All about Him

« Аll Аbout Нim» project.......... The A-A-H! Project has been the result of efforts that lasted for many years and meant to reflect on the metamorphosis that the idea about men underwent in the context of the changes that took place in gender relationships in society today. The aim of this project is not just to offer artistic visions contributing to questioning the changes in gender roles in the culture today: in addition it is meant to contribute actively to outgrowing the aggressive denial of certain (mental) characteristics that we usually refer to as (typically) masculine and to get over the failure to accept them. The urge to reflect on the presence of the idea about “men” locally (at BG level) was triggered by at least two key changes: on the one hand this is the transition for totalitarianism to capitalism on the one hand and the changes that happened to men in the process; on the other hand these are the ‘politically correct’ attitudes and practices in solving minority issues (of religious, ethnic and last but not least gender character), imposed by international donors and programmes. In the light these attitude and practices the discussion about average man today and his changed role is either unlikely or traded off for the gender rhetoric of feminism or media copy/paste clichés about man’s presence/absence today. A-A-H! Projects is an effort to introduce and to present possible ways in which men can be present today, outside commercials’ or feminists’ ideas and demands. It takes a two-fold approach: to women of today and to men of today. The perspective of women today should guide us into women’s attitudes and feelings regarding men’s absence or rather men’s refusal to fit into what have been for some time now considered to be the only politically correct and acceptable ideas/expectations about men. The perspective of women today should reach out to women’s response towards men’s refusal, withdrawal and silence. A possible ‘female’ strategy may be to fill up the (mental) space, freed by men in their withdrawal. This is how I understand the essay and the visions on female masculinity, presented by Dimitrina Sevova, yet the author seems to be doubtful to define masculinity in the first place. Another approach, demonstrated by the women, participating in this exhibition, is the victimization of man: man is the victim and we the women feel concerned about him and his loss ( we speak on his behalf, we are eager to act on his behalf, and in this way disabling him for most of the time). The most genuine female approach towards grasping the visual characteristics of man today may well turn out to be the opening up of opportunities for men to define their own idea about themselves, about male beauty and presence, and, in fact, commercials’ influence does not matter in this case. This is the perspective that Paula Delgrado’s project “ Co mo sos tan lindo” has adopted [How did you get so gorgeous]. Whenever it comes down to the mental characteristics of masculinity, not the visual ones, women become powerless: love or hate being the only modes of presence that they have been left with....... How about the self reflections that A-A-H! explores and is ready to offer? How do men think of themselves, understand and describe themselves? What are the images of refusal, of leaving behind and absence, of doubt and loneliness, of nakedness and the bareness of existence that men know? How vital are these images and do they need to be restored? The A-A-H! Project won’t find the answers for you: it opens room for questions instead.......... Through its activities and participants the A-A-H! Project open up visual and interpretative space where meeting men (or what has been left out there) is still an opportunity. ............ June 2nd 2008 Ventsislav Zankov « All About Him» project curator sirens started wailing outside while I was writing this text: it turned out it was June 2nd that day, and 12 pm sharp, just a coincidence…