ABOUT WOMBENHOOD
Wombenhood wishes to promote the menstrual cycle – a recurring and often painful, opportunity to refresh, restart and renew – that influences many people* in the world, regardless of ethnicity, gender, sexuality and class. The project aims for menstruation to be acknowledged among individuals, organisations, workplaces and society at large in a shame-free manner with the possibility of renovating workplace policies and societal taboo.
*Wombenhood is aware that menstruation can impact all human beings but wishes to focus on those who have a womb, we shall be using the gender-free terms Menstruals or Menstrual Beings.
The open-ended project has the aim to develop and evolve organically, free from restrains; tailoring different strands to different needs of the community and society as a whole giving the participants the power to adapt and evolve the project, under the aim to promote menstruation empowerment and education.
Wombenhood will create an online environment a platform in which to discuss this topic in video recordings and talks through the act of sewing, embroidering, patchwork making and other textile-based practices which are strongly linked with femininity, blood and ritualism**.
**Ritualism of the hot water bottle, the type of care, the particular things that happen every month such as the communication involving those around us.
This dialogical project wishes to create a place for open-ended discussions in which participants actively co-construct meaning without an overwhelming concern with reaching an endpoint. The entwined sewing-making activity would capacitate a relaxed environment, releasing the stress of the now very common digital gatherings, daily expectations and chore. The project intends to provide a series of topic-based talks with invitees that specialise in the industry so that we can educate ourselves as well as inform the masses.
Wombenhood first collaboration is the DIY knicker Kit Project, where a group of participants are invited to make a set of knickers to decorate in a response to their experience of menstruation and the topics discussed int he workshops and talks from January to March 2021. The documentation of collaborations, knickers making processes, podcasts and vodcasts produced will culminate in a visual exhibition of the results in June 2021.
OPEN-ENDED SPACE
EVERY MONDAY FROM 11th Jan – 22nd Mar 2021 3-5 pm (GMT)
Alongside the DIY Kcniker Kit Project which is dedicated to a specific group of participants already selected, we at Wombenhood have created a the Open-Ended Space, a free zoom virtual room in which audience and DIY K.K. participant’s can discuss the topic of menstruality and Wombenhood’s doing through discussion and sharing.
STRUCTURE
Open-Ended Space Zoom Sessions – Each Monday 3-5 pm. These sessions are open to audiences and Wombenhood project participants to engage in free discussion on themes surrounding mentstruality and conversation-based art practice.
Talks and Workshops – these are open to the Wombenhood DIY Knicker Kit Project participants.
ACCESS TO THE ZOOM LINKS
If interested in joining future projects or the Open-Ended Space, send a request for each individual session you wish to attend. register your interest here
Each session will be recorded.
For more info send an email at wombenhood@hotmail.com
ABOUT WOMBENHOOD’S CREATORS
Valeria Medici and Rhianne Burgess are the co-creators of Wombenhood: exploring the field of menstruality, a dialogical collaboration and project aiming to inform, educate and empower through dialogue, exchange and collaborative making processes.
Valeria Medici She/Her
Sicilian Fine Art Undergraduate at the University of Northampton who’s practice is exploring dialogical, collaborative and socially engaged environments in the co-creation of meanings with a desire for social change through art-making processes.
Email: valeriamedici90@hotmail.com
Website: https://www.valeriamedici.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/valeriamedici90/
Rhianne Burgess | They/Them
Leicester process-based disciplinary artist interested in creating Fluxus and transformative artworks based around audience participation and everyday activity.
Website: https://bumblingsofanartist.wordpress.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rhianneburgess/
INFO
Wombenhood: exploring the field of menstruality
https://www.instagram.com/wombenhood/
https://www.valeriamedici.com/wombenhood
wombenhood@hotmail.com
