Drifting through Cityscapes Drifting through Cityscapes MTL final copy | Page 40

As a group of five women, we decided to work with our experience on being in the
center of the malegaze. We explored the act of staring which is strongly connect-
ed to the aesthetical term above. Studies have shown that shameless staring is a
tool of power expressing dominance over the subject of the observation. Our proj-
ect’s aim was to regain control over observation through guiding the pedestrians’
gaze. We used the act of staring to dominate the attention of people passing by.
The object of our staring was the leaf- covered genitals of a statue of Hermes in the
public space. We surrounded our prey of focus in a circle and we silently gazed at
it for minutes. The documentation is a focused selection of the reactions captured
during the performance. Besides the performance being a statement about gen-
der inequality from the side of the group, it is a document on how today’s people
behave in the public space.
X X X
The urban space is a vibrant environment consisting of hundreds of elements. Be-
sides the architectural characteristics, the human element is a significant -if not
a more important- factor shaping the city. Experienced pedestrians have devel-
oped a certain type of insensitiveness towards the happenings in the public space,
which manifests in ignoration. The common reaction to things happening on the
street (begging, vendors selling, etc.) is avoidance by looking away. Pedestrians
are used to strange happenings, many of them are even familiar with art perfor-
mances and have ambivalent opinions about them. On the other hand the staring
at strangers still occurs. The inspirational image for the project was a photography
from Joaquín Collado’s series from the ‘70s. Collado’s photos present the every-
day life of the marginalized groups in Valencia. The selected photograph shows a
woman walking down the street among men. One of the the men is looking at the
woman from behind as she passes. The interesting fact about this picture -in oppo-
sition to the other photographs of the series- is that it is not culture- or site-specific.
It could have been taken in any other western country. Compared to the other
photographs, this piece shows a well known scenario. Because of this fact it gives
the sense of constructedness. It could easily fit into Cindy Sherman’s oeuvre. The
artistic approach to mapping the society and ethnographic observation is how
Collado’s series could be defined. The phenomenon of being stared at or cat-
called as a womain the era of technical mediums has become a rather nostalgic
representational convention. We have accepted objectification not only on 2D
screens, but in real life as well. The strength of the project might not be the visuality
of the performance, but the possible further sociological analysis based on the
documentation and the participants’ experience. Through such projects we can
observe and filter important socio-psychological conclusions. The above men-
tioned artistic approach is still on its way towards legitimation, but project-based
operation can help accelerate this process. The performance took place in one of
the most frequented streets in Budapest on the 15 th of November.