In the discussion Ana Grobler, MA, Ana Čigon, MA, and Eva Jus reflect on the influence of feminist art and feminism on society and vice versa through selected feminist visual artworks created in Slovenia since approximately the year 2000. We discuss various works of art, each of which is important in its own right either because of the social moment in which it was created or because of the content it sheds light on. We approach feminism from the viewpoint of the inclusivity of queer theory and activism, with special attention to the edges of the margins, and we see it according to bell hooks (2022) as a movement that advocates for the end of sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression. With our discussion we want to preserve personal experiences and memories that help us to historicise feminist art, and emancipatory artistic and social practices as well as their actors. At the same time, the length of this piece allows us only few insights and not an comprehensive overview that contemporary feminist art deserves. In the discussion, we also touch on general social and political environment, some queer-feminist and LGBTIQ* formal and informal groups, activist actions, and festivals, and we pay special attention to the International Feminist and Queer Festival Red Dawns, which originates from Autonomous Cultural Centre Metelkova mesto, Ljubljana. This festival, which was for many years the only one in Slovenia with an adjective feminist (and queer) in its title, with its numerous and everchanging organizational team and its activist engagement, is one of the key spaces that has managed to build a (temporary) feminist counter public. In its safe space, it dared to dream about more inclusive practices and irreversibly influenced both art and theory and was an important piece in the mosaic of striving for a more inclusive society, in which the word feminism is less often understood as a pejorative.
