About festival

The International Festival of Contemporary Arts – City of Women has been held every October since 1995 in different venues across Ljubljana.

Uniting amazing women* and gender non-conforming people from all over the world, the festival offers a unique experience, blending exciting art with inspiring talks and workshops. Since its establishment, the festival has welcomed over 1400 Slovenian and international artists, collectives, curators, theoretician and activists, ranging from emerging to well-known names. By cooperating with local and international partners, and taking place at a range of institutional and alternative venues in Ljubljana and around Slovenia, the festival offers a variety of events from all artistic disciplines which reach broad and diverse audiences and enjoy wide media exposure.

 

lovefuckers: The Return of the Ishtar, photo Nada Žgank
We present contemporary, bold, experimental, critical, socially engaged, political and trans-disciplinary feminist art practices which strive to overcome the division between practice and theory.

Situated in material feminisms, the City of Women festival exposes the social reality in which art is produced and in which artists live and work. It draws attention to discrimination in art and culture, and aims to improve conditions for women* in the arts and culture. The City of Women encourages social reflection, awareness, solidarity and acceptance of diversity. Since its foundation, the City of Women festival has been nurturing an intersectional approach to feminism by looking at how gender overlaps with class, race, sexual orientation, physical ability and other nodes of oppression. Over the years, the festival has always posed questions of major relevance for today's life with the help of art and feminist critique. Learning from our own herstory, each edition of the festival tries to imagine the future of feminist art and thought in dialogue with different communities and audiences. 


the south in us exhibitors, photo nada žgank.
The festival is curated and without a public call. To participate, please contact us.

Every festival edition is curated by the programme director and associated selectors. We present local and international authors/artists and collectives of mainly women's* authorship. As an interdisciplinary festival we present all art genres, showcasing innovative and breakthrough formats and ideas which engage in a critical dialogue with the present.

If you are interested in presenting your work at the festival, send your proposals to the specific program selectors. Please include a description of the project, your biography and the link to a full video recording, if applicable. As we receive many requests, you will only be notified if your project is selected.

 

buddleia: The Unchained Story, photo nada žgank.