It has been a century since women in Poland and Germany achieved the right to vote, but they still cannot benefit from equal opportunities. In the art world women are strongly active in different fields. However, in a large number of cultural institutions as museums and galleries inequality is still visible in terms of incomes and career developments. Art history is still predominantly male and women artists are underrepresented in most of the exhibitions around the world. Also in the contemporary art sector an improvement of gender equality is urgently needed.
What?
Joanna Szproch “Artist Talk: @smilefomedaddy”
Culture censorship/Patriarchal society/Female Gaze/Equal Rights
The photographer talks with a multidisciplinary artist and women’s rights activist – Anna Krenz and an art historian as well as a curator – Malgorzata Quinkenstein. The threefold perspective makes their discussion on femininity issues a complex and unique cognitive experience. It is an introduction to Szproch’s artistic practice and her long going project @smilefomedaddy, accompanied by a pop-up exhibition of her most recent works and followed by an informal discussion panel.
Who?
Joanna Szproch is a Polish photography artist considered to possess an intuitive ability for expressing ‘colour’. Her photographic style is marked by celebrating contrasts and a use of intense saturated palette. Her focus is a female character and she tries to blur the line between the innocent and the vulgar in order to find a true femininity. While trying to capture the ephemeral what she calls a magic moment, she follows her subjects empathetically to fulfill their urge to express their sensuality.
Consequently, the central component of her work becomes the uninhibited environment to self-exploration which she believes will encourage the viewer to do the same.
Why?
In 2010 Joanna Szproch started the photo project @smilefomedaddy which is just about to be published in a form of a photo book. This strongly stimulating story on both: visual and semantic level, is about the search for one’s own female identity within a classical, symbiotic relationship between an auteur and her muse. In 2012 the photographer relocates to Berlin and travels between Poland and Germany, to continue photographing her muse in the memorial places. It is a visual chronicle of both women’s inner transformation. Indulging in the synchronic fantasies they embrace their authentic and unconstrained power to discover something captivating, innocent yet erotic.
When?
12.06.2019 H 18.30
“Artists Talk” is part of “PolMotion – movement of Polish women” – a series of ongoing events held to commemorate the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in Poland and Germany.
The project is mainly supported by the Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung/Landeszentrale für politische Bildung and many other partners. More information https://agit-polska.de/wp/
