Nothing About Us Without Us is a long-term collaboration initiated by Collective in 2016 between Swedish artist and filmmaker Petra Bauer and SCOT-PEP, a sex-worker led organisation in Scotland.

The group have shared their daily experiences of work, political organising, and the structural challenges faced when trying to change the conditions for sex workers in Scotland. Watching films together and practically testing different representational strategies has been central to the project.

Through this ongoing process of listening and sharing ideas, the group ask: how do you act politically when stigma prevents you from being public? What is regarded as work and who has the right to work? How has (women’s) work been represented historically and what new strategies can be used for feminist filmmaking today?

​A folio of research collated from Nothing about us without us and designed by Maeve Redmond is housed in the Centre for Research Collections at the University of Edinburgh. It contains articles, books, films, online news, essays, reports and briefing papers shared between Petra Bauer, producer and researcher Frances Stacey, and SCOT-PEP members.

Supported by Outset and research partner the University of Edinburgh.

Petra Bauer is interested in film as a space where political negotiations take place. She has exhibited internationally, including projects at the 56th Venice Biennale; Malmö Konstmuseum; Gothenburgh Biennale; Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven; Showroom, London; and Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm.

SCOT-PEP is a charity dedicated to the promotion of sex worker’s rights, health and dignity. They are members of the Global Network of Sex Work Project, International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe, and the UK Network of Sex Work Projects. Although primarily focussed on Scotland, SCOT-PEP is an active member of a global movement calling for sex work to be recognised as work.

Related

Archive, Off-Site, Events, Learning: The Social Reproduction of Feminist Art History, 25 October 2017, 6—8pm

Ongoing, Learning: Social Reproduction: in Art, Life, and Struggle, A Reading Group

Archive, Event: Petra Bauer, School of Art Friday Lecture, Edinburgh College of Art, 30 October 2015

Constellations Programme is a series of off-site, research-based commissions that aim to bring people together to develop ideas and partnerships. This programme of commissions will include discussions, screenings, and walks, providing opportunities for artists and audiences to engage with our locality and consider new ways for people to work together.

Supported by: