Dear All.The starting point for the YES! Association was a feminist perspective were gender inequalities was the central concern, but over the last year we have developed our understanding of power relations and now strive to work from an intersectional perspective. For us, intersectionality is a perspective where gender, class, ethnicity/race, sexuality never appear in a “pure” relation but affects and transforms through other forms of power relations. Since women are not only women but has class-, ethnic- and a sexual identity it’s not enough to analyze inequality, power abuse and structures of oppression merely through a gender perspective.
Intersectionality questions an agenda were resistance is reduced to one structure or one set of relations that is universally prevailing. By prioritizing only one you make the others invisible. For example the white heterosexual middle class position within the feminist project or the class position within the left movement. The possibilities of this perspective are that it doesn’t fix neither positions of oppression nor power, these relations are never static.
We mean that the Constitution should be something to strive towards, which differentiate it from for example signing the Equality Agreement that we discussed in Glasgow. The way we have formulated the Constitution is to suggest that the discussion on equality cannot simply be to count men vs. women but to have a constant and present discussion about the artists you choose to exhibit, their projects, the budget and pr spent on these projects, the committee members and Transmission as such. All in relation to space, time, existing political climate, economic possibilities and participation in society from multiple perspectives.
To embrace the perspective and see ones practice as part of the structures that upholds and has responsibilities in society is for us a way to empower the institutions and the position of art and cultural production.
The YES! Association would be happy to try to help and support Transmission Gallery to live up to the Constitution we are proposing. How this could be done practically will have to be developed. Since our meeting in Glasgow we have not had the resources to spend a lot of time on figuring this out, ie we have not had time to write a lengthy documents of guidelines and details as I think we discussed at the meeting in Glasgow. So for now perhaps it could just be in the form of an email conversation? If you have questions or find yourself in a situation of difficult decision making and would like a partner to discuss specific situations, we are happy to be that partner and engage in such a conversation, to the extent that we have time to do at that particular moment. This is something I think we have to develop together. For example if it would make it easier for you perhaps you could send us a annual report or a report every six months with statistics? But only if this is a wish from your side, from our side this is not needed.
Again, we think it is important to emphasize the difference between the Equality Agreement and the Constitution as being two very different documents, operating very differently with different effects. Implicit in the Equality Agreement is an instance of control and the possibility of sanctions. Neither control or sanctions are implicit in the Constitution. We see the constitution as something to strive for, to use as a guide line or an ideal to try to live up to, but not at all as a legally binding document.
Hope this helps! Please let us know if there is anything else you need before the AGM.
All the best,
The YES! Association
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