translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville,
141209: MUMOK Museum moderner Kunst: Gender Check – Role Models in Eastern European Art
MUMOK Museum moderner Kunst: Gender Check – Role Models in Eastern European Art
Don’t be afraid of Soz-Art
Bojana Pejic and a team of experts compiled an exceptionally diverse collection with 400 works by 200 artists for the exhibition “Gender Check. Role Models in Eastern European Art” at the MUMOK. When asked if she did not consider the amount of art to be an overload, Pejic countered with the question if one was afraid of so much art.
One thing one can definitely say about the huge show is that one has rarely seen so many, until recently largely unknown, positions, spanning across numerous generations. It was a clever decision to present artists supported by the regime as well as “unofficial” artists: an adequate overview of art spanning over the past five decades is only possible if Soz-Art, the art movement founded in the Soviet Union at the beginning of the 1970’s, is included in the dialogue.
The exhibition manages to present the diverse approaches to the topic without any finger-wagging. Paintings expounding the problems of females during the seemingly equality-minded communism, show that works by artists, especially female artists, who were respected by communism, were not necessarily loyal to the regime.
There is enough space for many topics in this extensive show: Mother roles (Katarzyna Górna, Anna Kovshar, Ieva Iltnere), homosexuality (Jaroslaw Modzelewski and Marek Sobczyk, Marju Mutsu), pornography (Jelen Radic, Eva Filová, Anetta Mona Chisa and Lucia Tkácová), violence (Ágnes Szépfalvi, Rovena Agolli) female images (Sanja Ivekovic, Margit Anna, as well as, more important, male depictions (Zaneta Vangeli, Dren Maliqui, Jana Zelibská).
As doubtful as exhibitions combining art from certain regions may be, focussing on gender roles makes the geographical narrowing-down reasonable; after all: the story of genders was very different in the communist East to that in the capitalist West. On account of the size of this exhibition, the MUMOK should seriously consider issuing a general pass – one visit will definitely not suffice to see the entire show.
By Nina Schedlmayer
MUMOK Museum moderner Kunst
1070 Vienna, MuseumsQuartier, until 14.02.10
http.//www.mumok.at
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141209
mumok - Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien
1070 Wien, Museumsquartier, Museumsplatz 1
Tel: +43 1 52 500, Fax: +43 1 52 500 13 00
Email: info@mumok.at
http://www.mumok.at
Öffnungszeiten: Täglich: 10.00–18.00 Uhr, Do: 10.00–21.00 Uhr
mumok - Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien
1070 Wien, Museumsquartier, Museumsplatz 1
Tel: +43 1 52 500, Fax: +43 1 52 500 13 00
Email: info@mumok.at
http://www.mumok.at
Öffnungszeiten: Täglich: 10.00–18.00 Uhr, Do: 10.00–21.00 Uhr