Gender & Space I

Artists: Anahita Asadifar, Josephine Baltzersen, Yeongeun Eun, Metin Martin, Em Schwarzwald, Stefanie Seibold, Huda Takriti, Kajetan Uranitsch

Curatorial Team: Metin Martin, Stefanie Seibold, Em Schwarzwald, Huda Takriti

Spaces can be real or imagined. They tell stories, hold memories, and shape perception. In this exhibition, participants explore how space – in all its layered meanings – can be disrupted, reclaimed, and reimagined through artistic and literary practice. As Pratibha Parmar writes, “The appropriation and use of space are political acts.” bell hooks reminds us that these acts are also deeply personal. Over the course of a year, the artists worked collectively and critically within the framework of the newly established field Gender & Space at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, led by Stefanie Seibold. What emerges is not only a body of individual works, but the trace of shared dialogue: reflections on how gendered structures influence the creation, presentation, and reception of art – both inside and beyond institutional walls. “Space” is treated as an open and fluid term: it can refer to physical exhibition space, social and digital environments, bodies within space, or space as narrative structure and frame. In this sense, the works on view inhabit and question multiple layers. Underpinning this investigation are feminist, queer, and decolonial approaches to space and representation. It asks: Who is seen? Who speaks? Who occupies the space – and on whose terms?

You find traces of our shared dialogue over the course of a year here.