We can tell the story of women, with women
Kornelia is the founder of Ladies On Records, a project that aims to tell the stories of female artists from the past in a new, contemporary way. She established the initiative when she moved to Turkey from Poland in 2015, explaining,
‘The history of art, politics and music has been created mostly from the perspective of men, through the participation of men, so you have to consider it as a kind of storytelling. Who was telling the story and what story did they want to tell? I’m trying to play this situation again. I am a woman. I want to tell the story of women, with women. Hopefully this is what people can get from Ladies on Records - the idea that the story can be told in a different way with different tools.’
We can search for women everywhere
Through Ladies on Records, Kornelia is uncovering hidden stories about women and new perspectives by women. But she thinks more can still be done to highlight women in all aspects of society.
‘We’ve heard of the term ‘herstory’, but we still have to uncover more, redefine the history, start over, and dig more to reveal the contribution of women to music and to culture in general. We have to revise all the museums, all the archives, and search for women, give them chances to be visible and participate in building the history of everything.’
Any time I go somewhere, I find amazing books, beautiful books saying ‘the biggest man of…’ and it’s not presenting the story of ‘manhood’, it’s presenting the story of humanity as though men and women are equally present. But the women are just invisible. We have to push harder and highlight women’s achievements, put them on the front pages. I want visibility of women in the daily picture of our lives.’
Find out more
Discover more women’s history on Europeana.eu and follow Kornelia on Soundcloud, Instagram and on her website.