Lesson 6, part 3 | n.paradoxa MOOC

Final part of Lesson 6

The last part of this lesson and the course looks at two recent initiatives, launched by manifestos: one for women art workers, the second, on curating.

Permanent Assembly of Women Art Workers We Propose: Declaration of Commitment to Feminist Practices in Art: (2017) (Argentina) Also available in Spanish, Portuguese and French on their website

Lina Džuverović, Irene Revell “We falter with feminist conviction”
published in On Curating (online journal) Issue 29, May 2016

These two manifestos demonstrate the other side of the question of art worlds: how to build feminist cultures and make feminist ideas present in culture.

We Propose: Declaration of Commitment to Feminist Practices in Art: Permanent Assembly of Women Art Workers (2017) (Argentina).

This document calls for a permanent assembly of women art workers.

The impetus was the unexpected and premature death of Argentine artist Graciela Sacco, (1956-2017). It prompted Leticia Obeid to write 10 proposals to change the situation for women artists on her facebook page with the suggestion that grief is turned to action. Her idea led to this affirmation of a commitment to feminist art practices, expanded from her first 10 points to 37 in the final document.

(The failure to account for Sacco’s reputation can perhaps be seen in this highly ambivalent or carelessly written obituary in Arte Al Dia: which describes her as “he” and argues she was “dismissed”, rather than grieved for, on social media).

Many women quickly responded to Obeid’s post as an appropriate memorial to the artist (between 900-3000) and the discussion started on Facebook, led to a formal meeting between some women artists as a group, and the writing of the proposal, as well as an appeal through Change.org to raise money towards the groups’ first public action as part of the Women’s Strike on 8 March 2018.

“I have no words to describe the pain that an artist, at the height of her creativity and recognition, has unexpectedly departed,” says Argentine art researcher and historian Andrea Giunta wrote on Facebook.

Andrea Giunta is an art historian from Argentina, and a specialist in contemporary Latin American art. She had already organised with co-curator (with Cecilia Fajardo-Hill) Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960-1985 (Sept-Dec 2017) at Hammer Museum, which also toured to Brooklyn Museum, New York and Pinacoteca de Sao Paulo (2018). She is also the author of Feminismo y arte latinoamericano: Historias de artistas que emanciparon el cuerpo (Siglio XX: Arte y pensamiento:2018). She was active in starting Nos Propemos and is one of the 343 women who first signed this document, a list which includes women writers, as well as artists, theatre directors, activists, and leaders of groups like the feminist collective and protest group against feminicide and violence against women, Ni una menos (started in 2015). As the Declaration describes:

On November 7, 2017, we founded the Permanent Assembly of Art Workers to promote feminist practices. We call on the global art community to organize the International Women’s Strike on March 8, 2018.

The document was developed collectively as a Google Docs and on What’s App, with many participants including: Cecilia Palmeiro, Ana Gallardo, Cristina Schiavi, Marina de Caro, Gloria Cortez Aliaga de Chile, Marina Reyes Franco de Puerto Rico and Natalia Encina. It was widely distributed by social media and in the general press.

The museum director, Andres Duprat, the director of the National Museum of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires, openly supported the Declaration and assisted in organising a very specific action of Nosotras Propemos. In the weeks prior to 8 March, the museum organised several evenings where they turned off all the lights in the museum, except those by women where the spotlights were left on. This action, A la conquista de la luna, demonstrated both the limits of the collection but also the need to focus on the few works by women artists actually present in the collection in a new way: Diana Dowek, Elba Bairon, Graciela Sacco, Liliana Porter, Mónica Millán, Noemí Gerstein and Raquel Forner.

The MALBA (Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires) agreed on 8 March 2018 to project 900 names of women artists across the front of the building. Its own programme then started to focus on introducing a few more Latin American women artists to the museum’s audiences: Mirtha Dermisache, Claudia Andujar, Teresa Burga and Anne Marie Heinrich.

Other initiatives followed in 30 art institutions, from Patagonia to the northern Andes in the months around March. See the Nosotras Propemos instagram feed. A wide range of talks, lectures, exhibitions, events and meetings between women followed in 2018, as a result of the actions of Nosotras Propemos.

Reviews and analyses of the group’s work tended to focus on reporting the statistics from collections targeted by the actions and research of the group:

The numbers are blunt: in the art collection of the Province of Córdoba, out of a total of 1198 works released, only 145 were made by women, representing 12.10%. The work of male artists amounts to 1028 and is equivalent to 85.81% of the collection. A little over 2% are works whose authorship data is incomplete.

With the exception of cases of anonymous or dubious authors, involving a very small percentage, the data that account for the number of artists in the provincial collection also impact: out of a total of 599, men are 486 (81.13%) and women 104 (17.36%).

Nosotras Propemos also obtained figures from the collection of the Genaro Pérez Museum, which belongs to the municipal orbit. There are 830 works, according to systematized data up to February 26 of this year, of which 727 (87.59%) are male and 103 (12.41%) belong to women.

