A Voice of One’s Own
On Women’s Fight for Suffrage and Human Recognition
June 6–September 7, 2014
Malmö Konstmuseum
Malmöhusvägen 6
Box 406
201 24 Malmö
Sweden
A Voice of One’s Own takes its starting point 100 years ago at the Baltic Exhibition in Malmö, Sweden. 1,700 exhibitors and 850,000 visitors witnessed cultural refinement, technical developments, art exhibitions and athletic feats. There was an air of “everything is possible,” with the war yet to begin. And in the midst of all this, the women’s manifestation and fight for suffrage.
In this summer’s collaboration between Malmö Konstmuseum (Malmö Art Museum) and Moderna Museet Malmö, a number of contemporary artists have looked back in history at the reform work that promoted women’s rights at the beginning of the 20th century. Others have examined current issues relating to the situation for women and their access to the public sphere. The artworks create a storyline of methods used to counter oppression and achieve gender equality, and highlight the importance of constantly rereading and reinterpreting history from different perspectives.
Through Carla Zaccagnini we are able to visit the art galleries attacked by the suffragettes in London and Manchester in 1913–14. She brings back to life one of the most radical statements of the legendary voting rights activists: “Justice is an element of beauty as much as colour and outline on canvas.” Maj Hasager goes in search of the unsung heroines of the international voting rights movement, while Unni Gjertsen recalls the suffragettes’ fearless and rebellious motto “deeds not words” in her installation. The portraits of Marie Høeg, women’s rights activist and photographer, offer a playful challenge to the sexual stereotypes prevalent in Norway at the turn of the last century. Andrea Geyer features the three women who founded the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and tells their forgotten story through a choreographed performance among the museum’s iconic collection. Petra Bauer reflects the early 20th century’s social reform movements in Sweden by using the poster as a political tool.
The local feminist movement in Malmö is represented by Roxy Farhat and her films, which revolve around the theme of sisterhood, while tales of Malmö’s lesbian history take center stage in Sofia Hultin’s city walk titled I’m Every Lesbian. Anna Konik also uses a personal story as a point of departure. In her project In the Same City under the Same Sky, stories of women refugees show that our ability to understand a story is highly dependent upon who’s telling it. Annica Karlsson Rixon’s suite of photographs depicts a Russian summer camp on a beautiful island, where the LGBT community can gather far from the regime’s aggressively anti-gay legislation.
Visitors can free themselves from the patriarchy in Minimal Competence’s humorous 12-step program, play a voting rights game from the 1910s, delve into feminist literature in the Grand Domestic Revolution Library, see the award-winning documentary about the Russian feminist collective Pussy Riot, and revisit the women’s manifestation and fight for suffrage at the Baltic Exhibition in 1914.
A special contribution to the exhibition is a selection of works by Catti Brandelius, Kajsa Dahlberg, Nathalie Djurberg, Martha Rosler, Fia-Stina Sandlund, and Ann-Sofi Sidén from the collection of Moderna Museet.
The exhibition features work by the following artists: Petra Bauer (Stockholm), Catti Brandelius (Stockholm), Matthijs De Bruijne (Amsterdam), Kajsa Dahlberg (Berlin), Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg (New York), Roxy Farhat (Malmö) in collaboration with Shaza Albatal, Johanna Friedman and Hanna Stenman, Andrea Geyer (New York), Unni Gjertsen (Oslo), Grand Domestic Revolution Library/Casco – Office for Art, Design and Theory (Utrecht), Maj Hasager (Copenhagen), Marie Høeg (Horten/Oslo, 1866–1949), Sofia Hultin (Stockholm/Malmö), Annica Karlsson Rixon (Gothenburg), Anna Konik (Berlin/Warsaw), Martha Rosler (New York), Fia-Stina Sandlund (Stockholm), Ann-Sofi Sidén (Stockholm) and Carla Zaccagnini (São Paulo/Malmö).
Curators: Marika Reuterswärd (curator Malmö Art Museum), Cecilia Widenheim (director of Malmö Art Museum), Joa Ljungberg (curator Moderna Museet Malmö)
