On 8 March we wish all women a Happy New Year full of equality and solidarity and remember all those who have fought for feminist ideals throughout time.
Today, as part of the #booksonthedancefloor series, we present a selection made by our colleague Corina Cimpoieru – 8 exemplary books about women and their artistic practices, from different times and places. The books are part of 𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐚 𝐂𝐍𝐃𝐁, whose program and rules you can find HERE.
𝟏. 𝐅𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬. 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞, 𝐃𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞, 𝐖𝐚𝐫, 𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐄𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐦., Adrien Sina , les presses du reel, 2011
A re-examination of the role of the female avant-garde in performance and dance: a comprehensive publication with over 2500 colour illustrations, together with documentary material on Valentine de Saint-Point, Marinetti, Futurism, Canudo, the Russian ballet, German and American Expressionism (original photographs, handwritten letters, drawings, woodcuts, manifestos, first editions and ephemera).
𝟐. 𝐑𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞. 𝐅𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐞𝐫 𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐦 𝐢𝐧 𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠, Sternberg Press, 2021
What happens when feminist and queer ethics of care are put into curatorial practice? What happens when the notion of care based on the politics of relationship, interdependence, reciprocity and responsiveness informs curatorial practice? Presented through critical theoretical essays, practice-based case studies and manifestos, the essays in this book offer perspectives from diverse contexts and geographies.
𝟑. 𝐅𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐀𝐫𝐭. 𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐦 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐀𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐦, Katy Deepwell (ed.), Valiz, 2020
Feminist art activism and feminist art activism, two sides of the same coin, occur when art approaches, develops or transforms into activism and vice versa, when activisms become activisms. In both, art appears in different forms of political intervention, both at the individual, communal or collective level, evidenced in actions, events, identifications and practices. This volume reveals the diversity of these practices and realities.
𝟒. 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐞 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 – 𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐕, Kunsthaus Bregenz, 2012
In a revolutionary way, starting in 1968, Austrian artist VALIE EXPORT paved the way for feminist and socially critical art. This catalogue contains numerous reproductions from the artist’s archive and also documents VALIE EXPORT’s approach and engagement with a theme. Works such as TAPP und TASTKINO and Aktionshose: Genitalpanik are presented not only as stand-alone works, but also in the context of reference material in the archive.
𝟓. 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐝: 𝐌𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈𝐭𝐬 𝐆𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐬, Iman Mersal, Sternberg Press, 2018
Egyptian poet Iman Mersal presents a new narrative of motherhood in this book, moving from interior and exterior spaces, journals, readings, and photographic representations of motherhood to question old and current representations of motherhood and the related space of unconditional love, guilt, personal goals, and traditional expectations.
𝟔. 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭̦𝐢𝐚 𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐢. 𝐑𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐖𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧 𝐀𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐈𝐫𝐨𝐧 𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walter Konig, 2019
This volume brings together 36 women artists from behind the Iron Curtain who worked between 1961 and 1989, attempting a contextualization of nonconformist female artistic production in the Eastern Bloc. Exploring how these women artists produced work in terms of mythology, protest and self-definition, Medea’s Insurrection rewrites the male-dominated narrative of post-war European art.
𝟕. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐧𝐨𝐧-𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞, Judith Butler, Verso, 2021
Judith Butler’s book shows how an ethic of nonviolence must be linked to a broader political struggle for social equality. Moreover, she argues that nonviolence is often misunderstood as a passive practice emanating from a calm region of the soul or as an individualistic ethical relationship to existing forms of power. But, in fact, nonviolence is an ethical stance that lies in the middle of the political field.
𝟖. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐀 𝐃𝐀𝐔𝐂̌𝐈́𝐊𝐎𝐕𝐀́, Futura Books, 2017
Anna Daučíková’s book is an incomplete attempt to summarize the most important themes in the work of the first Czechoslovak feminist and queer artist. Emigration and residence in 1980s Russia, determination through non-normative sexuality to the position of “other” and desire in relation to the visualization of sensual experience, the connection between past and presence, all intertwine in the theme of the body politic.
