TKV

1
At first, it was just a way for me to express myself — something that was truly mine.
It somehow helped me create a new persona.
I think the fact that I remained anonymous for a very long time also helped me a lot.
I believe I even invented the entire pseudonym to build a barrier between myself and everyone else, because I was extremely, extremely shy.
And I think that helped me show myself just how capable I really am, through street art and drawing on the streets, and through everything that came with it, I somehow realized how much I can do.

2
Aren’t you afraid? That’s one of the things I get all the time. Aren’t you afraid? I think people somehow expect you to be afraid of something. You’re constantly supposed to be afraid of something.
Why? Because I think women in these parts are raised to be more passive and to kind of assess the situation a little.
Which is again a reflection of the society we live in.
So, on the one hand I don’t want to say that women have nothing to be afraid of, because objectively speaking all sorts of things happen here, all sorts of things happen in this region, and no one can tell me, like, “Oh, you have all the rights now and things are easy for you.”
No. We fought for our rights, we fought hard, and that boundary needs to be pushed higher.
I think that’s what it is: regardless of whether you’re an artist or whatever you are, you constantly have to face that question of can I just do this or do I also have to do this.

3
And at one point I said to myself, like, do we choose that, yes we do, that’s it.

4
I think we all encounter some kind of stereotype and it all depends on you, on what kind of character you have, whether you’ll be, like, “move aside” or you’ll be, like, “well, maybe I should adapt.”
For a long time I kind of adapted—not really adapted, more like, “Oh well, it’s fine, whatever.” And now I’ve come to, like, no, no, no. (....)

5
I think it’s the same: I fought for a specific position for myself, but I think that as long as not all of us are free, no one is free.

6
It’s very strange, very strange, and sometimes I have the feeling that this correcting, this correction of some kind of behavior in the sense of “yes, but that’s not okay now,” and that you always have to say it, and that you also have to encourage other women, like, does that not suit you, then say it, I mean, you have to say it too.
I think that’s the seesaw: you have a very oppressive and aggressive environment, but you also have room to maneuver, you have space to say “I won’t.”

7
So I think all the women before us pushed us this far.
Now, my job is to push some things further so that other women don’t have to do it.
Because we have to think three generations ahead.
I may never get exactly what I want, but maybe that girl over there can get the same thing or something similar, or at least have the space to think about what she needs.

8
And I think every woman has that moment when she looks in the mirror or looks at herself, it’s always like that: either I’m too fat, or I’m too young, or I’m too old, or something, and there’s always something, and that’s the trap someone wants you to fall into, because maybe it sells you cream, maybe it sells you a workout, maybe it sells you this, maybe it sells you that.
I’m not saying that taking care of yourself or whatever isn’t a good thing, that’s great, but just because if it works for you, if it doesn’t work for you, I don’t know, it means they’re trying to divide things there too, like if you’re like this, then you have to be like that, if you said that’s not okay, then why are you doing it.

9
It is a mind trip, and it’s a tool, a tool of oppression, literally, because while you’re sitting there wasting your precious time on whether you’re beautiful or ugly, bottom line, behind your back all kinds of things are happening.
You could have been earning money, you could have been hiking, you could have been studying, you could have been doing God knows what else.
We sit and waste hours, and that’s terrifying to me, it’s terrifying to live like that, like some kind of awful matrix, when you choose which one you fall into and then what?