Viva La Vulva Festival is a multidisciplinary art festival that aims to make all stigmas disappear by the end of the 2024. Viva la Vulva festival is a tribute to Vulva. For everyone who wants to celebrate the Vulva!
Join us to experience feminist art, crafts, music and stories inspired by the Vulva!
You’ll immerse yourself in the Vulva world by meeting amazing artists, be inspired by interesting stories, performances, films and art. All this to change our perception of Vulva and celebrate, body and gender diversity.
Viva la vulva!
Program (in progress)
1 PM - 8 PM Art Market
Power of Appearance is a queer based clothing brand. We make queer street wear, we design multiple different things which also include vulva designs.
Miss PJ Superior born an American hillbilly, from the same rural Smoky Mountains as country singer Dolly Parton. Severe sexual abuse all through childhood and excused in the name of religion led to an artistic resolve to release bodied taboos which only help for such abuses to continue. By freeing imagery and information, we can free ourselves and each other from pain and degradation. PJ herself was born intersex and mutilated at birth to be assigned female. PJ Superior is most known for my international vulva goddesses, especially my “Vagina Mary” (as popularly called) Maria Rosa design originally created in 2013 and widely used for others’ advertisement and sold on other products not released by the original artist and without consent of the original artist. This obscure creator from the darkest depths of the American trailer park still strives to bring light through their art while hoping to gain acceptance and recognition of their own work. PJ moved to the Netherlands in 2022.
I’m a comic artist that likes to express herself in silly autobio stories, but i also have a fascination with everything connected to women and our bodies. One day I started sewing boobie heart pillows as a fun way to show gratitude and appreciation for our bodies and my friends had extremely positive reactions from which I decided to sell them at markets. The reactions at markets have also been so sweet – I make the boobs asymmetrical and imperfect, which reflects our normal breasts as well, and adding things like mastectomy pillows(with scars) was also met with positive reactions from people suffering or had a close relative with breast cancer.
I’ve talked at a local breast cancer awareness event talking about the importance of not making our breasts taboos in society because of the health risks it can lead to. My mission is to bring about more conversations about women’s bodies in a lighthearted way so as to reach a wider public.
Ari is an entrepreneur with two startups promoting identity and sexual diversity. They came up with this projects because they didn’t feel comfortable expressing their gender and sexual identity where they come from.
TITSUP rings are made of recyclable casted acrylic of 2/3mm thick, laser cut and engraved. By wearing the rings we proclaim our identity diversity as well as give you a chance to demonstrate your support and become our ally.
2H2H paddles are made of Powerplex Bio, which is a unique plywood board because of its circular, biological and non-toxic properties as well the glue and oil we used.
Sabina works to destigmatize intimacy. “The word intimacy is often related to sex while it doesn’t have to be that way at all. In our digital world we forget how to communicate, I try to stimulate communication and deeper intimacy, Same with the word Vulva, it is surrounded by taboos and stigma and often is related to sex. “I began crafting vulvas three years ago and picked up the pace last year. My passion lies in exploring themes surrounding sexuality and breaking down societal taboos surrounding the subject. Through my work, I aim to initiate conversations and challenge people’s perspectives.”
I have always been concerned with nudity and the female body, so Place du Tiet was born in a very natural way.
Place Du Tiet is a small stand where you can have your breasts portrayed!
Umaversity is a movement and community, founded by Jo Sarah, where you can connect, share and learn about everything (female+) mental, body & sexuality with each other and with our 100+ experts. UMA means woman in Surinamese and ‘VERISTY’ is a place where education and knowledge exchange take place on all kinds of levels, just like a University. Our vibrant community spans 42 different cultures, bringing together individuals aged 20 – 70, and transcending gender boundaries. Umaversity provides a platform for dialogue and education, both online and offline, featuring insights from 100+ experts who work with us in the realm of mental, body & sexual wellness. We have and sell clitoris earrings to raise more awareness for female+ pleasure and closing the orgasm gap.
