“Gender Art” From Eastern Europe in Vienna

VIENNA, Austria -

- The Austrian Museum of Modern Art MUMOK is to Open the Large Show “Gender Check - Femininity and Masculinity in Eastern European Art” on November 12, 2009

“Gender Check” is the first comprehensive exhibition featuring art from Eastern Europe since the 1960s based on the theme of gender roles. 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the curator Bojana Pejic, along with a team of experts from 24 different countries, has put together a selection of over 400 works including paintings, sculpture, installations, photography, posters, films and videos. With over 200 artists - among them prominent names as Anri Sala, Lia Perjovschi, Katarzyna Kozyra, Oleg Kulik, Vladislav Mamyshev-Monroe, Marina Abramovic, Tanja Ostojic and Boris Mikhailov - the exhibition paints an exceptionally diverse picture of a chapter in art history that until recently had been largely unknown and that could also act as an important addition to contemporary gender discourse.

“Gender Check” follows the changes in the representation of male and female role models in art - especially as they develop under different socio-political conditions. Starting with the 1960s, where Socialist Realism propagated the ideal of a “genderless society,” the show also presents unofficial art behind the scenes, leading over to the general trend towards liberalization in the 1970s, and from then on to the new representations of the body displaying increasing self-confidence and an open sexuality. With the fall of the wall in 1989, and the growing influence of consumerism from the West, new freedoms were found that however were also accompanied by new neo-conservative role constraints. And with this, a critique of chauvinist, militaristic, misogynist and xenophobic ideologies came to become an important topic in art.

Press Conference: 12 November 2009, 10:00 am Exhibition Opening: 12 November 2009, 7:00 pm Opening Party: 9:00 pm, music and videos by Sindikat (CASIOp, Emulgator, Mina Fina) Symposium: READING GENDER - Art, Power and Politics of Representation in Eastern Europe: 13/14 November 2009, MUMOK

“Gender Check” was initiated and supported by ERSTE Foundation: www.erstestiftung.org

Pressmaterial is available at www.mumok.at/presse

Contact: Eva Engelberger Barbara Hammerschmied MUMOK Presse Telephone +43-1-52500-1400/-1450 press@mumok.at

Source: The Austrian Museum of Modern Art MUMOK

Contact: Eva Engelberger, Barbara Hammerschmied, MUMOK Presse, Telephone +43-1-52500-1400/-1450, press at mumok.at