Fast Forward! Women in European Art, 1970-Present

A conference on gender and feminism in European art, from the 1970s to the present, with a special focus on the Nordic countries.

The University of Copenhagen, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, and European Postwar and Contemporary Art Forum welcome you to a two-day exchange of research, dialogue, and debate. Fast Forward! takes up the topic of gender and feminism in European art, from the 1970s to the present, with a special focus on the Nordic countries, and is part of the research project Feminist Emergency: Women Artists in Denmark, 1960-Present, funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation.

Despite the liberal reputation of the Nordic countries, the feminist revolution did not remap the art world in this context: women remain grossly underrepresented in museum collections, exhibitions, and historical studies, and feminism has tended to be taken for granted as an already completed historical project. If feminism remains an unfinished undertaking in a region known as a bastion of gender equity, then what of the rest of Europe? Today feminist art, curation, and theory are at a crossroads that demands new approaches and visions.

Reconsidering the generational framework of historical “waves,” which has been so decisive for feminist art historical scholarship, the conference seeks to explore how the circulations, translations, displacements, and renunciations of this model have shaped art and its discourses and institutions across Europe since 1970. How can we move on from the wave framework to develop new and productive insights into feminism’s ongoing relevance for contemporary art and art history? The research and work presented at the conference seek to address these imperative questions.

The conference is held in conjunction with the exhibition Pia Arke (15 July 2021 – 2 February 2022) – a comprehensive critical reckoning with the visionary oeuvre of the Greenlandic-Danish artist. Louisiana has over the past years dedicated a range of large-scale exhibitions to women artists from the period covered by the conference, many of which have become represented in the museum’s permanent collection.

We are delighted to present a rich program of emerging and established scholars and artists. We would like to thank everyone for submitting their work and participating in this endeavour to explore the nature and impact of contemporary women artists, art history, and feminism in all their many entanglements.

Place

The conference will be held at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in conjunction with the exhibition Pia Arke (15 July 2021 – 2 February 2022) – a comprehensive critical reckoning with the visionary oeuvre of the Greenlandic-Danish artist.

Louisiana has over the past years dedicated a range of large-scale exhibitions to women artists from the period covered by the conference, many of which have become represented in the museum’s permanent collection.

Registration

Registration closed.

Organizing committee

Kerry Greaves, Assistant Professor, Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen

Anders Kold, Curator, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art

Jenevive Nykolak, Assistant Professor, California State University, Los Angeles, EPCAF representative

Programme

Download PDF with abstracts and bios of keynote speakers, speakers and organizing committee.

Wednesday, 17 November

8:45-9:15	Registration and coffee
9:15-9:45	Welcome: Poul Erik Tøjner, Director, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art Opening remarks: Kerry Greaves, Assistant Professor, University of Copenhagen
9:50-10:40	KEYNOTE Tania Ørum, Associate Professor Emeritus, University of Copenhagen The Danish Feminist Avant-Garde of the 1970s Moderator: Kerry Greaves
10:45-12:30	SESSION 1: HISTORICAL FEMINIST FOUNDATIONS IN DENMARK Moderator: Birgitte Thorsen Vilslev, Postdoc, University of Copenhagen Malene Vest Hansen, Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen Feminist Investigations in Modern Myths of Art and Love and the Everyday: Reflections on Lene Adler Petersen’s Series Parbilleder/Images of Couples Birgitte Anderberg, Senior Research Curator, Statens Museum for Kunst Strategic Approaches in Researching, Collecting, Curating, and Exhibiting Art by Women Artists in the Art Museum Screening of Ursula Reuter Christiansen’s The Executioner, 1971/2016 (35 minutes) Ursula Reuter Christiansen, Artist, and Mai Dengsøe, Curator A Conversation on The Executioner
12:30-13:30	Lunch in the Boat House
13:30-15:05	SESSION 2: PIA ARKE & NORDIC COLONIALISM Moderator: Mathias Danbolt Anders Kold, Curator, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in conversation with Tone Olaf Nielsen and Frederikke Hansen of Kuratorisk Aktion, Independent curators A Conversation on Curating Pia Arke Line Ellegaard, PhD Candidate, University of Copenhagen How to Practice Listening: Kuratorisk Aktion and Transnational Feminist Solidarity Aaiún Nin, Artist, and Nina Cramer, PhD Candidate, University of Copenhagen Mobilizing Abstraction: Aaiún Nin and Nina Cramer in Conversation Jessie Kleemann, Artist A Performative Reading
15:05-15:35	Coffee break
15:35-16:55	SESSION 3: NEW, ALTER HISTORIES Moderator: Jenevive Nykolak Sofia Gotti, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, University of Cambridge Rebel Archives: An Experiment in Institutionalization Zsofi Valyi-Nagy, PhD Candidate, University of Chicago Herstory or Mine? Writing Feminist Histories of Art with Self-Mythologies in Mind Ahu Antmen, Professor, Sabancı University Discovering Feminism and Contemporaneity in Turkish Art of the 1970s Laura Bruni, Assistant Curator, Tate Feminist Futures? Feminism and European Art in the UK
17:00-18:00	KEYNOTE Maura Reilly, Associate Professor, Arizona State University Women & Art in the Nordic Countries Moderator: Christina Kiaer, Professor, Northwestern University & Novo Nordisk Guest Professor, University of Copenhagen
18:00-19:00	Exhibition visits/tours
19:00-21:00	Conference dinner in The Boat House for speakers

