West Coast Sisters
08.06–04.09.2018
To confront the segregations imposed by the American cultural authorities during the 1980s, Group Material decided to temporarily convert the exhibition format into another cognitive mode. Their exhibitions, simultaneously complex and inclusive, mixed a variety of styles, ethnic groups, genders and sexual orientations in an attempt to abolish hierarchization in the art world and the domination exercised by white, male and heteronormative American culture.
Drawing freely on the exhibition strategies worked out by Group Material, Rosa Brux offers a critical and personal consideration of the Geneva Women’s Liberation Movement. From self-defense classes to self-help groups enabling women to examine their own bodies, from demanding wages for housework to self-managed spaces enabling women to freely discuss among themselves, from fighting for the right to abortion on demand to the recognition of lesbian rights all over the world, with the diversity of its demands and means of action the Geneva MLF catalyzed a multiplicity of advocacy and radical groups.
Eschewing a hegemonic vision of that group, this exhibition tries to highlight the organizational models adopted by women united by their struggles, sentiments, activities and will, and at the same time conducive to conflicts and even contradictions, apologies, anathemas and mutual incomprehension. The content of their demands remains as relevant as ever.
In conjunction with this exhibition, the space usually reserved for artists in residence will be used for women’s workshops as spaces where knowledge can be shared and thus contribute to healthcare autonomy.