On Feminism in the Romanian Art Scene Event

Panel discussion at the International Women‘s Day
With: Alexandra Croitoru, Diana Duta, Madalina Zaharia

Our presentation is going to sketch a development of feminist positions that are echoed in the works of Romanian women artists from the 70s to the present day. Feminist discourse followed a slightly different path in Romania (as a former communist country) than it did in all of Western Europe. And this is mostly because before ’89, manifestations and protests of all kinds were totally out of the question for both men and women. It was only in the ’90s that feminist manifestations actually started to be present in the Romanian art scene, as an attempt to keep up with all the politically correct strategies of Western civilization. A softer face of feminism was adopted then, usually inflicted with a personal touch and a search for identity. Today, Romanian women artists are more synchronized with the major international trends and operate in a less militant way, being more concerned with all the clichés about what it means to be a woman in our times. Being able to offer a broader range of positions on this subject, women artists now share a greater interest in all the new issues raised by our contemporary society, and have finally left behind the ‘sex-war’.