Bron: Cutup Magazine 2005
Datum: 16 februari 2005
Titel: Paste a Pussy & Other Vaginal Projects
Door: Anouk Knielham

For +VULVA it is V-Day 365 days a year! +VULVA stands for controversial artprojects concerning the female sexual organ. An interview with the Dutch artist Yvonne Beelen, the driving force behind +VULVA. With the wink of an eye and a smile she reflects on a new reality.

Can you briefly describe your work?
That is not so simple, since my work is a melting pot of several disciplines: of performance, installations, theatre, and audiovisual. Working this way enables me to get people as close as possible into my world of experience. That world looks like our world, but there is always a twist, something that is not normal and that shows how the world, with some fantasy, could also look.

You hold up a mirror to society?
Maybe I do, but unconsciously and certainly not in any didactic sense. No, rather with the wink of an eye. For example with the Kom Kutje Klei Klaslokaal (Paste a Pussy Classroom), where you can talk about the vagina during all subjects, or Het Magistrale Museum der Vaginale Verbeelding (The Magisterial Museum of Vaginal Imagination), in which all visitors can add their own creation to the collection. In what museum is that possible?
I have also made an embroidery-set with the name Versier een Vagina (Decorate a Vagina) as a gift to the older fellow (wo)men or as a small hint to that girl you have a crush on. Sometimes the reality fits so nicely into my world that the only thing I have to do is to reproduce it. There is for example an area in Botswana named the Kutse Game Reserve (kut is the Dutch word for pussy - a.k.), a reserve for vagina games. Isnt that great? Look it up, it really does exist!

Who or what is +VULVA?
+VULVA is the collective term for all my vagina projects; vulva is myself and the plus is for the other. An important part of my projects is the reaction, experience and participation of that other. These I register and document and become part of my projects. I make them visible for the public, which again brings about reactions.

Where does this fascination with the vagina come from?
It is the most ambivalent word we have: as the place where everybody comes from it is very familiar; at the same time, as an uncommon topic for conversation, it is also very novel. I combine both and the space that emerges is my playing ground. Apart from that, for me the vagina has more than merely a sexual signification. I therefore place her in a neutral context and leave the elaboration to the other. I play with the limits of humans, not in the last place with those of myself.

What do you mean by that? I am not as shameless as all this may seem. Quite often my own projects bring a blush of shame to my cheeks. Thus I had to write the name Klitje Kleuren (Clitoris Coloring) a couple of times in the beginning, since I did not dare to say it. I really had to laugh because of that.

How do people react to your work?
In the case of Kom Kutje Kleien! (Paste a Pussy!) and Het Magistrale Museum der Vaginale Verbeelding it almost seems as if people cannot react to my work. I have noticed that the first reaction is often a reflection of personal notions of the vagina. Depending on these notions one either starts giggling, turns serious or rejects the project. This first reaction often changes after entering the museum or classroom and thereby my world of experience. The participant becomes part of the game, which means that he or she leaves the museum with a new vagina-experience. In general the reactions of people are positive, a relief to be involved in all of this without feminist or taboo-breaking motives. A girl felt so at ease during the project Kom Kutje Kleien! that she made a vagina by sitting on the clay in the nude.

The context is thus very important in your work.
Yes, very much so! De Passie voor Poesjes Postzegel (The Passion for Pussy Postage Stamp) illustrates this influence very nicely. At the Dutch Postal Service you can have your personal stamp made. Your own photo is thereby printed on a real stamp. My pictures, however, were rejected. "Pornography," was the verdict. Now my stamps are part of an exhibition in Belgium, in a postal office!

What can we expect of you in the future?
My next project will be a toyshop. Toys in the shelves hold an enormous appeal for me. I would love to play with them right away, but usually this is only allowed after you have paid. In my toyshop you can play with everything, also without buying it. Besides, I think playing is pre-eminently an activity for adults. I make all the toys myself; design the boxes, photograph the pictures, write the manuals, etc. All the toys have the vagina as their subject. Already I notice that many find toys and vagina's a strange combination. Associated with sex it is not thought to be a subject for children. Children on the other hand usually do not have any problems with this. Thereby I am surprised that people forget that children came out of that organ not so long ago.
One of the toys is called De Spleetjes Spirograaf (The Slits Spirograph). This is a parody on the well-known toy with the tracing wheels. The player can adorn my drawings of the mother's lap with lines, whereby a mandala develops and it seems as if the female crotch in its middle produces radioactive radiation.

More information: http://www.komkutjekleien.nl