Throw Like a Girl

Bekan put out an open call and convened a group of women from the two different worlds of the arts and the military. They will reflect on the work and roles women perform and how times of conflict have paradoxically created space for emancipation and personal development. In doing so, the participants will reciprocally learn about one another’s professional fields, life choices and commitments.   

The group uses TENT as a hybrid space for intimate and public gatherings, conversations, exercises, rehearsals and learning and work collaboratively towards a performance in August, which will eventually result in a film work.   

Their starting point is the life story of Jeanne Merkus, a Dutch philanthropist and activist who decided to take up arms and join the Herzegovina uprising against the Ottoman occupation in 1875, leading soldiers in battle. Over the years, the perception of this historical figure has shifted from heroine to outcast in Balkan public memory and from guerrilla soldier to housewife in popular culture.