GENDER EQUALITY: UNGENDERING MEMORY AND MUSEUM PRACTICES
Museum collections have emerged from the need to organise and categorise the world, attempting to bring together incompatible and diverse practices and memories into a coherent
narrative. The binary axis of female/male, which is assumed as natural, helps to perpetuate
patriarchal values and marginalise people whose gender identity does not fit into this binary.
Gender categorisation is fundamental both for the collection of material and its interpretation, which contributes to its perpetuation. This often means that the male perspective is
privileged over the female and that other genders are not discussed or represented, which
maintains gender inequality and the exclusion of gender minorities. What would it mean to
question and explore gender categories in a museum setting? How do museum narratives
shift when we look at objects and trace their history from a broader understanding of gender?
In what ways are the strategies of care practiced in relation to the museum’s communities,
marginalized voices and, last but not least, internal processes of production and creation?
Through case studies of museum collections, art practices and activism, we aim to explore
possible methodologies and approaches to tracing alternative narratives of gender, female
empowerment and the hegemony of the essentialized gender binary. Special emphasis will
be given to methods of collaboration and co-creation with various publics in order to examine how to care for gender narratives and how to build infrastructures of care in an equitable and inclusive manner. The International Workshop on Gender and Museum Practices is
designed with the purpose of bringing together the international community of academics,
museum curators, researchers, activists, art practitioners, and interested parties to discuss
current research while providing the opportunity to share thoughts, exchange ideas, extend
the network and explore current and future research directions.
The workshop is co-funded by the COST Action “Trace as a Research Agenda for Climate
Change, Technology Studies, and Social Justice” (TRACTS) within the WG2 Traces and Social
Justice, and Slovenian Research Agency within the postdoctoral project Z6-3225 “Emancipatory Politics of Women’s Social Movements and the Postsecular Turn in Feminism”.
Please note that all sessions will be conducted exclusively in English, and there will be no
provision for translations or interpretation services.
16th August–16th September 2022, Galeria Salon Akademii
Pałac Czapskich, Krakowskie Przedmieście st. 5, Warsaw, Poland
We are delighted to inform you that the TRACTS associate exhibition on Traces of Sisterhood is currently held at the Galeria Salon Academii in Warsaw. On show until 16 September 2022, Traces of Sisterhood exhibition focuses on contemporary art that incorporates fabric/cloth as a form of artistic gesture of sisterhood. The exhibition is curated by Eulalia Domanowska and Eliza Proszczuk, the TRACTS Science Communications Coordinator. It features artists from Poland, Ukraine, the UK and USA including Agnieszka Brzeżańska, Iwona Demko, Małgorzata Dmitruk, Kirstie Macleod, Bazyli Krasulak, Anna Nawrot, Eliza Proszczuk, Natalya Shymin, Monika Weiss, Magda Wiśniewska, Agata Zbylut and Stanisław Andrzejewski.
A related TRACTS COST Action meeting and interdisciplinary seminar on Traces of Sisterhood, was held at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. The outputs from both events can be found in the publication which will be released in 2023.
International Workshop, Zagreb, Croatia, 9–10 September 2022
The international workshop Radical Heritage: Tracing Resistance in (Post)Socialist Europe was held in Zagreb on September 8 and 9, as part of the Working group 2: Traces and social justice. The workshop was organized by Sanja Horvatinčić (Institute of Art History) and Rui Gomes Coelho (Durham University). The event was supported by the Institute of Art History, and the Zagreb Architects Association.
Participants: Nenad Lajbenšperger, Eric Ušić, Lana Balorda, Patricia Manos, Martina Bobinac, Iva Jelušić, Petra Šarin, Rui Gomes Coelho, Marijana Hameršak, Frauke Mogli Seebass, Inês Moreira, Nela Milić, Bojan Mrđenović, David A. Calf, Sanja Horvatinčić.
The program of the workshop & the Book of Abstracts.
From the Call for Papers:
How do people make sense of wartime remains in today's societies? How do heritage professionals mediate traces of war in community-based projects? How do contemporary debates such as epistemic decolonization, new authoritarianisms and nationalisms influence the relationship between heritage professionals and communities?
Participants of this WG2 workshop explored the role of materiality in the construction of heritage discourses grounded on the Second World War, and other 20th century revolutionary, military and social conflicts. We are interested in surveying recent developments in the multidisciplinary field of critical heritage studies, and in exchanging experiences across different methodological traditions with a focus on the concept of trace in the context of modern conflicts. This should encourage us to rethink the role of heritage professionals in communities that are dealing with the legacies of recent conflicts or exposed once again to the threat of unrestricted violence. With this workshop we want to explore the ways in which we can critically mobilize the traces of conflict to support and advance claims for social justice.
