Feminist Curating – working group – alpha nova & galerie futura

District Berlin and alpha nova & galerie futura would like to initiate an exchange on perspectives and practices of feminist curating. The idea for this came up during a breakfast last summer that was organized by the AG Arbeit / Haben und Brauchen on occasion of their poster publication We Imagine a Persona.

From March this year we would like to gather with a group of interested curators, artists, thinkers and activists to discuss contents, structures, fields and formats of engagement of feminist curating.
The group to which we are turning for this first meeting consists of people like you whose work we admire and whose experiences, politics, discourses and practices together open up a wide spectrum of contemporary feminisms. Together we would like to work towards a code, manual, guide (in German Leitfaden) – or simply inspirations – for intersectional feminist action within the field of the curatorial. A set of first questions that came to our mind are:

What do we mean by feminist curating? Which themes, questions and problems are relevant in this regard? What is the political need for action at the moment? Which are the contexts to intervene into? In what way can we speak of a We? How can structures and practices of solidarity and inclusion be imagined, created and put to work within the arts? Which are the alliances with other antihegemonic perspectives today? How do we work together?

These are some possible questions. However, we imagine that the focus of the meetings will be defined by the group and that there would be smaller working groups or one or two people that commit to prepare the next meeting based on their discursive, artistic or other form of input. On the long run we are interested in a collaborative development and realization of possibilities to counter and queer hegemonic forms of representation and marginalizing, oppressive structures within the arts and society.

(In search for) feminist curating – possible and imaginary templates

Workshop & Talk with Dr. Katja Kobolt & Gästen
17.11.2017 // 17:00-20:30

“Art practice and curating, if acknowledged as spaces of production and not mere representations of knowledge, are not only struggles for visibility but an event of an inter-relational space, which is (hopefully) uncanny and slippery enough not to be completely caught in processes of valorization and commodification.” (Katja Kobolt)

Katja Kobolt works with feminist impetus as a curator, art mediator, author, lecturer and producer. In her own practice as well as in collective contexts, she aims at breaking impossibilities and creating emancipatory spaces (mostly in a situative way). She moderates the third open workshop of the project team FemKur on November 17 at which we will test structures with which other forms of sociability can be outlined, for collective knowledge production and exchange to emerge and spaces of action to expand. During the workshop, that also serves as a forum for discussion, Katja will address and discuss various feminist curatorial methods together with the participants (and based on their respective genealogies and positionings). The focus here lies on possible and imaginary formats of production, interaction and (re-)presentation (of art): Because forms (of knowledge representation) can themselves become knowledge.

Katja Kobolt (PhD) works on junctures of art, writing and teaching. In her individual and collective practice Katja has been focusing on breaking the impossibilities and building up structures, mainly by introducing different methods of work and display (with-in art and beyond) for generating new modes of sociability. Katja has (co)conceptualized and (co)produced numerous art events and exhibitions (City of Women Festival Ljubljana, 54. October Salon Belgrade and Living Archive editions as well as Symposium with Red Mined, Cross Border Experience etc.). Katja has been active in a feminist curatorial platform Red Mined as well as within a city of Munich art space/collective Lothringer13 Florida and DER FAHRENDE RAUM, space of action for art educational and artistic activity Munich. She teaches and writes on art, life and feminism. https://kkobolt.wordpress.com/

Literature for preparation

Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez. 2017. “For Slow Institutions”. In: E-Flux Journal #85 – October 2017. http://www.e-flux.com/journal/85/155520/for-slow-institutions/

Red Mined (Danijela Dugandžić, Katja Kobolt, Dunja Kukovec, Jelena Petrović) and Jelena Vesić. 2014. “ No one belongs here more than you”, “Where and what is a museum?”, “Exhibition as scripted space: The modes of production and the production of modes”, “Feminist exposure with(in) the living archive?”, “Production in times of trouble”. In: Red Mined and Jelena Vesić (eds.). 54th October Salon. no one belongs here more than you. The Living Archive: Curating Feminist Knowledge. Belgrade, KCB, 12-15, 28-29, 72-74, 88-95, 138-142, 202-205. https://kkobolt.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/katalog-eng-sept-2014.pdf

Jelena Petrović. 2015. “Social engagement in art between individual work and collective practices: feminist principles“. In: [BLOK] Ana Kutleša, Ivana Hanaček, Vesna Vuković (eds.). Journal Život umjetnosti , 97-2015, 48–67.  http://www.ipu.hr/content/zivot-umjetnosti/ZU_97-2015_048-066_Petrovic.pdf

2. Meeting FC

Warm-up by Magda Korsinsky
Projekt Presentation Magda Korsinsky & Talk
30.5.2017 // 17:00-20:00 (at District Berlin)

17:15-18:00 BODY and REGENERATION
warm-up and short body-based partner task regarding transmission and transformation of female connoted gestures, instructed by Magda Korsinsky

18:00-18:15 projekt presentation by Magda Korsinsky

18:15-18:45 VOICE YOUR NEEDS
collecting of different needs, desires, demands, defining smaller groups

18:45-19:40 ARCHIPEL for an exchange in smaller groups
exchange and common work on the different needs, demands, desires, questions that has been discussed before

19:40-20:00
Get-together, presentation of the groups (collecting, sharing), deciding on how to go on

We are happy that Joris Bas (http://www.basbasbacker.net/) will be documenting the meeting graphically.