The female view on things has been underrated for hundreds if not thousands of years now as has female sexuality. I have made pieces about the subject over the years, I’m a sculptor.
It started from the wish to have more feminist art on my walls. I was looking for art made by women about women, from an artful point of appreciation without sexualising them. Struggling to find exactly that, I realised I needed to make what I was looking for. I started with painting my own body while looking in the mirror. From that point I started to work more intuitively. I noticed that the vulva shape is a beautiful shape to use in drawings. By doing this, I aim to normalise the display of vulva’s. The phallus shape seems to be everywhere, for me resembling male dominance. People don’t even notice it at times. What is striking to me is the amount of people shyfully asking if there are indeed vulva shapes in my art. I am happy that they ask, so I can express my wish to appreciate vulvas, as a symbol for women taking up space. Further about me, I love colours and I love creating. In anything I do I try to make society more inclusive. I do this explicitly by giving trainings, educating and writing stories. Visual art is for me a more subtle and poetic way of making statements.
My name is Guus! I’m a Dutch/Norwegian comics artist and illustrator living and working in The Netherlands. My drawings are inspired by fantasy, mythology and history, and I am endlessly fascinated by the human body. I suppose growing up with a strong mother who impressed upon us from a very young age the damaging effects of the patriarchy means that I became a feminist before I really understood to put a word to it. Becoming conscious of it and the work that it requires to unlearn negative male socialisations, however, is an ongoing process, which my nascent queerness plays into strongly. It’s hard to put a starting date to it. Besides this private trajectory, my art has always been very personal, which means that my political beliefs, including my feminism, my interest in anarchism and utopian thinking, and queering history, weave throughout it. I have made more explicitly political works, including illustrations for the Dutch anarchist organisation Vrije Bond, but mostly it’s very personal.
I am a multidisciplinary artist who loves to translate women in art. I think women are the staple of our society. The beauty and the brains of our society.
All my creations are full of colour, vulnerability, empathy, humour, and a voice. They are inspired by and aim to create safe spaces for mental health, intersectional feminism, and queer pride. The mission of my work is to question social norms and normalize conversations on “taboo” issues through inclusive, uplifting, and affordable art!
I am an Amsterdam based artist, I started painting (mostly) female and femnine bodies in bright, powerful colors since I witnessed firsthand the power of the female body during labour. This was about 3 years ago during my internship in gynaecology. It is magical what we can do with our bodies, but still we often have a love-hate relationship with them. In my art I celebrate the power and beauty of our bodies. For me especially the booty holds a lot of power, because it is the centre of the body, a connector between the top and bottom, a generator of flow. It is often an object of lust/and also criticism. And lastly, in dance – shaking the booty brings me joy.
I’ve always had a passion for drawing, in particular women and the female body, since when I was a child. In my early age I was shamed by my classmates and told off by my family, for drawing naked women, and that kinda contributed to a stop in my creative process. It took me many years (until I was 26 or so) to start drawing again and not being ashamed of showing my works. Since a year or so I went digital and defined my style into the one you can see on my page. I mostly draw myself, or female friends and family , in moments that are representative for me. I consider myself an emerging artist still, but I am more keen on giving my works the value they deserve, at least as far as my perception is concerned.
I’m a multidisciplinary artist from Azerbaijan with a passion for feminist themes and body positivity. My work explores the beauty of the female form and aims to challenge societal norms and taboos. I have collaborated with feminist and queer groups in Azerbaijan to address issues like selective abortion, gender inequality, and queer representation in art and cinema. My work also involves partnering with human rights organizations in Europe, such as WECF, to promote social justice and advocacy.
My art had always involved social themes. First in photographic art (under a pseudonym Susan Lucida) and since three years that I started painting it concerns mainly feminine and queer (Sapphic love) themes. My work is more a celebration of female nature than strictly feminist. My yoni art is about celebrating the power of the female energy.
