Starting October 25, 2024 until March 8, 2025, the group + Donna Zero Violence, which inhabits the sim of the same name in Craft World, reconfirms its commitment against Violence against Women by planning a series of events revolving around November 25 “International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.” Already in previous years + Women Zero Violence has made its voice heard by drafting a Manifesto that stated the motivations for activities on the issue.
The poster of the 2023 edition + Women Zero Violence
This year’s project, titled Voices of Women, confirmed the commitment of reflection and support for women victims of violence by continuing, as avatars in the Metaverse and as people in real life, the role of citizens and citizens attentive to the respect of women’s rights, as human rights.
In the group + Women Zero Violence everything takes place in a community atmosphere, with shared choices even in the selection of the poster image from the many made with IA by some members of the group. The display of all the posters was curated by Rubin Mayo to complement the January 28 re-opening of his Labyrint, part of the exhibition curated in 2023 by Rosanna Galvani The Body of Women.
The different images for the 2024/25 poster proposed in Rubin Mayo’s Labyrint
The poster chosen by the community + Women Zero Violence
The Voices of Women track began with a dialogue with Cinzia Marroccoli, on the topic of non-judgmental listening in the approach to battered women who turn to Anti-Violence Centers, and will conclude with the presentation of the ebook Love Letters, the outcome of a writing workshop I held in Second Life and Craft World. Marroccoli, a psychologist and psychotherapist, president of the Telefono Donna Association, Anti-Violence Center and Shelter House “Ester Scardaccione” in Potenza, has trained, starting in 2023, the volunteer avatars of the Listening Center active in Craft World Opensim.
Conversation with Cinzia Marroccoli on the importance of nonjudgmental listening at the opening of the project “Voices of Women”
The +Woman Zero Violence group program gave space to a re-reading of women’s history, highlighting little-known but significant figures in terms of autonomy of choices and areas of interest. Sergej Zarf a.k.a. Mario Fontanella, in presenting the profile of two women figures, the mystic Rābiʿa al-ʿAdawiyyaha and the writer Annabelle Hirsh, particularly focused the attention of the avatars present at the event on some of the objects of greater symbolic value of the 100 proposed by Hirsh in her book dedicated to an original rereading of women’s history.
Event poster edited by Sergej Zarf aka Mario Fontanella
Sahlazar Stenvaag and Eva Kraai a.k.a. Francesca M.R. Bertolami talked about Alice Guy-Blaché (Saint-Mandé, July 1, 1873 – Wayne, March 24, 1968), a French film director and producer who made the first fiction film in the history of cinema, La Fée aux choux, as well as being the first woman in history to direct a film. She was also the first woman to establish a film studio, Solax Company in 1910, in New Jersey.
An image from “Alice Guy Blaché, the forgotten filmmaker,” curated by Sahlazar Stenvaag and Eva Kraai aka Francesca M.R. Bertolami
Rosanna Galvani a.k.a. Roxelo Babenco, curator of the Metaverse Museum MdM, organized every Tuesday a re-opening of the group exhibition The Body of Women, held in 2023 in Craft World, an initiative that allowed to deepen, through the vision of the works of the numerous participating artists, the reflection on the female condition they translated into images and installations of remarkable impact.
The weekly re-openings in 2024 and2025 of this exhibition, said Rosanna Galvani, dedicated each time to a pair of artists from the fifteen who created the installations also using artificial intelligence, allowed an in-depth look at artistic productions that were able to explore the meaning and value of the female body, both in the history of art and in everyday life, representing their vision in relation to themes such as violence, freedom, beauty, resilience, diversity, fertility, motherhood, and creativity.
An image from the re-opening dedicated to Fiona Saiman and Eva Kraai
Galvani also presented Sarima Giha’s Blog City, a synthesis of a life spent in Second Life, which migrated from there to Craft World Opensim at the author’s behest, and scheduled the inauguration of the Locusolus region also migrated from Second Life. Locusolus, region, entrusted to the Museum of the Metaverse by Gazira Babeli, – said Galvani – is a magical place where art and interaction come together in a unique experience.
Citta Blog by Sarina Giha
LocuSolus byGazira Babeli
Singer Donatella Alamprese aka Donna Lampo gave the concert The Voices of Eve, dedicated to female figures from around the world, accompanied by musicians Marco Giacomini, Andrea Farolfi and Amedeo Ronga.
A picture from Donatella Alamprese’s concert
Laura Antichi spoke about sisterhood, defining some aspects of it related to different female types and social, cultural and psychological conditioning.
One of the slides proposed by Laura Antichi
Velazquez Bonetto a.k.a. Laszlo Ordogh, computer scientist and artist, curated the Commnent Song Concert, featuring AI-produced music on texts by Josina Burgess, Medora Chevalier and others,in Hungarian and Italian, related to the theme of the project Voices of Women
A picture from Velasquez Bonetto’s concert
The play Voice to Women, from an idea of Fiona Saiman, re-read the history of women from a problematic perspective, linked to stereotypes and prejudices that are difficult to shake. It featured figures from Greek mythology and epics and from modern and contemporary European history.
An image from the play “Voce alle donne”, text by Lorenza Colicigno, from an idea and scenography by Fiona Saiman
Musical listening routinely accompanies other cultural activities in Craft World, with this in mind DJArianna proposed an evening of songs dedicated to women, and on December 31 Rubin Mayo held the customary New Year’s Eve Vigil, while the re-opening of the exhibition The Body of Women continues in January 2025.
In the “vision” of the group + Women Zero Violence could not miss an initiative dedicated to the memory of the Holocaust with a reading dedicated to survivors and witnesses of the Shoah held on January 31.
The Voices of Women project will close on March 8 with an event to present the ebook Love Letters, the outcome of a writing workshop held in Second Life and Craft World.
The poster of the event of March 8th “Love Letters”
Dissemination of the activities carried out in Craft-World is made possible outside the metaverse through documentation videos posted on YouTube.
The group + Women Zero Violence offers in Craft-World the opportunity for a Listening Desk for women/avatars in need.
On the Facebook page, one can find contact information for the Desk and receive further guidance on how to reach facilities dedicated to battered women. It is always useful to remember the unique anti-violence number 1522 and the corresponding website https://www.1522.eu/. Eliminating the socio-cultural conditions that foster violence against women is a moral duty that must involve everyone, women and men. In Craft World we make the culture of change, the culture of human rights, the culture of conscious community, taking care of the connection with schools and associations that intend to move in the same direction.
This is an opportunity to recall that in virtual worlds, specifically in Craft-World Opensim, one can encounter “heightened humanity,” according to Giuseppe Granieri’s definition of it in his 2009 essay of the same name. From the perspective of cultural activities, in fact, in the metaverse Craft World represents an irreplaceable open-source place where culture, inclusion, and authenticity of personal relationships are practiced. Thanks to Licu Rau a.k.a. Raffaele Macis, because with his grid he offers the possibility to be protagonists of a great virtual adventure, but above all a human one.
