Am I the Holy or Guilty? | Performance | Paint the World Orange [16 Days of Activism]

Paint the World Orange is a 16-day global activism campaign calling for an end to violence against women and girls, which runs from November 25 (Violence Against Women Day) to December 10 (Human Rights Day) each year. Launched by the UN Secretary-General in 2008, the UNITE initiative focuses on a theme each year to end violence and strengthen advocacy. The theme of this year’s campaign is ‘Invest to Fight Violence against Women and Girls’.

The two-part event kicks off with a documentary exhibit covering 7 ideas that justify violence that are actually misogyny. Then, the art performance takes place under the stories told by the abused women in their own voices. The artist will use her body to express women’s silenced stories and speaking power. The performance will use the element of mud to show the destructive patriarchal values that pervade the daily lives of women and girls.

The purpose of the exhibition is to show the realities of violence against women and girls, as well as to draw attention to the individual responsibility that each of us bears by remaining silent and not challenging violent norms. The Holy or Guilty question has been used to describe the patriarchal manipulation of women – society’s canonization of women, especially mothers, but blaming women for every abuse they experience.

The performance film was produced by TOTD Public Relations Organization.

Curator: Aynur Abutalibova
Researcher: Afsana Tahirova
Sound installation/Audio: Ilkin Huseynov
Performance Artist: Nigar Ibrahimbeyli
Project Director: Roman Gojayev

The performance film was produced by TOTD Public Relations Organization.

To our friends and partners who supported the performance, Vladanka Andreva, Tobias Lorentzson, Fergus Old, Maryam Majidova, Hokuma Karimova, Sabina Shikhlinskaya, Kamilla Gorkhmazlova, Sirius Rustamov, Aydan Develi, Mina Abbasova, Sabina Alishova, Ibrahim Mirzayev, Mahir Alishov, Hikmat Mammadli and we thank Maryam Khanmammadova.

The art performance was organized by Gender Hub Azerbaijan with the support of the Embassy of Sweden in Azerbaijan, the UK Government, YARAT Contemporary Art Center, Women’s Agenda National Dialogue Platform within the framework of the “Orange the World” campaign.