Vuelo nocturno: Mujeres ocultas e iluminadas Lavos, 8 March 2018.

Giunta sums up the motivation for the Assembly from the perspective of the Argentinian art world, highlighting this marginal representation of women artists in museums and international venues and its consequences in terms of cultural memory and perceptions about women artists:

Women’s artists (a classification that we do not subscribe in an essentialist way, but which is administratively assigned, whatever the gender identification of each one) are under-represented in museum collections, in the art market (where they are listed and sold much less), in anthologies and collective exhibitions, in art magazines. In contemporary Argentine art the great stars are the artists who are administratively classified as males….

The patriarchal parameters that govern art scenes are far from modified. The consequences of this naturalized symbolic violence are probably not immediately perceived. When cultural expressions are systematically closed, it affects not only those who express themselves, but all those who cannot see the works, listen to the music, read the books or access the editorial opinion of those who do not reach the public simply because the system, in a silent but effective way, reduces their spaces of visibility.

Andrea Giunta ‘Ausencias en los museos y en las colecciones’

Giunta makes a case for Nosotros Propemos’ intervention in the art world from an art historian’s point of view and advocates a new recognition of “what is missing”.

Leticia Obeid uses slightly different terms to describe why this Declaration is important and links it to broader concepts and wider feminist agendas in politics as an affirmation of the value of Art itself:

For those who think art is a luxury object that can be put off when “things are right,” the initiative to form a Commitment to Feminist Artistic Practice may seem like a trivial initiative. For those of us who think that art is a vital necessity, a system of thought, affections, an economy linked to the largest economies, a way of living rather than survival, this is an essential choice: women are producers of art, thought, work, eternity, and therefore deserve a place of sovereignty in today’s world today, which can no longer be minimized or despised.

Leticia Obeid ‘What is Feminism About?’

Is the wider feminist message diffused by the focus on statistics?

Let’s consider more carefully Nosotras Propemos/Our proposals

The group made conscious efforts to focus on developing women artists’ practices, not just representation in museums.

The manifesto is divided into different areas which combined will affect change in the situation of women artists:

Concerning the structure of the art world
behaviours in the art world
the artistic career and creativity
artistic feminism and feminist art history
the inclusive nature of this statement

The address of this manifesto is a series of actions which “we will” engage in. It is written as a manifesto for individuals to join, for its signatories to adhere to, and for change to happen as everyone’s responsibility. It is not simply about challenging patriarchal attitudes, it is about arguing, doing and acting to change on multiple fronts as art workers:

demanding ‘equal representation in the art world (strategically 50% instead of the current 20%)’
‘parity in the top-level positions at the artistic, educational, and cultural institutions’
‘heterosexual men are not the only ones to engage in patriarchal behavior’ women and gays enact this behaviour as well. They are against misogyny in the gay community.
‘work to subvert the overwhelming discriminatory and excluding tendency in the art world’ including its favoritism of white/middle-class/young/well-connected artists
challenge the idea that we are uppity and out of line, or outright «crazy,» «hysterical,» or «problematic» – and engaging in double standards.
cultivate respectful and egalitarian working relationships
demand revision of the language used by our male colleagues
not feel ashamed of the issues we are interested or involved in
not be intimidated or silenced
listen to each other and share experiences
counter corporative sexism with solidarity between women
create as much as we can. We will not be afraid to be ambitious.
identify and ward off the plundering of our artistic ideas and practices
challenge the definition of «artistic career»
reject the concept of “the genius,” of the master artist, and of the canon of «good art», and the expert eye.
not avoid identifying ourselves as feminist artists or as feminist art historians
study the work of women artists, researchers, and theorists, value women’s knowledge
mention female colleagues and their work
make visible and condemn the power systems that belittle the work of women
attend women’s meetings and conferences and propose sessions on art and feminism
learn from the collective, participatory, collaborative, and horizontal nature of feminism
uphold modes of perception based on inclusiveness, on affect, and on equality
point out systemic and systematic censorship of our sensibilities, of our poetics and forms of knowledge
fight to make the male art community and the art community in general open to different (and equally important) sensibilities
not be accomplices to any form of sexist violence, from the most visible to the most subtle and imperceptible
protect ourselves and protect our spaces. We will be there for each other.

Is there any other aspect of this list of proposals which is missing from this list that you noticed?

If you were to call for solidarity among women artists, would these items be the basis for your manifesto?

Lina Džuverović, Irene Revell “We falter with feminist conviction”

This special issue is one of the few resources on feminist curating and was edited by Dorothee Richter, see On Curating : https://www.on-curating.org/issue-29-reader/feminist-perspectives-on-curating.html Issue 29 / May 2016.

10 years earlier I published n.paradoxa, vol.18, guest edited by Renee Baert on Curatorial Strategies in July 2006.
A growing booklist of books, articles and conferences on the subject of feminist curating has developed since then, largely because of the expansion in number of international feminist art exhibitions since 2007. (see n.paradoxa’s booklist).

