Celebrating Female Creativity
Athens – Berlin – Budapest – Cluj – Copenhagen – Derry~Donegal – Dublin – Eleusis – Istanbul – Leeuwarden – Lisbon – Lugo – Marseille – Oulu – Paris – Trieste – Vilnius – Zürich
Inspired by Molly Bloom, whose presence is so powerful in Ulysses, the inaugural YES 2024 will celebrate the diverse creativity of European and Irish female artists in a vibrant and varied programme of events, workshops and residencies to take place in Derry and Donegal in the north-west of Ireland on June 13 – 16, 2024.
Local theatres, galleries, music venues, pubs and outdoor spaces will host over 30 celebrated and emerging individual female artists representing photography, music, documentary film, DJs, visual and textile art, dance, circus and song in a festive, cultural, and spectacle-filled weekend across the city of Derry and the landscape of Donegal.
In ULYSSES European Odyssey, Derry~Donegal is responding to Episode XVIII (Penelope) and its designated contemporary theme The Future: A Female Vision and is encouraging audiences and communities to celebrate and connect with this theme. Increasing local access to European creativity and artistic expression, alongside showcasing the ways these female artists demonstrate the importance of art in highlighting social change, is a core aim of the four day event.
A huge thank you to all our ULYSSES European Odyssey 2022-2024 city partners for helping YES 2024 to identify the artists who are representing their cities: ONASSIS Stegi (Athens), Museo Joyce (Trieste), Vilnius City Museum and Critical+Xwhy Agency (Vilnius), Budapest Brand nZrt (Budapest), gethan&myles (Marseille), Rimini Protokoll and the Peng! Collective (Berlin), Fundación Uxío Novoneyra (Lugo), Blaagaard Teater (Copenhagen), Yalan Dünya Films (Istanbul), Create.Act.Enjoy (Cluj-Napoca), Noorderlicht (Leeuwarden), CHORUS (Eleusis), Lumo Light Festival (Oulu), Arena Ensemble (Lisbon), and the Museum of Literature Ireland (Dublin). And a big thank you to our UEO Lead Partner Brave New World Producties.
Curators: Shauna Kelpie & Jonathan Burgess
Hanna Moisala, Oulu, Finland
Nomad
Hanna is a circus artist who will combine circus and physical theatre to create a highly visual performance in the YES Hub (St Columb’s Hall) using her exceptional artistry on the tight wire. Hanna says, ‘In all our shows, we want to tackle socially engaging themes around issues of power and questions that unite and divide human beings’. Hanna will also perform an outdoors spectacle using hula hoops and work with Derry~Londonderry’s local Circus school In Your Space.
Lilli Kuschel, Berlin, Germany
Film screening – commissioned by YES
Lilli is an artist, filmmaker and camerawoman based in Berlin. Her work focuses on urban spaces and ecologies, architecture, the ‘’More-than-human“ and cohabitation. She is an artistic researcher at the University of Arts Berlin, where she teaches experimental film and media art. She is co-founder of the film production company Expander Film Berlin, which produces moving image projects for artists like Christoph Schlingensief, Rimini Protokoll, Elmgreen and Dragset and Lola Arias . Her work has been shown at international festivals such as Transmediale, Kurzfilmfest Hamburg and Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam, as well as in international exhibitions and museums such as Kunsthalle Wien, Deutsches Hygiene-Museum and Rockbund Art Museum Shanghai.
Lilli will make a film consisting of interviews with local Derry women she randomly encounters as she explores the city over a week in the lead up to YES 2024. Lilli will film, produce and edit the film whilst in Derry.
VRGN, Eleusis, Greece
HER presents a DJ set by VRGN
VRGN a celebrated female DJ will perform in one of Derry’s most popular music pubs, The Guildhall Taphouse on Friday June 14, from 9pm. VRGN will use the opportunity of the gig to promote the platform she said.so which aims to support, promote and empower women & gender non-conforming DJs and producers in the electronic music industry. Locally VRGN will deliver a workshop through Derry’s electronic music festival Celtronic to promote DJing to young women interested in, or working in, the music industry.
Monika Bulaj, Trieste, Italy
Exiles
Monika is a Polish photojournalist, reporter, and documentary filmmaker based in Trieste Italy. Her work has been published in Granta, National Geographic, the New York Times Lens, TIME Lightbox, the Guardian, and elsewhere. Monika will present elements of her stunning work in a theatre style, visual presentation. Using her own photojournalism she will draw links between photo reportage, cinema, poetry, theatre and literary writing. Monika will ask the audience to reflect on seeing reality, without transforming it, without influencing it and without lying. Monika will talk about the ethics in reportage and the moral issues of post-production and how technical and intellectual choices may transform the way of telling stories.
Gethan Dick, Marseille, France
Dance-In!
