Feminist Curatorial Practices

Brief look at the controversies around The Dinner Party and how its original inclusive curatorial design is now overlooked. Preview of two exhibitions around The Dinner Party's creation at Brooklyn Museum and National Museum of Women in the Arts.

An interview with feminist curator Bojana Pejić about the making of the exhibition "Gender Check: Femininity and Masculinity in the Art of Eastern Europe" (Vienna, Warsaw 2009-2010).
"Gender Check was the first comprehensive exhibition featuring art from Eastern Europe since the 1960s based on the theme of gender roles. 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the curator Bojana Pejić, along with a team of experts from 24 different countries, put together a selection of over 400 works including paintings, sculpture, installations, photography, posters, films and videos. With over 200 artists, the exhibition painted an exceptionally diverse picture of a chapter in art history that until recently had been largely unknown and that could also act as an important addition to contemporary gender discourse." https://www.mumok.at/en/events/gender-check

Hysteria has returned. We are witnessing a hysterical turn in the twenty-first century. In this chapter I will lay out preliminary thoughts on the relationship between hysteria and patriarchy. In particular, the interest is on a new and emergent form of hysteria activism in current feminism. This hysteria activism is a critical reaction to today's patriarchal misogyny and its widely spread ideology of hate. Weaving together observations on the multiple crises of our time and its politics of mass hysteria with the knowledge of etymology and insights into histories of hysteria as they are of importance to building an understanding for the new phenomenon of hysteria activism, the structure of this chapter builds on the historic legacy of the wandering womb. Historically, the idea of the womb, hystéra, wandering in the body was behind the notion of hysteria. This dates back to Ancient Greek medical thought and to practices in demonology. Such a wandering approach allows for me to connect our hysterical moment today to other, much earlier hysterical moments as they have been recorded in history.1 Wandering is borrowed from hysteria's history. The medical legacy of hysteria is firmly tied to the attack. Hysteria was understood as a form of attack on body and mind. French nineteenth-century neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot famously described and detailed the different phases of the hysteric attack.2 Here, attack is understood both as the attack suffered from patriarchy, which results in the diagnosis of hysteria, and the attack performed by hysteria which effectively exposes the traumas and wounds inflicted by patriarchy. Seen like this, the hysteric is both victim and agent of the attack. While wandering is behind the structure of this chapter, the attack serves as its motivation for analysis. The dual nature of the attack, tied to medical history just as much as to military history, is of interest. The attack, paradoxically, is therefore at once unplanned for and strategically prepared and planned out, unwanted and deliberate. The attack is also borrowed from hysteria's history, yet the motivation of this chapter is firmly rooted in the our present day and age. Structured in three

La exposición WACK! Art and the Feminism Revolution, curada por Cornelia Butler para el prestigioso Museum of Contemporary Arts de la ciudad de Los Angeles, fue abierta al público en marzo de 2007. Allí se exhibieron trabajos de aproximadamente ciento veinte artistas de diversas nacionalidades. Con ocasión de la inauguración, se editó un lujoso catálogo ilustrado, el característico coffee table book. En esta vasta exhibición fue incluida una reconstrucción de la obra The Soft Gallery (también llamada 200 Mattresses), creación conjunta de Marta Minujín y Richard Squires, originalmente presentada en la Harold Rivkin Gallery de Washington D.C. en el año 1973. A pesar de ser una ambientación concebida al margen del objeto investigado en la muestra, es decir, las relaciones entre arte y feminismo, la artista argentina encontró una paradójica inclusión en esta legitimante vitrina del arte mundial. En esta ponencia presentaremos algunas reflexiones en torno a las lecturas en clave feminista de la Soft Gallery. Propondremos algunas hipótesis para comprender las condiciones en las que se decidió su incorporación a esta presentación y registraremos su impacto en algunos medios de la prensa escrita estadounidense.