As the sub-title of this statement indicates, it is a response to whether or not there is such a thing as an ideal feminist art organisation : Notes on Assumptions, Expectations, Confidence, and Doubt in the Feminist Art Organisation. In its presentation, it is an expanded and slightly ironic list of what it means to be a curator, and reminds me of the poster by The Guerrilla Girls ‘The Advantages of Being a Woman Artist‘ (1987/1988)

This document was written after their experience of founding a feminist arts organisations, Electra in 2003, which worked to promote women artists working in sound and new media, and the article is an attempt to review their own history as well as looking back at previous women’s art organisations like Circles (UK) founded in 1981. (You can read Katy Deepwell’s interview with ‘Felicity Sparrow: forming Circles’ vol.34 n.paradoxa pp.86-95).

Lina Džuverović, Irene Revell’s article which follows the initial statement makes the politics of their presentation clearer as they look back on their own work and the history of feminist art initiatives. The manifesto is a response to these questions in the text:-

What does it mean, then, to run a feminist/collaborative/collective organisation that challenges dominant structures, methodologies, and goals? What acts of self-sacrifice may be embedded in such a claim? How can a feminist organisation/action exist in neoliberal precarious market conditions? How often are these questions articulated and outlined at the inception of such organisations—or can they be? What are the invisible assumptions in working in an arts environment with a certain ethical code?

As they describe in this article, a curatorial initiative built around one exhibition/research project (Her Noise), then developed into an arts organisation receiving Arts Council (UK government) funding. As a result of this, they realised: ‘Our belief in fostering smaller communities through a depth of engagement proved to be generally at odds with the growth mindset of public funding’. They go on to describe how this changed their plans for labour/governance; “care”; and curatorial vision, their relationships/friendships with other artists; and resulted in feeling their work was “Subsumed, Co-opted—Nice, But Not Essential”.

The same ambivalence emerges in Eva and Co’s manifesto and to some extent in the previous discussion of a manifesto about a Feminist Art Institution.

Lina Džuverović, Irene Revell nevertheless went ahead with the project and arts organisation and have continued to write and curate other feminist initiatives and exhibitions since 2004. They still maintain the importance of building a new kind of approach to feminist curating and to holding on to the idea of fostering other visions of feminist art practices.

How do you feel about the ambivalences described in this article, and their manifesto, worked through with conviction and at the same time questioning the compromises of accommodation in the system of arts organisations currently supported?

Like the Guerrilla Girls and many other feminist arts organisations over the years, it is still possible to maintain a positive response to build an institution, build a practice, in spite of recognising contradictions in one’s position and doubts about the effectiveness of one’s actions.

Add your comments to the forum for Lesson 6

Lesson 6 forum

Comments at the end of this course

All the manifestos of contemporary women artists and writers in the ebook and in these lessons indicate how their work has taken up questions related to feminism and art, in different ways, and at different times. There is no homogeneity in their responses to their current situation. Only at a very formal level of analysis could we say that a uniting thread across these manifestos is that these women are reacting to the situation in which they found themselves and represent how they thought about changing the world!

Manifestos are only one part of the creative work that thinking about feminism in relation to contemporary art has produced. Examining artworks, curatorial policies of art exhibitions and their reception, documenting actions, performances and conference speeches, analysing articles magazines/journals are all other ways of analysing the politics of the women’s art movement/ art “informed by feminism” / or “feminist art”. In this course, all of these different facets of feminist analysis have been demonstrated or suggested in the narratives provided. Please remember that even though this course has looked at around 30 manifestos, this does not exhaust the questions raised by feminism and contemporary art. There are many other avenues to pursue this: historically, biographically, thematically, politically, or in sociological/anthropological/psychoanalytic terms.

I’ve presented this course as a cross-cultural analysis, juxtaposing manifestos from different times and different parts of the world, to foreground a trans-national, trans-generational approach which highlights differences between women artists’ strategies. Feminism is not just a strategy of dissent, it is also a question of making proposals for change and enacting them to build different futures for all women. These solutions will vary at different moments and in different places, they emerge in new artworks, new exhibitions and new art organisations. Recognising the question of location (from where we speak) and our situated knowledge in feminism (the limits of our own positions) is very important.

I wrote this MOOC because the words and voices in these manifestos continue to provoke, inspire and make me think about the different directions, projects and paths that feminism has taken in relation to art. It will continue to take further and unexpected turns!

Let me know if this course has inspired you to write a manifesto of your own.

Or to identify more clearly your own situation.

Perhaps it helped you to find your own words or better analysis to describe some of your experiences of the world and what you want to see changed in your lifetime. To work out what you might be for/against.

It is encouraging to know that other people have similar experiences of frustration, disappointment or being undervalued or undermined but have sought creative and imaginative approaches to tackling it.

Along with a little bit of rage or outrage to change their situation, they have found innovative, challenging, and sometimes provocative methods of dissent that present alternative visions for feminism!