Does Not Equal
13 Mar - 12 Apr 2015
DOES NOT EQUAL
13 March – 12 April 2015
Deniz Unal (TR/UK), Nana Adusei-Poku (DE), Eva Barto (FR), Urs Bechel (CH), Lindsay Beebe (USA), Hannah Black (UK), Jenna Bliss (USA), Basje Boer (NL), Nina Bohn Pedersen (DK), Butcher's Tears, Adam Christensen (DK/UK), Susan Conte (USA), DJ Workshop for Women, E.C. Feiss (USA), Gender Changer Academy, Rachel B. Glaser (USA), Rose-Anne Gush (UK), Morag Keil (UK), Kapwani Kiwanga (CA), Fanny Kuitenbrouwer (NL), Gabrielle Le Bayon (FR), Sands Murray-Wassink (USA/NL), Naomi Pearce (UK), Diana Policarpo (PT), Policy People, Claire Potter (UK), Red Light Radio, Bunny Rogers (USA), San Serriffe, Anne-Marie St-Jean Aubre (CA), Elina Suoyrjö (FI), Karoline Swiezynski (DE), The Feminist Rock Salt, The Side Room, Lena Tutunjian (QA), Amalia Ulman (AR), Shen Xin (CN), Felicia von Zweigbergk (SE), Anne-Marie van Meel (NL), Dorine van Meel (NL)
Some of us believe in the struggle for liberation, if not in liberation itself. Perhaps equality is an impossible future and maybe we need a different game? What if we don’t want to ‘lean in’? Maybe we shouldn’t buy into prescribed narratives? What if we refuse to accept that the freedom of some, comes at the cost of the freedom of others? The time for infighting is through. We’re living in the apocalypse, in some messianic times, maybe its now that feminism can do some damage?
Does Not Equal is a group exhibition that questions the creative potential, historical legacy and ongoing concerns of feminism. Featuring more than 35 international artists, writers and curators the project presents various and conflicting responses that interrogate issues of gender equality and female subjectivity, including queerness in China, the politics of healthcare, and the dynamics of intimacy in public baths. Familiar characters such as the witch or medieval woman are inhabited. Elsewhere the history of colonial extraction and its commodification of bodies is explored whilst other works present archival investigations into radical political groups such as White Lightning.
In the wake of recent media attention, celebrity endorsement and cultural appropriation and recuperation, feminism no longer seems to be a dangerous word. If hashtags such as ‘YesAllWomen’ work to find some kind of universal solidarity Does Not Equal attempts to acknowledge the reality of difference and the struggle inherent in finding what’s shared. In adopting a discursive curatorial approach, and informed by a series of reading groups, the exhibition presents a programme of live performance, symposium and film screenings accompanied by a collective study room and series of radio podcasts.
Does Not Equal is a collaborative project initiated by W139 and artist Dorine van Meel.
13 March – 12 April 2015
Deniz Unal (TR/UK), Nana Adusei-Poku (DE), Eva Barto (FR), Urs Bechel (CH), Lindsay Beebe (USA), Hannah Black (UK), Jenna Bliss (USA), Basje Boer (NL), Nina Bohn Pedersen (DK), Butcher's Tears, Adam Christensen (DK/UK), Susan Conte (USA), DJ Workshop for Women, E.C. Feiss (USA), Gender Changer Academy, Rachel B. Glaser (USA), Rose-Anne Gush (UK), Morag Keil (UK), Kapwani Kiwanga (CA), Fanny Kuitenbrouwer (NL), Gabrielle Le Bayon (FR), Sands Murray-Wassink (USA/NL), Naomi Pearce (UK), Diana Policarpo (PT), Policy People, Claire Potter (UK), Red Light Radio, Bunny Rogers (USA), San Serriffe, Anne-Marie St-Jean Aubre (CA), Elina Suoyrjö (FI), Karoline Swiezynski (DE), The Feminist Rock Salt, The Side Room, Lena Tutunjian (QA), Amalia Ulman (AR), Shen Xin (CN), Felicia von Zweigbergk (SE), Anne-Marie van Meel (NL), Dorine van Meel (NL)
Some of us believe in the struggle for liberation, if not in liberation itself. Perhaps equality is an impossible future and maybe we need a different game? What if we don’t want to ‘lean in’? Maybe we shouldn’t buy into prescribed narratives? What if we refuse to accept that the freedom of some, comes at the cost of the freedom of others? The time for infighting is through. We’re living in the apocalypse, in some messianic times, maybe its now that feminism can do some damage?
Does Not Equal is a group exhibition that questions the creative potential, historical legacy and ongoing concerns of feminism. Featuring more than 35 international artists, writers and curators the project presents various and conflicting responses that interrogate issues of gender equality and female subjectivity, including queerness in China, the politics of healthcare, and the dynamics of intimacy in public baths. Familiar characters such as the witch or medieval woman are inhabited. Elsewhere the history of colonial extraction and its commodification of bodies is explored whilst other works present archival investigations into radical political groups such as White Lightning.
In the wake of recent media attention, celebrity endorsement and cultural appropriation and recuperation, feminism no longer seems to be a dangerous word. If hashtags such as ‘YesAllWomen’ work to find some kind of universal solidarity Does Not Equal attempts to acknowledge the reality of difference and the struggle inherent in finding what’s shared. In adopting a discursive curatorial approach, and informed by a series of reading groups, the exhibition presents a programme of live performance, symposium and film screenings accompanied by a collective study room and series of radio podcasts.
Does Not Equal is a collaborative project initiated by W139 and artist Dorine van Meel.