realities in their communities and movements through their creative expression. Our intention here is to bring feminist creatives together in a powerful and brave space where they grow and live freely, and where they shatter toxic narratives to replace them with transformative alternatives.

Feminist Art Walk

New

Hubs: Cross-Border Space Travel

Participants will physically gather at a number of sites outside the Bangkok venue, in different parts of the world, on each day of the Forum. All of these self-organized sites will be virtually connected to the Forum venue in Bangkok. As with individuals connecting online, Hub participants will be able to facilitate activities, participate in conversations and enjoy a rich and diverse program.

Hub locations to be announced in 2024!