Gender and art

Suzanne Lacy, In Mourning and In Rage, 1977

Pending the opening of the new Prato complex planned for spring 2015, the Luigi Pecci Centre for Contemporary Art celebrates its fresh start with a new season in its Milanese branch, the Milan Pecci Museum, at No. 113 Ripa di Porta Ticinese. The Centre is taking this opportunity to launch a whole new line of investigation, dedicated to the protagonists of international art who did pioneering work in the sixties, seventies and eighties. The series will be opened by Suzanne Lacy, with a themed retrospective titled Gender Agendas which will remain from 14 November to 6 January.

The exhibition presents, for the first time in Europe, a large series of works of this Los Angeles artist, known as one of the initiators of the crucial operation of blending conceptual and performance art with social commitment in the early seventies in Los Angeles. Her activity ranges from explorations of the body and intimate reflections to the production of large and lengthy public demonstrations involving dozens of artists and thousands of spectators.

Suzanne Lacy : Gender Agendas

14th November 2014 - 6th January 2015

Milan Pecci Museum

http://www.centropecci.it/uk/home.htm

"In 1987 the Centre d'Art Contemporain hosted die Mond, der Sonne, the final collaboration between Marina Abramovic and the German artist Ulay before they separated on the Great Wall of China (The Lovers: The Great Wall Walk).
To mark the Centre's 40th anniversary, Marina Abramovic is returning to Geneva where she will occupy a whole floor of the institution from the 1st until the 11th of May 2014 to host an exercise open to the public. The artist’s approach is to teach participants how to cope with the demands of staging long-duration performances of their own via a series of training exercises.

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At the workshop at the Centre d'Art Contemporain Genève, Marina Abramovic will have participants to work on Counting the rice, in a site-specific structure designed by Daniel Libeskind. The architect is also returning to Geneva, after having exhibited at the Centre in 1987.
Counting the Rice, from the series of workshop entitled Cleaning the House, aims to develop the participants’ endurance, concentration, perception, self-control and willpower. It will allow the public to stretch their physical and mental limits."

"In her 2013 performance work And They Chat (also called Chat with Women), Wu Meng walked the streets of the old city of Haikou in a wedding dress made of newspaper, tying discarded domestic objects such as pots and pans, a broom, and a large mosquito net onto her body as she went. Her load became heavier and heavier as she dragged herself down the road, followed by small children and curious onlookers. The performance concluded with a reading from Engels on marriage and monogamy. A new collaborative work, Metamorphosis Garden, reveals her consistent interest in exploring aspects of women’s lived experience."

"Performance and installation artist Sue Austin has been using a wheelchair for 16 years. As an artist, she embraces the experience as a foundation for her artwork, where she challenges the stigma of the disabled as 'other' and creates opportunities for empowerment. Her website states, "Over an extended period of time her practice has operated as a vehicle to open up a thinking space around the materiality of the wheelchair."

Creating the Spectacle is a body of work involving filmed and live exhibitions of her adventures under water. In this series of photographs, Austin explores the world without limitations as she swims among the fish in a self-propelled wheelchair."

Dans un souci constant d’économie de moyens, cette artiste pionnière de l’art action et de la performance s’attache à définir sa propre individualité et utilise son corps comme un outil de travail et d’expression. Sur le thème de l’autoportrait, l’exposition réunit installations, vidéos et plus d’une centaine de photographies.

Esther Ferrer
Face B. Image. Autoportrait
15 fév.-13 juil. 2014
Vitry-sur-Seine. Mac/Val

http://www.macval.fr/

"Wura-Natasha Ogunji is an artist concerned with much more than brushstrokes and proper studio lighting.

Based in Lagos, Nigeria and Austin, Ogunji studies body movement and public performance art as a means to provide social awareness. From video art installations and public performances, Ogunji’s works are a commentary on social order — often bringing into question the idea of justice. [...]

In “beauty,” a performance piece originally performed in Lagos in April, Ogunji includes African-American women from different backgrounds being brought together by a physical element that connects them all — their hair. Performers will have their hair woven into one braid Wednesday at UT and will remain standing with their hair connected for four hours."