The concept of analysing museums using feminist theory started developing in the 1970s. Museums were starting to be looked at in a different light, not just as guardians of the great artefacts of the world, but as gendered institutions and patriarchal organizations (Marstine & Deepwell, 2006, p. 67) Museums are understood to be "re­presenting" history and showing the past as it really was, but that concept became quite problematic with the lack of representation of women. The idea that women should be represented equally within permanent collections became the new fight on the battlefield for feminism and curation as a practice. Conscientiously ensuring that gender is equally represented within an organisation is feminist curating and arguably the best way to do that is to ensure that there is permanent representation within the museum. However, most feminist curating practices are still largely in temporary exhibitions and not within museums' permanent displays. Curators are constantly developing the way they curate and many are choosing to be feminist curators. This is the paradigm shift needed to change the patriarchal society of academic institutions. No longer will the narrative be that of the white European male, but it will be the accurate re­presentation of history within a museum's permanent collection. M Shed, since its construction as the Museum of Bristol, has purposefully thought about equal representation of gender within its organization. Catherine Littlejohns, Senior Curator of Social History, who helped create M Shed states that, " I think our approach is a feminist one […] and it's important to maintain a feminist approach across the museum " (Littlejohns, 2016). Littlejohns argues that as M Shed is not a museum of women's history, it is more important to take a feminist curatorial approach than to spend time arguing about definitions. The fact that the museum represents different gender narratives adds more value to the museum as a history museum that tells the story of Bristol. There is a fundamental difference between showcasing women and feminist curating. The displays need to have a connection through debates and women's issues and needs to be curated with feminism in mind (Marstine & Deepwell, 2006, p. 69). For example, Mary Ann Galton's display next to the abolitionist case in the People's Gallery (Figure 1). There is no artefact for this narrative, but it is significant to Bristol's history of the suffragette and abolitionist movements. Galton's narrative was added to the museum by including a reproduction of her portrait and adding interpretation to the abolitionist case. Without the curation giving context to her narrative, the display could be a vitrine of female artefacts, but not feminist curating. M Shed's permanent displays are feminist in nature as the cases with artefacts that do not represent women include female narratives of that historical period that coincide with the artefacts. Feminist curating is a modern term that has an important history. Equal gender representation within museums and art galleries is imperative in order to have a balanced experience. There is a responsibility for museums to re­present history accurately and in order to do so, there needs to be different narratives on display. Equity is deserved and leaving half the population out of history is not an accurate depiction of society in any time period. Institutions are striving for better representation within their walls and M Shed is an example of this as equality was thought about with its construction and permanent displays. Feminist curating is still evolving, but its affects can be seen in museums across the globe. Conclusion Brittney Bies MFA Curating University of the West of England, Bristol [email protected] A Brief History of Feminist Curating; M Shed, the museum that tells the story of the city of Bristol, and feminist curating practice seen during its creation and in the permanent displays.

Secretariat for Ghosts, Archival Politics and Gaps (SKGAL) consider the potential self-exploitation of precarious cultural and academic workers. Their essay and relational map attempt to make visible the conditions of their labour, without becoming fodder for cognitive capitalism.

Issue 52 / November 2021
eds. Helena Reckitt and Dorothee Richter
Instituting Feminism

"Instituting Feminism" reflects on the efforts of curators, artists, and community organisers to move beyond identifying inequities in the cultural industries to devising tools that can foster structural change. Exploring how curators have developed projects informed by feminist politics and aesthetics, contributors also look beyond representational formats to highlight the infrastructures and co-dependencies upon which cultural production relies. Envisaging feminist instituting as an active, relational practice, articles discuss curatorial, artistic, and organisational initiatives that seek to forge alliances with struggles for ecological and social transformation.

