More "Dionysiac" Protests; A Call for a New Feminism; Beecroft in Berlin
MORE "DIONYSIAC" PROTESTS
Curator Christine Macel can look forward to another protest action against "Dionysiac," the group exhibition at the Pompidou that has garnered criticism because it features only male artists. The local activist group Artpies, which sent out a press release-cum-open invitation, is planning to disrupt Macel's conference on the show, which is scheduled for this Wednesday evening at the Pompidou. The group, which stormed the exhibition's opening last month, has circulated an ironic manifesto based on a text by Macel, who defended her failure to include women artists in the show. The eight-point statement is written around quotes from the curator: "The question of women and Dionysian energy remains to be thought through," writes Macel; Artpies points out that the curator had four years to think about the question and yet still did not manage to find an answer. Macel claims that Dionysian energy can be found in the work of female artists of the ‘70s such as Carolee Schneemann and Valie Export. "The most contemporary Dionysian artists are surely Louise Bourgeois or Cindy Sherman, in certain series," writes Macel. Artpies celebrates Macel's stance on the issue of filling quotas for women or others. "The honest refusal to respect quotas," writes the curator, "to refuse to select a priori Mexican or Lithuainian artists, is offset at the Pompidou by its intense attention to arts from China, Africa and Brazil."
A CALL FOR A NEW FEMINISM
Nancy Fraser, a new fellow at Berlin's Wissenschaftskolleg, offers her own manifesto for what she calls the "third phase" of feminism. Writing in the Tageszeitung, Fraser argues that the attempt to broaden the principle of the social welfare state in order to equalize the benefits received by women and men has failed in the wake of the events of 1989. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the rise of new conflicts, feminism has been more interested in exploring cultural change than in obtaining social equality. Like many social movements, feminism has allowed "economic disparities to increase" while failing to show how "the neoliberal order is threatening the family." Fraser asserts that feminists should not ignore political-economic questions—especially in larger transnational contexts like the European Union. Above all, Fraser would like to see the feminist field of action and intervention broaden, although she does not mention exhibition openings and conferences.
BEECROFT IN BERLIN
There was no shortage of women last week in Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie, which hosted Vanessa Beecroft's latest and largest performance. One hundred women—with black, red, and golden blond hair (the colors of the German flag)—stood, wearing nothing more than stockings, in Mies van der Rohe's glass-box museum. Writing for the Frankfurter Rundschau, Ulrich Clewing attended the sold-out public performance. While Clewing initially found the confrontation between the naked and the dressed "grotesque," the situation eventually turned around. "The longer the performance lasted," writes Clewing,"the more intense the power of the women became.” Admiring the women's strength, Clewing regrets their anonymity. "One hundred names should stand here," he writes. "So that those who are entitled to it can be given the appropriate respect. Since this contradicts all journalistic conventions, I can only write: In a completely unexpected way, it was a rare, great moment for Berlin museums this past Friday evening."