"I am interested in what we know about things through our bodies,” says Simone Forti, who was born in Florence in 1935 but has mostly lived in Los Angeles since 1938, with extended stays in New York and other places. The exhibition presents the first comprehensive retrospective of the seminal work of this influential artist, choreographer, dancer, and writer. In addition to numerous performances, many of them presented in live enactments, Forti’s sculptures, drawings, works with holograms and sound, and videos demonstrate her strikingly broad creative range. She is regarded as a key figure in postmodern dance and pioneer of Minimal art—she personally likes to describe herself as a “movement artist.”

Simone Forti. Thinking with the body: a Retrospective in Motion

18 July - 9 November 2014

Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Austria

"Until the end of the 2014 Biennale of Sydney in June, Chinese performance artist Yingmei Duan will live in a small forest built inside the Art Gallery of NSW.

Visitors – as they have since the start of the Biennale – will have the chance to meet Duan and interact with her as she dispenses wishes and prophecies written on small pieces of paper.

And this is only the latest example of renewed interest in performance art that draws on the rich history of feminist art. Indeed, it’s part of a resurgence in performance art that looks a lot like a backlash against the ascendancy of the digital in the 21st century – and like a revitalisation of feminist concerns in contemporary art."

"Contemporary pop culture as expressed for example in R&B occupies both Alexandra Bachzetsis and Claire Hooper in their works. While Bachzetsis deconstructs in a rather analytical manner, Hooper employs its inherent seductive aspects for her own purposes. The artists explore the increasing significance given by social media to the staging of “personality” and “life.” In her videos, Hooper combines contemporary destinies with plotlines from Greek mythology while Bachzetsis isolates gesture and body language visible in club culture and music videos in her performances. A dialog about the body and its representation in the media as well as its physical and social limitations develops between their works."

Alexandra Bachzetsis –
Claire Hooper

22 February–25 May 2014

Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, Germany

http://www.bonner-kunstverein.de/ausstellungen/aktuell/bachzetsis-hooper-english/

"L’œuvre de Pilar Albaraccin accorde une large place au bestiaire animalier. Avec cette installation, en écho à un détail du panneau La Guerre de Pablo Picasso, elle interroge notre rapport au savoir et à la culture. Un âne naturalisé trônant sur une montagne de livres incarne la vision d’un monde inversé où la bêtise animale devient figure de l’érudition.

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Dans ses performances-vidéos, ses installations et ses photographies, Pilar Albarracin, se joue du folklore hispanisant, du flamenco à la tauromachie, tout en brocardant les stéréotypes liés à la femme espagnole. Dans un langage parodique, l'artiste se met elle-même en scène, endossant ces insignes pittoresques qui ont façonné l'imaginaire populaire lié à l'Espagne."

Pilar Albarracin
Asneria
15 fév.-23 juin 2014
Vallauris. Musée national Pablo Picasso

http://www.musees-nationaux-alpesmaritimes.fr/Picasso/

"Pour la 2de année consécutive, Olivier Saillard invite l’actrice Tilda Swinton à réaliser une performance dans le cadre du 42e Festival d’Automne à Paris. Après « Impossible Wardrobe », en septembre 2012, le directeur du Palais Galliera, musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris, propose à l’actrice d’enfiler cette « Eternity Dress » afin de mettre en valeur la mémoire gestuelle des ateliers.

Les collections de mode ne cessent de se renouveler jusqu’à l’épuisement des saisons. Haute couture, prêt-à-porter féminin et masculins défilent 2 fois par an, soit un total de 6 fashion week dans l’année. Le nombre de vêtements créés comme celui des défilés se multiplient donc !

Né de ce constat « Eternity Dress » est une performance qui repose sur la création d’une robe, une seule. Ce sont toutes les étapes de sa création qui sont consacrées ici. Une manière de ralentir et surtout de s’éterniser sur chaque geste qui conduit à la fabrication du vêtement."

"Eternity dress" du 20 au 24 novembre aux Beaux-arts de Paris. 14 rue Bonaparte. 75006 Paris. www.beauxartsparis.fr.