Romane Bernard, Nanne Buurman, Sofia Cecere, Ève Chabanon, Emelie Chhangur, Anna Colin, Angela Dimitrakaki, Berit Fischer, Jennifer Fisher, Thelma Gaster, Nandita Ghandi, Janna Graham, Althea Greenan, Jeanne Guillou, Husseina Hamza, Merete Ipsen, Joyce Jacca, Tracey Jarrett, Daria Khan, Sharlene Khan, La Sala (Alba Colomo and Lucy Lopez), Barbara Lefebvre, Séraphine Le Maire, Oksana Luyssen,Rosa Martínez, Alex Martinis Roe, Erin McCutcheon, Rose Moreau, Camille Morineau, Adele Patrick, Madeleine Planeix-Crocker, Jeanne Porte, Laurence Rassel, Helena Reckitt, Maura Reilly, Dorothee Richter, Secretariat for Ghosts, Archival Politics and Gaps (SKGAL), Nizan Shaked, Cornelia Sollfrank, Ann Sutherland Harris, The Two Talking Yonis, Miska Tokarek, Elena Zaytseva, Catherine de Zegher.

Hardly any concept has dominated the world of art and culture in recent years as much as that of the curatorial. The curatorial is understood as a cultural practice that goes beyond the exhibition itself and has evolved into its own process of generating, communicating and reflecting on knowledge and experience. Here, the curator is no longer seen as an administrator of art, but a person who decisively shapes discourses. Along with this, there has also been an increasing debate about forms and methods of feminist as well queer curating. For Jonathan Katz and Änne Söll queer curating as well as queer exhibitions “[...] interrogate the passive position of the viewer and demand active engagement, honest investment, and frank questioning, while also leaving room for unanswered questions, gaps, and fissures.” (Katz/Söll 2018). Following this, not only the content of art shows and exhibitions is under critique but also their mode of display should be of particular interest. This presentation is understood as part of an ongoing conversations about forms and methods of queer and feminist curating as well as strategies of queering. The important question in processes of queering exhibitions is thus not only what is presented but also how it is presented – and conceived. By means of case studies and my own curatorial practice, I want to discuss to what extent queer and feminist curating is characterized by in_visibility and at the same time can go beyond that. How can curating be feminist and queer? How are feminist and queer narratives created by curating? And further: Which role does the affective play in a queer and feminist understanding of curating? I want to show how especially affect theory can inform the articulation of curatorial processes, museum experience and knowledge production and to what extent affects serve the curatorial in a queer and feminist way. By focussing on feelings of discomfort, anger and the concept of affective solidarity, I will employ the practice of affectively-engaged curating as a queer and critical research methodology as well as a mode and strategy of queer and feminist curating.

What happens when feminist activism turns art making into social practice? What happens when feminist conversations, at once joyful, contentious, conflictual, and generative, are being cared for through curatorial practice that mobilizes the archives of ephemeral, art-enabled conversations? Feminist artists of the 1970s concerned with developing a radical critique of heteropatriarchy used dinner parties and conversations for artistic exploration. The Dinner Party by artist Judy Chicago is the best-known example harnessing the representational power of a dinner party. Much less known is The International Dinner Party by Suzanne Lacy, who invited “sisters” around the world to hold dinner parties simultaneously on March 14, 1979 to create “a network of women-acknowledging-women”. This exemplar of feminist social practice rooted in activism is the starting point for this book. Feminist curatorial thought connects the archive of The International Dinner Party conversations to emerging archives of present-day conversations addressing feminist and queer-feminist politics tied to different histories, ideologies, and geographies. The present-day archives of conversations include Aktion Arkiv (addressing migratory realities in Sweden), radical practices of collective care (addressing caring labour conditions transnationally), Red Min(e)d (addressing the post-Yugoslav context), and Queering Yerevan (addressing local-diasporic Armenian realities).

