An exhibition to face with female stereotypes in the post Soviet Russia

The 1st institutional 20-years feminine art after the perestroika times, activism and gender transformations

 The gender equity seem to be an important subject in current Russia. Soviet policy is steel going on underlining equal right for men and women (as happens in several worldwide States) even if contradictions still happen. Gender theory, as instrument of the socio-cultural analysis, has started to spread in Russia during the perestroika time, the period of consolidation of democratic freedoms, pluralism and openness policy. Russian gender art start growing in the early 90’s when first feminine organization started working in the field of humanitarian research. The first feminine art exhibitions have been held thanks to women art group, during the period of rising public interest to the gender theory, in the 2000ies, and artists as Anna Alchuk or Natalia Kamenetskaya, the art theorists Olesya Turkina and Alla Mitrofanova have played a main role. Ginving examples: Women of Russia (1997), Russian Feminist (1999), Borders of Gender project and Аnamnesis Lapsus Memoriae (1999-2000), Self-portrait of a Woman Artist (2002) sould be considered as the result of this self-determination process. For Olesya Turkina, one of the most important Russian curator, a questions to understand woman’s role, should be “What do You want from me?” in a world where women could be still divided into categories as doll, androgynous, mother… Tomorrow it will start ŽEN d’АРТ, The Gender History of Art in the Post-Soviet Space: 1989–2009, a main women exhibition exploring body language, traditionally feminine social roles and practices in new Russian society of consumption. The Moscow MoMa, after 20 years of institutional silence, is the first presenting this 20-year art experience. Strange but true if looked from our 40 years from feminism and consequent still living right fights, unnecessary underline what is going on here in Italy, where males often embrace the role of bargaining chip. Visitors have the opportunity to see pieces of well-known artist as Katya Kameneva, Dina Kim, Galina Smirnskaya combined with new artworks. The project includes a whole range of events: conferences, web-portal creation, exhibitions, archives and catalogue edition. Curators are Natalia Kamenetskaya and Oksana Sarkisyan. We will see the result of their art focus on the woman’s image in recent Russia. Art stereotype of the most stereotypized subject?