The following is a brief description of the inventive project görls cultures which was realized in 1999 and 2002 with a lot of energy by the members of the organisation WienXtra Medienzentrum.

The organisation WienXtra - Center for Media (WienXtra Medienzentrum) is located in Vienna and offers the possibility for young people to work with Media be it Video, Music, Radio or TV. It also offers special workshops like Hip Hop Workshops, Videoworkshops, Radioworkshops, Filmdocumentaryworkshops, Videoworkshops exclusively for girls or women etc. Some of the young people work in permanent projects like the TV group "Einblicke" and the Radio group "Funkschatten".

The thing which should be pointed out is the very special programms they offer for girls and women. Since years the WienXtra - Center for Media is emphasizing on the encouragement of girls and young women to get in touch with new media techniques and to use the tools for their own expression.

In the year 1999 the WienXtra - Center for Media invented and realized the project "görls cultures", as a result of a deep reflection on the hype of the riot girl movement - which much to soon was taken up by the market - and the fact that on a representative level the so called youth culture, which is always welcome to political and economic interests, is mainly focusing on the culture of the male youth. The intention wasn´t about to show the typical riotgirls aesthetics but to make the more subtle cultural expressions of girls visible.

The project "görls cultures" has been invented in order to create a professional platform, where various kinds of cultural expressions of girls and young women should be presented (the first festival took place in 1999 the second two years later). The other intention of the festival was to assemle and present existing initiatives and organisations which are already working with and for the girls and their issues. A lot of other organisations like public netbase and the only independent radio Radio Orange etc. reacted on the open call and offerd their help and experience.

It was important to be open to any kind of projects which the girls would present in order to be able to offer a big and differentiated variety of expression and to encourage the girls to present their ideas beyond artifical unifying standards. Hence every project submitted was finally at the görls cultures festival. In this way the various projects of the görls cultures festival presented very unexpected visualisations of girl - related contents and the mixture of the presented multimedia projects created their own connotations to other projects beside. It also created a space where a greater exchange of experience between younger and older girls became possible as it wasn´t so much about the perfectnes of presentations than a space to get to know each other and each others issues. Workshops like a Radionworkshop, Videoworkshop, Self Defence Workshop, Internet Workshop where offered to the female visitors. And there was a stage where the young girls showed their dance -, music - and theatre performances. Every day there was the possibility to take part in open discussions where women were invited to speak about their professions (they invited a female sound engineer, or a manager of a model agency e.g.) and tell about their special experiences.

Some of the young women had the possibility to present their artwork for the first time. It was a great opportunity to step out of the privatness into public space with professional help. Each participant was interviewed before the festival. Some of the participants said that this encouraged them even more to bring their work into the festival.

The word "görls" was chosen to take a critical position in relation to the hyped term "riot girl". This was one of the results of very many roundtables with the girls involved to the festival. The roundtables took place during the summer 1999 and where an open platform for discussion and conception of the first festival. During the discussions of the round table meetings some main themes which later became sort of a concept of the festival occured: everyday life/ body/ relation ships/ future and leisure time. Both festvals took place in the town hall of Vienna. So for three days this space belonged exclusively to the girls and their projects and of course the mixed audience.

The second festival offered genderspecific tours. It was also only offered for girls. I was one of the tour guides and I was very impressed about how the girls used this special tour in order to speak about their issues and personal problems. The projects which were presented opened up the discussion to themes like pregnancy prevention, violence inside the familiy, anorexia e.g.

The festival had a great impact on the visitors and of course on those who presented their work there. At the second festival the girls of HOSI (initiative for homosexual and lesbians in Vienna) presented themselves for the first time. They found their own girl group and offered a drag king workshop and at the festival theiy initiated the first drag king contest for girls. They were really encouraged by the görls cultures festival to step out and show their projects and themselves in a proud and strong way.

The special genderspecific workshops at the WienXtra Medienzentrum have encouraged meanwhile many girls and women to use and express themselves through new media.