Griselda Pollock asks “[i]s adding women to art history the same as producing feminist art history?” Taking her interventions into creating a feminist art canon as a starting point, i seek to consume art in a way that puts women in the creative spotlight in real time, within contemporary culture, so that we, they, are not omitted, forgotten, written out of the canon but are active participants and creators of it. I have embarked on a project whereby i attempt to watch, see, and experience, only art that has women as the creative drivers; that is, women as directors, writers, choreographers, composers, designers, producers. This began as a way to consume television, and has wormed its way into the film, literature, music, and performance i choose to engage with.

I have approached my experience at Sibiu International Theatre Festival 2017 (hereafter referred to as #FITS 2017) with this in mind, reporting back both as an audience member as well as a student choreographer submitting work to this festival for the first time. How the festival hosted my work with respect to my feminist sensibilities, and analysing how this fits into a framework of curatorial activism, has lead me to further investigate feminist methods of curating, and the desire to be part of a different world of performance.

A necessidade de reforçar a rede em torno do feminismo e das questões de género permanece em Portugal, assim o convite para que a AMIW se reuna outra vez foi reformulado, desta feita em 2010 na Casa da Esquina em Coimbra e em torno da leitura das Novas Cartas Portuguesas de Maria Isabel Barreno, Maria Velho da Costa e Maria Teresa Horta, livro escrito a três mãos no inicio da década de 70.
O projecto tomou a forma das propostas das/os diversas/os artistas convidados, que passa pelas linguagens visual, performativa, sonora e escrita e acontecerá em vários espaços da Casa da Esquina, das cidades Coimbra e Porto, e até mesmo no metaverso e especialmente do Second Life.

This is a link to an essay published in the book And the One Doesn't Stir without the Other which was developed from an art exhibition curated by Ruth Jones and Ursula Burke at The Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast held from 24 July to August 31 2003. The full citation is: MESKIMMON, M., 2005. “And the one doesn’t stir...": on curatorial practice and the making of feminist histories. IN: Jones, R. and Burke, U. (eds.). And the one doesn't stir without the other. Belfast: Ursula Burke and Ruth Jones, in conjunction with the Ormeau Baths Gallery, pp. 45-49

Foreword to the Online Exhibition "Being In-Between/In-Between Being", an exploration of intertextuality and identity by womxn and queer artists", University at Buffalo, Art Department.
Curated by Jocelyn E. Marshall,
PhD Candidate Department of English, SUNY Buffalo
Exhibition Dates: Tuesday, Dec. 15th, 2020 to Friday, Jan. 15th, 2021
Supported by the James H. McNulty Chair of English, SUNY Buffalo
https://arts-sciences.buffalo.edu/art/research/lower-art-gallery/lower-art-gallery-exhibitions/being-in-between.html

Revealing Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party: An Analysis of the Curatorial Context Sally Deskins Research on Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party, (1974-79; completed with the assistance of more than 400 volunteers), is abundant and generally focuses on the monumental table of thirty-nine place settings acknowledging the contribution of women throughout Western history. Scholars have examined, praised and criticized the installation from various feminist and formal aesthetic perspectives. By contrast, this thesis considers what has essentially been overlooked until now, Judy Chicago's curatorial framework for the entire The Dinner Party exhibition experience. Using my own interviews with the artist, team members, and contemporary curators, as well as consulting the artist's installation manuals from Harvard University Archives, and examining the reception of the curation, I highlight the essential curatorial features that made The Dinner Party such an international phenomenon. The artist's curatorial elements were research-oriented, inclusive and activist-leaning with interactive, multi-media structures to achieve her feminist message. Considering The Dinner Party's current installation at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, my thesis argues that Chicago's successful yet overlooked methods offer the most proactive, critical and approachable curatorial presentation. The current installation that has been stripped of these curatorial elements, while perhaps institutionally practical, compromises much of the message and feminist intent. This study contributes to the field by focusing on this notable exhibition, providing discourse into Chicago's curating and offering considerations for contemporary curating practice, with the goal of contributing to the growing area of curatorial research focused on feminist artists and curatorial projects.

