A new video-installation, Sisters! is a collaboration between Swedish artist Petra Bauer and the Southall Black Sisters. The radical pioneering London-based feminist organisation. Who since 1979 have engaged in the contemporary social and political conditions of black and minority women.
Sisters! is not a film about the Southall Black Sisters, but is a two-way project between Bauer and the staff at the organisation. Documenting one week in the life of the organisation. The film takes their daily activities as a springboard for a visual discussion on feminism, also politics and aesthetics in today’s society.
The film asks what happens when questions from the 1970s Women’s Liberation Movement (particularly those explored by feminist film collectives from the time) are again present in a contemporary political setting. And so what are the important feminist issues of today and what are the pressing issues for today’s black and minority women?
Petra Bauer’s films explore the possibilities of storytelling also through the form of documentary making. Her interest lies in film as a political practice, and the role of moving images in the construction together with presentation and representation of histories. Through her work she demonstrates how moving images can show visually as a space where social and political negotiations can take place.
Sisters! is co-commissioned by The Showroom and Picture This and funded by Bloomberg. As well as The Swedish Arts Grants Committee and IASPIS as funding bodies. It is part of Circular Facts, funded with support from the European Commission. The Showroom supported by Arts Council England and members of the gallery’s Supporters Scheme.
For further information visit The Showroom
