Conversation with Sharon Hayes and Andrea Geyer, Malmö, 2003

Conducted by Kirsten Dufour.

In this conversation, artists Sharon Hayes and Andrea Geyer discuss their collaborative project Cambio de Lugar (Change of Place), which involves interviewing women who identify or have been identified as women at some point in their lives. Through video recordings in various international locations, Hayes and Geyer focus on the translation challenges that arise from addressing gender discourse and feminism across cultural contexts. Only translators appear in the footage, underscoring how meaning shifts through translation. Hayes and Geyer also share their experiences of working in Mexico City, noting that Mexican feminist movements are often misread as extensions of North American feminism, though they have distinct histories rooted in urban and grassroots struggles.

Relating to ideas about creating a feminist video archive, Hayes and Geyer reflect on their own trajectories within the feminist art movement. Hayes elaborates: “The same thing that happens between languages happens across time, which is that to understand that historical moment requires a translation that is always fragmented; it is a construction that happens now… Feminist strategies used in art in the '70s have had such an impact on contemporary art of any form.” Geyer emphasizes that her work, which engages with gender representation, is also deeply intertwined with larger socio-political frameworks, suggesting that feminist art today should be viewed as part of complex, intersectional discourses.

The artists discuss generational shifts in feminist activism, noting that while 1970s movements often had revolutionary aspirations—“there was a kind of feeling... that something could change, something dramatic”—today’s landscape lacks that same sense of imminent transformation. Yet, “feminism has lasted and continues to last much longer than many political movements… That is something to feel energized and depressed by… because there’s still a reason for it to be here,” says Hayes. Geyer reflects on the feminist art movement’s historical struggle to include identities beyond “women-born-women,” adding, “I identify as woman, but that woman is maybe another kind of woman than somebody else identifies with.”

As an endnote, Hayes recounts her introduction to feminism: “I found my identification as a 20-year-old. I think it's interesting to recognize that young women are finding identification with feminism again and again.” The very fact that the feminist movement has been able to transform over time—“that’s exactly the legacy that I really appreciate, that there was the willingness to let it go and let something else start.”