Sergileme pratiklerinin uzun tarihi düşünüldüğünde, bu alandaki cinsiyet, etnisite ve sınıf kategorilerini dikkate alan eleştirel perspektiflerin tartışmaya açılması yeni sayılabilir. Joan W. Scott’ın (2013: 63), feminist tarih yazımının “(...) mevcut akademik çalışmaların önermelerini ve standartlarını eleştirel bir şekilde yeniden değerlendirmeyi de zorlayacağına (...)” dikkat çeken yorumu sanat pratikleri için de geçerlidir. Feminist sanat tarihi yazımı, teoriden uygulamaya bir bütün olarak tarihin yeniden yazılmasını öneren toplumsal eşitsizliklere işaret ederek, kurumsal yapılanmaları eleştiren yaklaşımların ortaya çıkmasına olanak sağlamıştır. Bu bağlamda, ana akım sergileme politikaları iki temel çizgi tarafından eleştirilmiştir.

Bunlardan birincisi; neoliberal ekonomik yapılanmanın sanat pratiklerine etkileri, ikincisi ise; cinsiyet, cinsel yönelim, ırk, etnisite ve sınıf tartışmalarını da içeren feminist küratöryal yaklaşımlarıdır.

Feminist küratöryal pratikler, küratörlüğü teknik bir meseleye indirgemeden güç ilişkileri çerçevesinde analiz eder. Bu bağlamda, soyut bir sanat tarihi okumasına karşı feminist estetiğin hayata, hayatın feminist estetiğe müdahale etmeye yönelik biçimlerinin var olabileceğini savunur. Bu çalışmada, çoklu eşitsizlik türlerini dikkate alan, yeni müzakerelere kapı aralayan, çelişkili konumlanmaları ve alternatif seçenekleri tartışan, queer yaklaşımların açtığı olasılıkları kapsayan feminist küratöryal yaklaşımların sınırlılıkları ve olanakları tartışılacaktır.

Anahtar sözcükler: feminist küratöryal pratikler, feminist sanat, sergileme politikaları

Abstract

Despite its long history, the emergence of critical perspectives discuss the categories of gender, ethnicity and class and are relatively new in the field of exhibition practices. Joan W. Scott has emphasized that feminist historiography begs for has compelled a critical reevaluation of the arguments and standards of existing academic studies. Scott’s criticism can be valid for art exhibition practices. Feminist art historiography not only suggests a rewriting of history but also enables critical approaches to flourish as it criticizes the existing institutions by highlighting social inequalities.

In this respect, mainstream exhibition policies have been criticized by two main lines.First, the impact of neoliberal economic policies on art practices have been investigated. Second, feminist curatorial approaches that emphasize inequalities by discussing gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, and class.

Without reducing curatorship to a technical organization, feminist curatorial practices scrutinize the issue in terms of power relations. In this sense, feminist curatorial practices provide an extensive criticism of an abstract interpretation of art history and underscore the mutual interventions of life and feminist aesthetics. This study discusses the openings and limitations of feminist curatorial approaches. While embracing new possibilities provided by queer theory, these approaches accentuate plural forms of inequality, enable novel forms of deliberation and finally discuss contradictory positions and alternatives.

Keywords: feminist curatorial practices, feminist art, politics of exhibition

Recent feminist retrospectives have been perceived as either working to the logic of linear progression or as outside historical contexts in a mythological and cyclical sense (Kristeva, 1981). In a talk anthropologist Tim Ingold details two systems of thought relating to temporality: Linearity and Atmosphere/Meteorology. Instead of setting up a binary he considers the ways in which they are simultaneously opposites and inextricably linked to each other and life itself. The speculative toggling between these polarities provokes the idea of an exhibition not as a discreet moment to be inserted into a given chronology that remains structurally intact but as a form of movement that can activate spaces of exclusion within institutional settings. An exhibition conceived not as a container but as a living project that speaks to its context to assert an alternative view of history as fluid and open to change.