Gethan Dick is a visual artist who will collaborate with her creative partner Myles Quin to create a public participatory dance piece celebrating the Derry Shirt Factory girls. gethan&myles will present Dance-In! which is a joyous, generous, multi-generational homage to the Factory Girls made with and for both the Derry~Londonderry community and the neighbouring Donegal community. The iconic Guildhall will be the location for this indoor event. Collaborating with local dance groups gethan&myles hope to encourage as wide a participation as possible. The event will take place in a marathon style format with local dance groups taking one hour slots throughout the day on Saturday June 15. The sound of the Factory horns blaring will signal the start of Dance-In! each hour. The event is open to everyone, including non-dancers who can sign up on the day to participate or alternatively, book a slot via Eventbrite.
| Time | Dancers | Dance Style |
|---|---|---|
| 10am | Studio 47 (Donegal) & Fireworks Dance & Drama Theatre Academy (Derry) | Street & Jazz/Jive/Lindy Bop |
| 11am | Harkin McGinley Academy of Irish Dance (Derry) | Irish |
| 12pm | Rainbow School of Dance (Derry) and Inish Theatre Group (Donegal) | Musical theatre: Modern/Jazz |
| 1pm | Rainbow School of Dance (Derry) | Mixed performance Ballet/Tap/Acro/Song and Dance |
| 2pm | Echo Echo – inter generational (Derry) | Contemporary |
| 3pm | Mary McGuiggan (Derry and Donegal) | Céilí |
| 4pm | City Dance (Derry) & Elite Dance Academy (Donegal) | Hip Hop |
| 6-8pm | Friends of the Factories Dance | Legacy – Showband/Songs from the 50s/60s |
Jolanda Bazzi & Laila el Bazi, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands
Bounderry
Jolanda and Laila are young, female, Fresian dancers who have been inspired by ‘The Derry Girls’ award winning Television series will choreograph and perform a new and unique dance piece. Jolanda and Laila will create a site specific contemporary dance to be performed outdoors close to the iconic Derry Girls Mural on Saturday June 15, 2pm and 4pm. The site is located on the side wall of Badger’s Bar, Orchard Street, Derry. The sound track of the famous, award winning television show will feature as an inspiration for the choreography and be played to accompany the piece, connecting audiences to the place and the dance.
Ioana Ofelia and Daniela Groza, Cluj, Romania
DE DOR – personal perspectives of immigration, longing and relationships
Ioana and Daniela have created a unique performance piece for the YES 2024. Using music, spoken word and visual imagery this sensitive piece will explore how the issue of migration impacts the lives of young people in Europe today.
Hanin Georgis, Copenhagen, Denmark
THE OTHER ARAB WOMAN
The other Arab woman struggles with an imposed identity. At every turn, she confronts being seen not as an individual but as an anonymous representative of culture and religion. She seeks to craft a new narrative, but what will it be?
Onstage she appears. Word by word, she challenges our biases about Arab individuals, creating a new self-portrait. The Other Arab Woman is here to stay.
THE OTHER ARAB WOMAN is a moving and gripping play about female empowerment. The play is directed by Özlem Saglanmak,and produced by Blaagaard Teater Denmark.
Credits:
Director: Özlem Saglanmak
Writer: Hanin Georgis
Actor: Hanin Georgis
Set designer: Mai Katsume
Light designer: Mathilde Hyttel
Sound designer: Nanna-Karina Schleimann
Translation: Hanin Georgis
Founded by the Danish Art Council
Gizem Aksu, Istanbul, Turkey
9/8FIGHT41
THIS EVENT IS NOW HAPPENING IN GUILDHALL SQUARE
Choreographer Gizem Aksu joined by Banu Açıkdeniz, Sema Semih and Gizem Nalbant, from Istanbul, Turkey
Gizem is an independent choreographer, dancer and ex-academic from Istanbul, currently living in Berlin. Gizem’s participation in YES is both a visual screening and a physical performance. Her award winning film ‘9/8 Fight for All of Us’ will screen in the YES Hub (St Columb’s Hall), Derry~Londonderry, on Saturday 15th June, plus, Gizem and her fellow dancers will perform a collective, short, socio-political dance, featured in the film, in a ‘flash mob’ style. The dance will be performed several times throughout Saturday June 15, at the Bastion close to St Augustine’s Church on Derry’s Historic Walls. Gizem’s short documentary dance movie ‘9/8 Fight for All Us’, is coproduced by HELLERAU and Goethe Institute Istanbul, and was awarded Best Short Film Award in 6. International Festival of Romani Film in Berlin, the Jury’s Special Award in 15. DOCUMENTARIST and nominated for The Best Short Documentary Film in 55. Turkish Cinema Awards and Golden Key in 39. Kasseler Dokfest.
