Vortragsreihe: Geschlechterpolitik und Kunstbetrieb

Vortragsreihe im Studienjahr 2012/13:

Rosa Nogues:
Einführender Vortrag: “Feminist Art” versus “Women’s Art”, a Look at the Last Five Years of Feminism in Art

Mittwoch, 17. Oktober 2012
Veranstaltungsort: Hörsaal 2, Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien (Altbau, 1. Stock)

Recent years have witnessed an unprecedented revival of feminist art, with large exhibitions such as Global Feminisms (2007), Wack! Art and the Feminist Revolution (2007), Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: 45 Years of Art and Feminism (2007), Re-Act Feminism (2009) among many others. At the same time, a seemingly opposing trend seems to have gathered momentum. On the one hand, the problematic character of an institutionalised feminist art has given rise to its own critique, in the form of exhibitions such as Cooling Out, On the Paradox of Feminism (2008), or No More Bad Girls? (2010). And, on the other hand, there have been a significant number of exhibitions, such as Elles@Pompidou (2009-11), The Body in Women’s Art Now (2009-12), or The Female Gaze, Women Looking at Women (2009), which, albeit thematically and theoretically framed by feminism, have deliberately left out any reference to it.

My lecture will focus on this dichotomy and explore both the function and effects of the institutionalisation of a feminist art in terms of its political potential, and the theoretical and political determinants behind exhibitions addressing women’s art solely on the basis that it is art made by women.

Rosa Nogues is a PhD Candidate at the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy (Kingston University). Her thesis examines the use of the female body in art practice in terms of Lacanian theory and notions of sexuation. She has taught in the Philosophy Department at Middlesex University (French Feminist Thought).