I always loved to draw. And for a while now I have been on a journey to connect deeper with my yoni and to fall in love with her again. I have struggled for a long time with accepting her. The first time I saw the beauty of my yoni was when I made her into an art piece. Along the journey into deeper acceptance of my yoni the idea for Yoni Portraits came. With Yoni Portraits I want to help women, to let them see the beauty of their yoni. I have heard from to many women that they don’t like how their yoni looks or that they never really connected with their yoni in an aware way. It’s such an important part of our body of being a woman. Connect with our yoni, through the shame (and there is a lot in our society) is really powerful. It connects women deeper with themselves, with their pleasure, with their creativity, with life. This is my way to support woman in falling in love with their yoni again, with falling in love with themselves again.
These are ‘Conchas’ earrings. In Spanish, ‘Concha’ means oysters and ‘Vulva’. I decided to explore how to make beautiful Vulvas that we can wear, with so many different ones for us to choose from and bring home! It reminds us that every vulva is different and beautiful!!!!
1 PM - 8 PM Expo
Masharu is an earth eater and an earth lover, a founder of the Museum of Edible Earth. Masharu’s projects combine scientific research with a personal approach and cultural practices. masharu: “In dreams as a kid I saw myself writing a fictional autobiography book in a gender-neutral language. I truly wished that there would be something else out there. I initiated the creation of this map first of all for my inner child simply to say ‘yes’, there is something else out there.
Masharu will present ,Nonbinary, mixed-media, which aims to bring the critical interrogation of binary and nonbinary forward in order to move past patriarchal codifications of gender, which objectify and often (partially) erase people living outside of firm binary expressions. The exhibition includes firsthand narratives and interviews from contributors across the globe who live through experiences and gender expressions outside of the western binary gender. Nonbinary is supported by the Amsterdam Art Fund and the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds.
Iara is an Artist and Scenographer. Iara thinks that the role of art is to give visibility to things that are happening in society.
Iara is Argentinian, living in the Netherlands, has decided to work with sex-positive topics to talk more openly about sexuality, such as pleasure, different Kinks, fantasies, ways to give and receiving pleasure, relationships, connections, etc… in a non-traditional way of thinking about sexuality. As a scenographer, Iara is learning how to create a space that explores these topics.
Iara always learns about sex by talking to other people, she brings these conversations to her art as a way of conserving and being able to enter many people’s intimate spaces and share it with everyone. Iara’s intent is to break taboos about sex and sexual exploration, which she is also going through right now. Iara invites people to connect with these small moments of Intimacy.
1 PM - 8 PM DJ's
Dj Nata Babaju distinctive deep house styles allows us to summon our sexiness to rise and get us in the club vibe in OT301. She brings the jazz-funk and electronic soul with distinctive vocals and takes us on a journey to upbeat house party style. Known for her queer popular parties as co-organizer of YARRR party and Girl Drop, plus co-founder of Q-Kitchen! Her immersed contribution to our Viva la Vulva has been infinite with love!
Our MC!, coolness and positive vibes is what she represents through her MC & DJ. Eclectic waves of genre from pop, urban and dance.
She is a charismatic speaker that radiants energy with a wholesome compassion between our audience and our artists!
Workshops
Art by Kerdisha expresses she is a proud feminist, longing for equality for all, regardless of gender. One of her favorite quotes, by American poet and civil rights activist, Maya Angelou, is: “I’ve been a female for a long time now, it would be stupid not to be on my own team.” The 26-year-old is spreading a message; to turn the archetypal objectification of women on its head, and replacing it with empowering graphics of the female form. – LeftLion
During Lets Paint Tit workshop – you can paint handmade boob trinket trays and take them home. We have only 20, hurry up, vulvas!
“Pleasure for all parts!”
Talk about sex, bodies, relationships and pleasure has been hollow for long enough. SKSPRAAT (SXTALK) is a platform for honest, open, inclusive and fun sexual education for everyone! Facilitating conversations that are about what you want to talk about, in which we practice respectful curiosity and a joyful pride in who we are. Join us for an investigating talk about how we can experience pleasure in all parts – of our body, of our identity and of each other!
