The exhibition dubbed Who Is Afraid of Ideology? deals with a "multitude of different issues related to women liberation movements, autonomous movements, ecofeminism and representation of women in the media and art", said festival head Teja Reba.
The opening panel debate will discuss what freedom stands for, while one of the workshops will encourage secondary school students by means of Arsanios's exhibition to be proactive.
"Her works are engaged, and her approach is experimental, which is why they demand from the viewer to be active and as such they are an ideal raw material for encouraging critical thinking," Reba added.
Also in focus of this year's festival, which will take place at several locations in Ljubljana, will be the work by Simona Semenič, in particular her performances and staging of one of her texts by the artist Janez Janša.
Reba also singled out performances by Slovenian artists Lana Zdravković and Nataša Živković, and concerts by British performer Lucy McCormick with her Triple Threat project and by Serbian-Swedish rapper GNUČČI, both in Kino Šiška.
Running until 8 October, City of Women is dedicated to "all brave women, freedom fighters, the forgotten ones and storied ones, and to all the brave ones we know and who we may never meet", the festival website says.
According to Reba, the festival every year comments on the current events in the local and international environment. She pointed to budget cuts by the Culture Ministry and hate speech in the election campaign, "which announced nationalism and conservatism".
My Way 50, an autobiographic documentary by Slovenian film director Maja Weiss, was screened yesterday in Kinodvor as the prelude to the festival.
The full programme is here, a PDF version is here, and the Facebook page is here.