Thursday, 18 November

9:00-9:30	Registration and coffee
9:30-10:20	KEYNOTE Angela Dimitrakaki, Senior Lecturer, University of Edinburgh On Divides & Contradictions: Europe, the Art Field, and Feminist Politics in the 21st Century Moderator: Tine Colstrup, Curator, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
10:25-12:00	SESSION 4: MIGRATION, POLITICS, AND ACTIVISM Moderator: Cecilie Ullerup Schmidt, Assistant Professor, University of Copenhagen Anne Ring Petersen, Professor, University of Copenhagen Feminist Transversal Politics through Art in Public Space: Notes on Three Future-Oriented Art Projects in Copenhagen Peter Brandt, Artist, and Katrine Dirckinck-Holmfeld, Artist and independent researcher The Re-Materialization of Trauma: A Dialogue on Love Kristian Handberg, Assistant Professor, University of Copenhagen Touring Feminist Realism in Actually Existing Socialism – Following Dea Trier Mørch across the Iron Curtain Jane Jin Kaisen, Artist and Professor, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Community of Parting
12:00-13:00	Lunch in the Boat House
13:00-14:35	SESSION 5: FEMINIST CRITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS &, INVISIBILITY Moderator: Jenevive Nykolak Carola Grahn, Artist A Reading from The Journey Amy Tobin, Curator, Kettle’s Yard, and Lecturer, University of Cambridge Speaking Bitterness, or How to Raise Feminist Consciousness Henriette Heise, Artist, in conversation with Mathias Danbolt, Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen Politics of Invisibility Liisa-Rávná Finbog, PhD Candidate, University of Oslo The Silencing of Sámi Women and their Objects of Knowledge
14:35-15:05	Coffee break
15:05-16:25	SESSION 6: FEMINISM & INTER/MEDIA EXPERIMENTS Moderator: Birgitte Thorsen Vilslev Ulla Angkjær Jørgensen, Associate Professor, Norwegian University of Science of Technology and Sigrun Åsebø, Associate Professor, University of Bergen To Know the Future is to Know the Past. The Re-Invention of Textile Art in Norwegian Feminist Art of the 1970s Marika Kuźmicz, Lecturer and Vice Dean, Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw Forgotten Herstory of Fragile Medium: Video Women Artists in Early Years Caitlin Woolsey, Assistant Director of Research and Academic Program, Clark Art Institute “It’s so touchy”: Christina Kubisch and the Sound of Emergency c.1975 Janna Schoenberger, Lecturer, Amsterdam University College Dolle Mina: Reimagining Ludic Art as Feminist Activism
16:30-17:20	KEYNOTE Amelia Jones, Robert A. Day Professor and Vice Dean, Roski School of Art & Design, University of Southern California “Women,” Art, and Feminism in 2021 Moderator: Kerry Greaves
17:25-17:35	Closing remarks: Kerry Greaves
19:00-21:00	Drinks and curatorial tour for speakers of After the Silence, Women of Art Speak Out with Birgitte Anderberg at Statens Museum for Kunst

Department of Arts and Cultural Studies