The project residency in Slovenia – menstruation, mentality and access to education and free products
The project residency in Slovenia – menstruation, mentality and access to education and free products
The FEMMINCITY project, implemented with co-funding from EU by the program CERV, includes the production of a theatre performance in Maribor, Slovenia, with an artistic residency organised by one of the project partners - ZIZ Collective.
The process began with workshops on the topic of menstruation, which took place in May and June 2025. Together with the registered participants, ZIZ Collective from Maribor collected materials for developing a performance, opened up conversations about menstruation, and created a safe and supportive space for people with diverse experiences of menstruation.
In July, an open call was launched for individuals interested in participating in the production of a performance on the topic of menstruation. Those who applied joined a group that decided to continue the creative process initiated during the workshops. The group consisted of 15 women and 2 men, including dancers, women who engage with menstruation on a spiritual level, a teacher, a scientist, a doula, LGBTQ+ individuals, a writer.
In August, a one-week long theatre bootcamp was held on the themes and motifs developed during the workshops, began creating scenes and texts, and recorded video materials for the performance. Throughout the devising and production process, we used methods of the Theatre of the Oppressed. The performance is a collective creation and an expression of the lived experiences, perspectives, and voices of the participants.
In September, director Agniezska Bresler and choreographer Iwona Konecka from the partner organization Kobietostan arrived in Maribor. Together, they finalized the performance and presented its premiere and a reprise. Both performances were sold out.
About the performance From the First to the Last
Performance in the intersection of art, history and sociological analysis. Menstruation is not just a biological process, it is a historically and socially defined experience, full of paradoxes, myths, invisible aspects and control. Is menstruation just a bodily function - or is it a mean of classification that dictates when the woman is useful and when she becomes invisible?
The performance uses body, voice, object theatre, latest scientific research and subject history to open the space for a public discussion about menstruation - one of the most regular yet one of the most stigmatised daily occurrences in lives of half the humanity. Menstruation is not just a biological process, it is a historically and socially defined experience, full of paradoxes, myths, invisible aspects and control. It is not only a question of hormones and hygiene, but a question of power, societal norms, language, economy. Is menstruation just a bodily function - or is it a mean of classification that separates those that can be heard from those who must not be? That dictates when the woman is useful and when she becomes invisible? How to talk about the menstruation - through art, science, in school, at home? The performance was produced as a collective research of the artistic team that understands menstruation as political and aesthetical fact and uses different performative means to appeal to redefine our relation and attitude towards female body, menstruation blood and circularity of time.
Artistic team: Teja Bitenc, Jurij Torkar, Barbara Polajnar, Katarina Zalar
Director: Agnieszka Bresler
Choreography and video montage: Iwona Konecka
Assistant Director: Iwona Konecka, Barbara Polajnar
Dramaturgical advisor: Zala Dobovšek
Costume and set design: Katarina Zalar
Performers: The Femminicity Collective: Teja Bitenc, Patricija Crnkovič, Suzana Grau, Tanja Matijašević, Anja Partlič, Milena Pučnik, Severina Siter, Matija Šiško, Ajda Špacapan, Mateja Toplak, Jurij Torkar, Natalija Troha
Producer: Nastja Soko
Produced by: Društvo ZIZ with supported from Narodni dom Maribor - Vetrinjski dvor.