Zoë de Sousa and Philippe de Sousa, Lisbon, Portugal
Le Soupir De Sable – The Sigh Of The Sand
Zoë and Philippe are a father and daughter duo, who, along with another classical guitarist, perform traditional Fado music of the classical Fado masters and composers.
Zoë de Sousa and her father Philippe de Sousa will perform in two settings.
Zoë and her father will feature within the Inishowen Traditional Singers’ Circle session at The North Pole Pub located in Shandrim, Drumfree, rural County Donegal on Friday June 14.
Also at the New Gate Theatre on Saturday June 15, audiences will be treated to two spectacular musical events. Zoë and Philippe will perform a modern piece, entitled ‘The sigh of the sand'( ‘Le sigh du sable’) which brings together stories linked to Fado, reinterpreted through dance, movement and sound, plus a performance of traditional Fado music in which Zoë and Philippe will be joined by guitarist Nuno Estevans.
Lugo’s Lestrygonian Dancers, Spain
Lestragonias
Dancers: Olalla Caamaño, Iria Otero Vizcaíno, Eva Valle Legido, Cristina Vilariño, Beatriz Rodríguez-Morales
The Uxío Novoneyra Foundation has partnered with the ULYSSES European Oydssey Project to create a bespoke response to Lestrygonians, Episode VIII of James Joyce’s Ulysses. For YES 2024, five dancers from Lugo will perform a choreographed reading of the Episode in the Plaza of The Playhouse Theatre in Derry on Friday June 14. As Galicians both celebrate and enjoy food and walking, the team in Lugo created this unique event in response to the book’s Episode in which Leopold Bloom sets out on foot to search for somewhere to eat in the centre of Dublin. In the Episode in Joyce’s famous book, Leopold Bloom settles eventually for a gorgonzola cheese sandwich that he cuts into small sections and a glass of white wine for digestion. Audiences at this event will be treated to a highly energised dance work with the dancers enunciating the Lestrygonians’ text while moving through the space and audience plus an evocative still scene of the dancers making bread.
Catherine O’Connor, Dublin, Ireland
Commission by YES
Catherine is a self-taught tapestry artist currently based in Dublin. She established her studio practice in 2019 with the purpose of capturing the essence of a person in woven tapestries. Catherine is drawn to portraiture in an effort to capture the variations and nuances in a person’s features and expression. For YES 2024, Catherine will create a bespoke tapestry which will celebrate the female form. The tapestry will be on display at The YES Hub, St Columb’s Hall, Derry~Londonderry.
Noémi Kiss, Budapest
Derry In A Day
Noémi is a Hungarian writer, whose works have been translated into English, German, Bulgarian, Romanian and Serbian. The German press consider her as one of the most promising writers of her generation. Noémi, has been an associate professor at the Eszterházy Károly Catholic University of Eger since autumn 2023. She is a writer and traveller. Her fiction features independent and vulnerable female figures, who sometimes flirt with the eccentric, but more often struggle in all-too-familiar environments. For YES 2024 Noémi will facilitate a day-long workshop with local writers producing a series of individual stories which are pulled into a collective book that reveals Derry in a Day.
Miss Trouli, Athens, Greece
Love Songs of Supermodernity
Miss Trouli is a producer and club culture researcher. She is a true dancefloor aficionada. From house music essentials to seductive breaks and progressive trips, always with a dose of pop millennial nostalgia, she strives to explore a wide spectrum of club music and create sensual, dynamic environments related to desire, hedonism, femininity and togetherness. Her selections are unapologetic, while she unexpectedly crosses genres and decades, aiming to bring out a sense of liberation, bliss and belonging to everyone that dances with her.
Codetta, Derry~Londonderry, Ireland/UK
Opening Civic Reception performance
The international prize-winning choir Codetta was formed in 2001. Since then they have earned a reputation for choral excellence and given many concerts both nationally and internationally, including performances in the United States, Italy, Spain, the Czech Republic, Norway, Slovenia, Switzerland and Mexico.
Past highlights include two Prom performances in the Royal Albert Hall in London, Last Night of the Proms in Belfast and special guest choir for the 2015 BBC Sports Personality of the Year, which was broadcast to an audience of more than eight million viewers. In May 2016, Codetta performed with Barry Douglas and Camerata in the Kennedy Centre, Washington and in 2017 Codetta won the Fleischmann International Trophy at the Cork International Choral Festival.
The choir performs regularly with the Ulster Orchestra, including annual performances of Handel’s Messiah and most recently, a recording of the soundtrack to the film, Lost Lives. In April 2023, Codetta presented concerts in Tequila and Guadalajara as part of a short tour of the Jalisco area of Mexico. An annual highlight for the choir is their participation in the City of Derry International Choir Festival in October, with recent performances including Verdi’s Requiem, Bruckner’s Mass in E minor and Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. They are currently preparing Tippett’s A Child of Our Time as part of Festival 2024.