Statement: I Advocate Feminism

The exhibition “I Advocate Feminism” deals with the feminist battle against everyday discrimination, sexual oppression and patriarchal modes of behaviour, and presents feminism as a general form of political and social commitment. It focuses not only on women-specific issues, but also on the transformation to equal treatment of and between the sexes and the concomitant end of patriarchy.
The exhibition, curated by Olivia Nitis, is being presented by KulturKontakt Austria and comprises works by Elena Kovylina (Russia), Igor Grubić (Croatia) & Lana Čmajčanin (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Patricia Teodorescu (Romania).

Vernissage: Tuesday, 11 January 2011, 7 p.m.
Exhibition duration: 12 January – 25 February 2011
Mon. – Fri., 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Venue: Galerie ArtPoint, Universitätsstraße 5, 1010 Vienna

The work “I Begged Them to Kill Me” by Igor Grubić of Croatia and Lana Čmajčanin of Bosnia and Herzegovina deals with the mass rapes of women and girls during the war in
Bosnia and Herzegovina. The artists focus on the phenomenon of mass rape as a conscious method of warfare, and at the same time ask questions about the subsequent treatment of the victims. What are the (often unacknowledged) consequences of a rape – for the victim and for society? In many cases the victims are traumatised, but are left to battle the consequences without adequate support. Ostracism and social comedown are not unusual. Igor Grubić and Lana Čmajčanin also make reference to the differing legal situations in the country’s two entities, Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and pose the question of how victims are to achieve their rights when the legal situations in the two entities are incompatible.
With a number of actions in public spaces and in galleries, Grubić and Čmajčanin are trying to draw attention to the problems with which victims are confronted on a daily basis. The figure of 20,000, which they present in their works, corresponds to the official estimate of the number of victims of such abuse during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. One can assume that the unreported cases would make this figure much higher.

In her work “Who is feminist today?”, the Russian artist Elena Kovylina examines the current “face” of feminism. She begins by criticising the mass media, which, instead of contributing to a critical discussion of feminism over the decades, have tended to burden it with clichés and vulgar allegations. In this context, Kovylina also deplores the gradual disappearance of the original idea behind the term “feminism”. She plays with common associations that the word “feminism” calls to mind, ranging from “men-haters” through sexual connotations to “punk”, “foreigner” or “the smoking career woman”, and asks where young women and girls today can still find elements of feminism in its primary sense with which to identify. At the same time, she poses the question of how feminists define themselves and their role in society.
  
The Romanian artist Patricia Teodorescu is exhibiting the work “Freedom She Said”, in which she emphasises the independence of women, their strength, their talents, and their fighting spirit when it comes to discrimination in any form. Teodorescu writes:
“I don’t want to prove to men that I am their equal; I’m not. I am my father’s daughter,
my lover’s woman, I shall be the mother of my child…. I am my own self. I have a voice to use as a weapon of truth: the word. I am more talented than some and less talented than others; I have equal rights with them, and when I don’t, I fight for them. I hate false education that imposes rules on children, on girls or boys, about who washes the dishes and who should keep silent in so-called couple diplomacy, in society, in politics or economics. (…)
I don’t wish to quarrel with anybody, nor to live my life in strife, but life is a battle with ourselves and when I see injustice I suffer, (…) I revolt and get involved, when I or my rights are attacked I defend myself. And the best self-defence is the attack on intention, and attention: I have great intuition!”

COMING SOON

Igor Eskinja: Inhabitants of Generic Places
The Croatian artist, KKA Artist in Residence 2007 and winner of the 2006 Henkel award for talented young artists is currently pursuing an international career and presenting works at numerous important exhibitions. Eskinja is in the process of creating new works for the Tresor exhibition space at Bank Austria Kunstforum. A bilingual catalogue will be published for the exhibition, the fourth volume in the catalogue series published by KKA, Bank Austria und Bank Austria Kunstforum.
Exhibition duration: 21 January – 6 March 2011
Venue: Bank Austria Kunstforum/tresor
Freyung 8, 1010 Vienna
www.bankaustria-kunstforum.at

KKA Artists in Residence Exhibition 1/2011
Presentation of works by the Artists in Residence Milijana Istijanović (Montenegro), Haim Sokol (Russia) and Boba Mirjana Stojadinović (Serbia)
Vernissage: 8 March 2011, 7 p.m.
Exhibition duration: 9 March 2011 – 1 April 2011
Venue: Galerie ArtPoint
Universitätsstraße 5, 1010 Vienna