Gender Check
Femininity and Masculinity in the Art of Eastern Europe
13 November 2009 – 14 February 2010
Museumsplatz 1
1070 Vienna
Austria
Phone +43-1-52500
Fax +43-1-52500-1300
info [at] mumok.at
www.mumok.at
www.gender-check.at
“Gender Check” is 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, has put together a selection of over 400 works including paintings, sculpture, installations, photography, posters, films and videos. With over 200 artists, the exhibition paints 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.
“Gender Check” follows the changes in the representation of male and female role models in art – especially as they develop under different socio-political conditions. The exhibition shows the interrelationship between art and history following both a chronological and thematic approach: During the 1960s, Socialist Realism portrayed both male and female workers as heroic figures symbolizing the officially propagated ideal of a “genderless society,” while at the same time behind the scenes, this image was unmasked by unofficial art. Beginning in the 1970s and as part of a general trend towards liberalization, masculinity and femininity began to be reassessed outside of the propagandistic clichés of the past. New representations of the body displayed an increasing self-confidence and an open sexuality that called the heterosexual norms and heroic ideals of masculinity into question. With the fall of the wall in 1989, and the growing influence of consumerism from the West, new freedoms were found that however were also accompanied by new neo-conservative role constraints. And with this, a critique of chauvinist, militaristic, misogynist and xenophobic ideologies came to become an important topic in art.
List of the Artists (selection)
Anri Sala, Anita Arakelyan, Anna Kovshar, Ismet Mujezinović, Šejla Kamerić, Alla Georgieva, Sanja Iveković, Tomislav Gotovac, Běla Kolářová, Veronika Bromová, Mare Tralla, Cornelia Schleime, Fritz Skade, Emese Benczúr, Orshi Drozdik, Tibor Hajas, Erzen Shkololli, Aija Zariņa, Zenta Dzividzinska, Eglė Rakauskaitė, Sofija Veiveryté, Zaneta Vangeli, Valentina Rusu-Ciobanu, Jelena Tomašević, Wojciech Fangor, Katarzyna Kobro, Katarzyna Kozyra, Alexandra Croitoru, Ion Grigorescu, Lia Perjovschi, Anna Alchuck, Oleg Kulik, Vladislav Mamyshev-Monroe, Marina Abramović , Tanja Ostojić, Anetta Mona Chisa/Lucia Tkacova, Jana Želibská, Tadej Pogačar, Duba Sambolec, Arsen Savadov & Oleksandr Kharchenko, Boris Mikhailov and many more.
Press Conference: 12 November 2009, 10:00 am
Exhibition Opening: 12 November 2009, 7:00 pm
Opening Party: 9:00 pm, music and videos by Sindikat (CASIOp, Emulgator, Mina Fina)
Symposium
READING GENDER
Art, Power and Politics of Representation in Eastern Europe
13/14 November 2009, MUMOK
International experts have been invited to speak about the role of feminist theories in Eastern Europe with respect to a western context, about the significance of transgender positions as well as the new definition and revision of canonic ideals of gender.
Friday, 13 November
10:00 am – 7:15 pm: Part I – Can Feminism Speak East?
Participants: Ivana Bago, Christine Böhler, Ana Daucikova, Rainer Fuchs, Katrin Kivimaa, Vjollca Krasniqi, Laima Kreivyte, Suzana Milevska, Almira Ousmanova, Bojana Pejić, Angelika Richter, Hedwig Saxenhuber, Mare Tralla
7:30 pm: Performance: Eglė Rakauskaitė – For Guilty without the Guilt. Trap. Expulsion from Paradise
Saturday, 14 November
10:00 am – 1:30 pm: Part II – Fuck Your Gender
Participants: Juan Vicente Aliaga, Jet Moon, Agnieszka Morawinska, Johanna Schaffer
2:30 pm – 7:00 pm: Part III – Subverting Canons
Participants: Edit András, Keti Chukhrov, Katy Deepwell, Silvia Eiblmayr, Marina Gržinić, Izabela Kowalczyk, Gislind Nabakowski, Bojana Pejić, Griselda Pollock
Further information: www.gender-check.at
“Gender Check” was initiated and supported by ERSTE Foundation: www.erstestiftung.org
Visitor Information
Open: Mon – Sun 10:00am – 6:00pm, Thu 10:00 am – 9:00 pm
Entrance Fee: standard € 9.- reduced € 7.20 or € 6.50
MUMOK
Museum of Modern Art
Ludwig Foundation Vienna
Museumsplatz 1
1070 Vienna
Austria
info@mumok.at
www.mumok.at
