"We hammer on the typewriters.
That's exactly like playing the piano.
Who owns money, does not need to earn.
We do not have it. That's why we hammer.”
- DANCE ON THE VOLCANO
"Dance on the Volcano" (org. German: 'Tanz auf dem Vulkan') is not just a Berlin film production from 1938. The title also describes the life and the social situation in the years after 1920 like no other term, especially in the vibrant city of Berlin. It was a torn time between monarchy and dictatorship, between luxury and misery, between war and peace. The literature experienced a heyday from the mid-20s. The diverse cultural and literary life of the Weimar Republic also allowed writing women to develop a new self-confidence. The anonymity of the city made it easier for women to distance themselves from traditional role models and to develop new forms of life. During that time, a emancipation movements that have shaped the image of the 'new woman' was formed, that developed the long time existing (and partly stereotypical) image of the emancipated, sexually open-minded woman. The new women were mainly active in the suffragette movement, which in 1919 brought the long-awaited women's suffrage. As a new task of the women's movement, the struggle for equal rights "as a whole person" has been tackled that included the "struggle for language and image". |
On the occasion of World Women's Day on 8 March, 2019, young female students, together with artists from Yogyakarta, critically examined the role model of women and transported the scenes from the last century to Indonesia in 2019, directly to Yogyakarta on the foot of volcano Merapi. In addition, well-known women writers who were considered to be "rebellious" was presented as well as Expressionist literature, which influenced the 1920s. The monologues, chansons and film art were presented in a self-interpretation by the artists - they told the stories of women's desperate search for independence and self-fulfillment - a contemporary image accordingly: self-confident, true to life and up-to-date.
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