GENDER BATTLE

Much has changed since the 1970s when, in the Anglo-Saxon context of production and cultural agitation, diverse artists and theorists got involved in the task of demystifying the conventional tools of gender. However, it is necessary to rethink the practices that gave life to the productions of deconstruction and revelation of diverse feminist currents, studies of gender, and postcolonial studies. This display will analyze different productions of this age to confront and juxtapose them against current reality.

Gender Battle Seminar 25 to 27 September 2007

The goal of organising this cenference is to take on, as far as is possible, a whole spectrum of subjects and problems related to certain fields of feminist movements, the incorporation of the concept of gender as a category to be analysed and the social questioning that started to take force in the seventies related to the barriers between what is considered femenine or masculine. Three intensive days have therefore been organised with three lectures and three round table discussions in which artists, teachers, and activists with an interest in the subject will present to the public of Santiago their point of view about the complex questions of gender and how it materialises in daily life and in art.

25 September, 17:00 In the first lecture, María Laura Rosa, a teacher from Buenos Aires, will take a look at the specifics of art and feminism in four countries in Latin America, namely Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Mexico. In some ways it will be a closer look at the valuable contributions of different practices in art and cinema (María Luisa Bemberg in particular) in relation to social proposals for equality in turbulent times and contexts for politics.

The round table involves Martha Rosler (United States), Sanja Ivekovic (Croatia) and Ulrike Rosenbach (Germany), and aims to share not only the four artists’ individual experiences that gave rise to works of great signficance in the seventies, but also to show the diversity of artistic options and different ways of approaching feminism.

26 September, 17:00 The talk by French essayist Elisabeth Lebovici will be focused on a highly symbolic year in France – 1975, when various different feminist groups came to light and both collective and individual artistic problems with different ideologies arose. The specifics of the Womens’ Liberation Movement will be analysed together with the rise of homosexual groups that criticised heterosexist orthodoxy.

Present at the round table will be Carmen Navarrete, Jesús Martínez Oliva, Chelo Matesanz and Assumpta Bassas. The goal is to carry out a critical analysis of the art linked to matters of gender that existed in Spain in the seventies, based on the professional and research experience of four Spanish University lecturers (from the Universities of Valencia, Murcia, Pontevedra and Barcelona).

27 September, 17:00 Amelia Jones’ talk is based on the relative surprise that the recent interest in feminism shown by the market and art galleries and centres has caused in this North American essayist, who is also a lecturer at the University of Manchester. This is in marked contrast to the usual disdain shown over the decades by institutions to art that is openly feminist.

Talking at the round table will be Beatriz Suárez Briones, Raquel Osborne and one of the main figures of the feminist movement in Spain, Empar Pineda. They will look back on the struggle for emancipation and equality of rights and the role that feminism played in Spain towards the end of the dictatorship under General Franco and in the transition to democracy.

Juan Vicente Aliaga, chairman of the seminar

GENDER BATTLE
Lectures, theatre and debates about the rules of gender, sexuality and the impact of feminism in the art of the seventies

mit Marina Abramovic, Chantal Akerman, Eleanor Antin, Eugenia Balcells, Maria Luisa Bemberg, Lynda Benglis, Semiha Berksoy, Berwick Street Film Collective, Dara Birnbaum, Louise Bourgeois, Judy Chicago, Tee A. Corinne, Mary Beth Edelson, EULALIA , VALIE EXPORT/ Peter Weibel, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Esther Ferrer, Samuel Fosso, Suzane Frazier / Vicki Hodgetts / Robin Weltsch, Anna Bella Geiger, Barbara Hammer, Margaret Harrison, Juan Hidalgo, Sanja Ivekovic, Michel Journiac, Tina Keane, Mary Kelly, Jürgen Klauke, Shigeko Kubota, Suzanne Lacy & Leslie Labowitz, Carlos Leppe, Lea Lublin, Urs Lüthi, Anna Maria Maiolino, Monica Mayer, Ana Mendieta, Annette Messager, Fina Miralles, Pierre Molinier, Laura Mulvey / Peter Wollen, Gina Pane, Ewa Partum, Carlos Pazos, Adrian Piper, Sally Potter, Yvonne Rainer, Faith Ringgold, Ulrike Rosenbach, Martha Rosler, Carolee Schneemann, Cindy Sherman, Monica Sjöö, Jo Spence, Nancy Spero, Faith Wilding, Hannah Wilke, Nil Yalter