The exhibition Female Intervention is dedicated to feminism. Assembling different artistic approaches, it creates an opportunity to discuss women’s position in our society as well as in the art system. The focus of the exhibition lies on feminist artist-collectives. In contrast to individual artists, collectives can more readily explore different possibilities and cross boundaries. With their collective authorship, the female artists furthermore counteract the structures of hierarchy created by the art market as well as the idea of the individual artist as a genius.

Unlike former feminist artists, who claimed their rights in a radical, but sometimes tense way, the exhibited collectives act in a playful and humorous manner, in the tradition of the “Guerrilla Girls”. This allows for a lighter approach to a topic which in times of gender studies, is still a subject of unease and prejudice for many women, including female students. The question of female equality is of particular actuality at the Humboldt University: For the first time a female scientist, the Jewish nuclear physicist Lise Meitner (7.11.1878 – 27.10.1968), will be honored with a sculpture in the university courtyard.

Female Intervention presents works of different media (performance, video, photography, painting, sculpture and installation) which examine female role allocation in a critical and humorous way, create awareness of discrimination, deconstruct the art system or widen the male dominated historiography by a female perspective. Additionally the exhibition presents documentation of public actions and performances by the artists. The interactive archive by the feminist group “ff” will create an alternative contemporary art library with a focus on female artists and feminist literature. Thus, the exhibition space of the Humboldt University will gain a studiolo-like atmosphere and invite visitors to engage widely with the topic.

The accompanying publication is available here.