When artists and curators aim to create a "feminist" exhibition, historically correct
Everything started out as a conversation, in Basel, between the idea of an exhibition, and a proposal after a discussion between the Basel based artists Senam Okudzeto and Claudia Müller. After they proposition, the Kunstmuseum Basel gave green light to this project, by looking back at the collection of the museum through a feminist lens. The goal of this feminist exhibition is the fight the stereotype of feminism as humorless with an emphasis on joy, playfulness and irreverence.
This project, which was oversea by the curator of contemporary art (1970s to today), Maja Wismer and Alice Wilke, will prove to be a great dialogue, by combining works from the collections, new acquisitions, upcoming acquisitions and a new perspective and topic, which need to be corrected.
While the show takes place in the Gegenwart, one of the first museum only dedicated to contemporary art, it features more of less 40 pieces of art, which shade a light on feminist perspectives (some of them we're even made for the show).
Since the aftermath of the second world war, and the impressive globalisation of our world, the term and artist which defined themselves as feminist as grown subsequently. Since that time, artists, art historians, gallery's, curators and people from all around the world are trying to define this new perspective and redefine the research between gender images and roles in the society.
Like I stated before, most of the works of the shows are explaining, disclosing and expanding structure that are going back to the root of feminism. Thus early works, often experimental where made around the subject of irony, humour and self-irony.
By mocking themselves, they fight alongside their new social and human perspective of the feminist. In that line, the works presented at the Kunstmuseum Basel I Gegenwart is rich of fight and activism. They are giving us a priceless insight into the process, the thought and the observation on Gender stereotypes...
For instance, the representations of the body (Ebecho Muslimova (*1984), Marianne Wex (*1937)), the importance of gender and their role in society (Tracey Rose (*1974) and Cindy Sherman (*1954)) and the elaborate reflection on stereotypes, the culture industry and the western canon (Kawita Vatanajyankur (*1987) and the Guerilla Girls (established in 1985)).
All of those thematic are explored, historically searched, relevant and critical about the collection of the museum, which had not a wide view of the word but a western connection to the world. Thus, the show don't present just feminist subject, but it represent the discourse, the past and the present of the "group".
The artists are: Polly Apfelbaum, Monika Baer, Lynda Benglis, Dara Birnbaum, Pauline Boudry & Renate Lorenz, Dineo Seshee Bopape, Ruth Buchanan, Pauline Curnier Jardin, Paz Errázuriz, Jana Euler, Sylvie Fleury, Andrea Fraser, Ellen Gallagher, Anna Gili, Guerrilla Girls, Ani Liu, Muda Mathis & Sus Zwick, Kirsi Mikkola, Ebecho Muslimova, Lorraine O'Grady, Pipilotti Rist, Tracey Rose, Martha Rosler, Karin Sander, Sarina Scheidegger & Ariane Koch, Cindy Sherman, Wiebke Siem, Lena Maria Thüring, Rosemarie Trockel, Fatimah Tuggar, Lily van der Stokker, Kawita Vatanajyankur, Puck Verkade, Marianne Wex, Nives Widauer, Melanie Jame Wolf, Betty Woodman, Aline Stalder & Nadine Cueni & Katharina Kemmerling & Katrin Niedermeier.
The second part of the exhibition is dedicated to the growing collection of contemporary art of the museum, and more or less to the installation of Vivian Suter. The artist has enveloped a full room of his paintings, most of them coming from the artist’s studio and repository and the holdings of the Zurich gallery Karma International, and the collections of the Galerie Stampa, the Ricola Collection, Laufen, and Kunstkredit Basel.
Informations about the exhibition
Place: Kunstmuseum Basel | Gegenwart
Date: 24.9.2022 – 19.3.2023
Curator: Maja Wismer, Alice Wilke, Senam Okudzeto and Claudia Müller
Ticket: Available on the website of the Kunstmuseum Basel OR at the front desk of the museum
Informations about the Kunstmuseum Basel
Kunstmuseum Basel
St. Alban-Graben 8
CH-4010 Basel
Phone: +41 61 206 62 62
Fax: +41 61 206 62 52
Mail: info@kunstmuseumbasel.ch