Film
Performances
A desert dweller of the U.S., Nova Kane debuted her first burlesque performances with the Tucson Libertine League before moving to Amsterdam and performing shows with the Amsterdam School of Burlesque. Her acts indulge the dark, the frivolous, and the feminist. She believes every body has its stories, and she loves burlesque’s ability to hold and celebrate those stories.
She will be performing a burlesque where a woman tries to relax on a beach. However, she finds herself bombarded by chaos until she discovers some magic sunglasses that allow her to let her hair down. All of her hair. Through displaying various pubic hair stylings, this act invites multiple options of being, no matter where they lay on the landscape of societal and structural expectations.
I am a huge fantasy fan. I’m a writer and a spoken word artist. I draw a lot of inspiration from my own fantasy worlds, but also the great Tolkien and newer writers like Samantha Shannon and Madeline Miller. I love combining my love of fantasy with real life and my activist nature.
I will be doing a spoken word performance in cosplay. Showing and telling you, not only about my characters, but also my life growing up as a black and trans teen.
They are inspired by the interwoven connections between organisms, technology and queertrans love. Their performance encapsulates softness with descriptions filled with visual elements. Besides poetry, they also perform contemporary dance and theatre.
Bustie La Tish started burlesque lessons at the Amsterdam School of burlesque about 10 years ago. She has developed many acts from comic to fetish and performed on stages all over the world. Bustie is a proud member of Amsterdam activist drag house – the House of Hopelezz, – where she performs together with a group of LGBTQIA+ performers and won the Superball competition with them in 2019 and 2022. She is the founder and co-producer of the inclusive and activist shows PUSSY GRABS BACK! and GOSH! She also produces and hosts the Smut Slam Amsterdam, Amsterdam’s only storytelling night about sex.
She will be doing a stand up comedy set about menopause.
We are a couple for more than 6 years. We were both dancers before our relationship and dancing kinda brought us together. From the very beginning of our relationship, we created short choreographies and danced them just for ourselves. Although we have always aspired to show our art on a wider scale. When it comes to our inspirations, it may seem funny, but sex inspired us. Despite differences – sex always brings two people together. In both of our previous relationships we didn’t feel safe and sex was mechanical. When you find everything you need in your partner and feel your safe space – you flow from position to position, you connect your naked souls in it. This is what inspires us!
It’s a choreography about a couple who have had ups and downs and are constantly working on being better. Despite differences – sex always brings them together. They flow from position to position and connect naked souls in this choreography.
I am Maryo, Experienced Expert in Sexwork. With almost 20 years of experience working in the nightlife as a performative sexworker, I have made the switch to a 9 till 5 life and work three days a week as a socialworker for (ex)sexworkers. Turning my experience into expertise for a better position of sexworkers is my purpose.
Shanice Fullinck (She/They) is a Multidisciplinary artist, Queer Activist & +Model who works to bring more (body) inclusivity & diversity into the entertainment industry on and offline. As a decolonial intersectional feminist their work centers around how colonialism still impacts our society today and bring more diverse representation through different creative outlets.
“AFEKTÁ” is an enthralling performance that weaves Shanice’s personal journey of “fat liberation” into a mesmerizing tapestry of movement and expression. This captivating piece takes the audience on a profound exploration of the various phases of her sensual liberation. It delves into the visceral experience of inhabiting a plus-size body, exploring their skin and the way their body moves. It vividly portrays the emotions tied to taking up space and existing in spaces that have historically excluded bodies like theirs. “AFEKTÁ” is a stunning odyssey of self-discovery through movement and verbal expression, an evocative celebration of embracing one’s true self in a world that often imposes rigid standards.
Aryelle Freeman Hopelezz is an Amsterdam based drag performer, dancer, fashion model, and LGBTQAI+ activist. She is performing in the Dutch (queer) and arts scene, at arts institution, clubs and festivals, prompting inclusivity and diversity. Puszi Puszi and Koko are the drag daughters of Aryelle.
They will be doing a drag performance incorporating lipsync and mime elements, under the theme of (alternative) motherhood.