Green Hijab Movement

Green Hijab Movement 2017-2018
A collaboration between Frans Jacobi & Gitte Sætre and a somewhat intrigued audience

The Green Hijab Movement is a proposal for a new global movement; it is slowly gathering momentum and each of these events have engaged new participants. Of course, it is very, very far from being a real political movement – but it is to be understood as a potential possibility. Or as the artist Liam Gillick has termed a series of works: A ‘what if situation’.

If someone pokes the same spot over and over again, it becomes a problem. If you don’t like how the table is set, turn over the table. Green Hijab Movement turns the table by drawing a door. A door letting in a draft, which in turn leads to movement in the air thus creating momentum. A new climate is established, with one purpose: global solidarity in the struggle for climate and environment, that does not differentiate between class, gender, culture or religion. The weather affects us all, so let´s dance.! We do not have time for pessimism.

short sequence of a performance at club 'Opera', Bergen 2019

Full documentation video of the performance at Fylkinen, Stockholm 2018

'History Will Be Kind to Me for I Intend to Perform It' @ PALS, Fylkingen.
The evening before the Swedish general election. Stockholm 8.11.2018

Sound of thunder, a strobe light, the audience was sitting in a circle of chairs
The protagonist talked from the centre of the room, she moved slowly around and meet the eyes of every person while telling them what was on her mind.

Below you will find some nice stills from the second part, the dancing which engaged a wonderful and tough audience, Swedish feminists, artists and several Arab men who were not enthusiastic about the hijab in the first place. But as you see they gave in to global solidarity and the hijacking of symbols of power.

To access the monologue performed click here

Foto: Hironori Tsukue and Denis Romanovski

Foto: Isan Maher

Green Hijab Movement performing the DJ, 2017
At the Art Museum; Kode in Bergen, september 2017
By Gitte Sætre

Turning the museum KODE into a political dance party.
Music make people danse and dancing bring people together.
Music is our smallest common multiplier.
I played a collage of music from different cultures and periodes. I appropriated and did thing that was quite controversial back in 2017 and 2018,.
Today it would not be possible to this project, but I will not sensor it. It is a document of how time and politics changes and I as an artist will always play and poke . It makes a movement in it selves.

This anarchic idea of collecting and combining elements from different places does it work or is it problematic and confusing? It carries a risk, but nevertheless essential in the pursuit of a new positioning- opportunities it provides for new insights- connections and revelations of hunting power constantly trying to hide itself. I would say that any original thought that creates some kind of resonance in the present comes with connections that are not obvious. Visible and participating in the public exchange of words in hope of participating in creating ripple effects. How to activate yourself and your surroundings? Banal and simple, my practice is about seeing, thinking and acting as an individual and as a larger community as part of a contemporary art discourse; aesthetic pedagogy. A proposals for models for decentralisation, non-hierarchical networks and decentralized decision-making. I find this to be important