Mounologues

Anna Delimpasi, Eleni Diamantouli

Anna Delimpasi and Eleni Diamantouli produced the work Mounologues as part of the Centre's 2018-2019 seminars under the theme 'Feminist Practices in the Era of Globalised Technologies'. 

​The project has different stages and directions of action: it is a an archive of verbal offenses and misogynist comments, it is printed into posters that exhibit in the streets of Volos, while with the use of QR code technologies one can connect to an online, networked, space to read a profile of the offenders.

'Mounologues' departs from the collection of offensive words, phrases and sexist comments addressed to the artists and other female workers by male customers in their working environment. In response to these comments that remained unanswered in real-time, the Delimpasi and Diamantouli print these offensive phrases on an A3 poster, which they then posted in the streets of Volos. Each poster contains the phrase/comment in the exact words of the male customer, design of the gesture he made when talking or visualization of his comment, as well as a QR code. The QR code directs the viewer/passer-by to the projects' Facebook page and specifically to a description of each offender which describes the man without naming him.

​The male subjects are described according to their public profile as family men, their job, or personal details that they have made public through discussions, gossip, his own statements, etc. Their names are not however revealed, and this anonymity was considered important for the project*. 

​So, the posters are shared on the Mounologues Facebook page under the description 'Subject profile'. Facebook as a social network works on this occasion as a forum; a space where the artists can share their work, receive comments by online passers-by, the scroll-downers, and produce a dialogue on their own terms. 

​

*The choice of anonymity of the male subjects:

Anonymity was chosen to protect the creators and those who have been verbally abused by these male individuals. Legally, the words are not in favor of the victim, nor are they evidence against the perpetrator. The project utilizes methods and methodologies of public art in the physical space, including the digital public space, the Internet and the social networks it uses.