The new brand named anti_dog is introduced to make women, especially colored ones, feel protected also in dangerous neighborhoods, against skinheads with their dogs and other aggressors.
This project started with Framis’s experiences when she was living in Berlin for a while. She was told about a certain part of town called Marzahn where she would not be able to walk alone as a woman with dark skin because racist skinheads with big aggressive dogs rule the streets there. She felt an urge to go, but with a protection against the dogs.
“Immigrant women talk about these matters, but secretly because we feel ashamed to be an undesirable immigrant. On the other hand we are immensely grateful to have the opportunity to develop ourselves in the other country. Where we live is not our soil by nature, but here we feel more connected to our dreams than in the country we left one day. I feel ashamed to denounce physical and psychological attacks from people that I embrace as inhabitants of my land of dreams and possibilities, but at the same time it is a reality that is there in the shades of our politeness.
In these days ‘Safety’ and ‘protection’ are high on the agenda of politicians and citizens, but the means they use to achieve that are scary. Omnipresent video cameras should protect us against other people but instead they deprive us of our intimacy. The loss of intimacy reinforces the idea of insecurity and unsafe. Video cameras are a closed circuit of: fear—watch--no intimacy—fear—watch—no intimacy—fear—watch—no—intimacy. Protection doesn’t come from a monitor; the monitor is just a witness of our fear. Safety comes from the feeling you are the owner of you own body and mind.” Alicia Framis.
Anti_dog developed strategies against violence in Pairs, Semaine de la mode 6 October 2002 Palais de Tokyo; Amsterdam, Demonstration in Ajax stadium 13 October 2002; Madrid, Demonstration against domestic violence in front of Museum Reina Sofia 13 February 2003; Helsinborg, Demonstration Reclaim the Light! 26 April 2003; Barcelona, Video clip ‘beauty doesn’t need gender’ 28 April 2003; Birmingham, Demonstration Copyright unwanted Sentences 13 May 2003.