9 Powerful Shows to See in Europe on International Women’s Day, Including a Celebration of ‘Defiant Muses’

Looking for a way to mark International Women’s Day on March 8?
Look no further. From a London exhibition that examines patriarchal
power structures, to a German show paying tribute to the women of
the Surrealist movement, here are nine shows around Europe not to
miss.

Joana Vasconcelos
at
Yorkshire Sculpture Park

What: The Portuguese conceptual artist
Joana Vasconcelos is having her largest UK exhibition ever in the
open-air sculpture park, as well as in one of its galleries. Her
work offers feminist commentary on social issues, subverting the
use of traditionally feminine processes and materials, such as
crochet and fabric. Highlights include the
monumental Valkyrie Marina
Rinaldi, part of a series named after the Norse
female war goddesses. More than 25 works will be exhibited
from the past 20 years of her career.

Where: Yorkshire Sculpture Park, UK

When: March 7–January 3, 2021

“Fantastic
Women”
at Kunsthalle Schirn

What: Thirty-four female Surrealists get
their due recognition in this exhibition in Frankfurt. More
than 260 works by artists including Leonora Carrington to Dora Maar
showcase the vital role female perspectives played in the Modern
movement. The exhibition includes artworks generated through the
exquisite corpse game that was favored by the Surrealists, as well
as manifold depictions of mythical creatures and subconscious
landscapes.

Where: Kunsthalle Schirn, Frankfurt,
Germany

When: February 13–May 24

“Masculinities”
at Barbican Art
Gallery

What: This major group exhibition of
more than 300 works by more than 50 artists explores
how masculinity is variously coded, performed, and socially
constructed. Through documentary depictions of the toxic
performance of masculinity fostered by college fraternities, to the
ever-unattainable body ideals promoted in bodybuilding, to
subversive and queer masculinities, the show offers a range of
perspectives and critiques. Works by female artists,
including Laurie Anderson and Marianne Wex, subvert the male
gaze and speak back to cat-callers and man-spreaders.

Where: Barbican Art Gallery, London,
UK

When: February 20–May 17

Pati
Hill
at Kunstverein München

What: The late US artist Pati Hill is
getting her first posthumous institutional solo
at Kunstverein München. Hill
was an outsider artist who worked with images and texts, often
experimenting with photocopiers, which were stereotypically linked
to (female) secretarial work. The exhibition presents
works from her cross-disciplinary output spanning 60
years, which often questioned gender stereotypes and worked to make
invisible domestic labor visible.  

Where: Kunstverein München, Munich,
Germany

When: March 7–May 17

“Portraying Pregnancy”
at the
Foundling Museum

What: This exhibition shows how
artists have depicted pregnancy over the last 500 years. From Old
Masters and 19th-century portraiture, to Jenny Saville’s searing
portraits and Awol Erikzu’s artful photographs of a pregnant
Beyoncé, the exhibition charts how social attitudes towards
pregnant women have changed over time.

Where: The Foundling Museum, London,
UK

When: January 24–April 26

“Defiant
Muses”
at Museo Reina Sofia

What: This show explores the career of the
20th-century French cinematographer Delphine Seyrig. As an actress
in French auteur films and as an activist feminist, Seyrig
worked closely with 1970s filmmakers including Chantal
Akerman, Marguerite Duras, and Ulrike Ottinger to unpack
traditional female roles. Other creative allies included the
actress and activist Jane Fonda and the poet and painter Etel
Adnan. A highlight of the exhibition is a 1975 series of
videos created with video artist Carole Roussopoulos and translator
Ioana Wieder, which later led the trio to found the Simone de
Beauvoir audiovisual center in Paris in 1982, which has since kept
an archive of feminist struggles in France and
beyond. 

Where: Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid,
Spain

When: September 25, 2019–March 23,
2020

Claudia
Comte
at Castello di Rivoli

What: In this show, the Castello di Rivoli
is presenting the first Italian museum exhibition of the Swiss
artist Claudia Comte. It includes Comte’s mind-bending
environmental installations, which embody the world as seen through
a consciousness shaped by the digital experience. Eleven
large-scale murals inspired by digital media, as well as
18th-century decorative motifs of the museum building, transform
surfaces into trippy optical sequences.

Where: Castello di Rivoli, Turin,
Italy

When: October 31, 2019–May 3, 2020

Ulla von
Brandenburg
at Palais de Tokyo

What: Ulla von Branbenburg has been
inspired by the theater for this sweeping exhibition in Paris’s
Palais de Tokyo. The artist has clothed the white cube setting of
the museum with colorful fabrics, consciously trying to alter
visitors’ relationship with, and expectations of, the space.
Through new installations, sculpture, performances, and films, Von
Brandenburg weaves a surreal narrative and invites visitors to step
into, and become part of, the exhibition.

Where: Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France

When: February 21–May 17

Love Song
Sing-Along
at KW Institute for
Contemporary Art

What: In “Love Song
Sing-Along,” Kris Lemsalu Malone, the edgy artist who
represented Estonia at the 2019 Venice Biennale, has her first
institutional show in Germany. Lemsalu Malone collaborated on the
exhibition with the artist and avant-garde musician (and her
husband) Kyp Malone Lemsalu. The show presents a new body of work,
a large-scale installation that spans the entire third floor of the
former margarine factory that houses the museum. Through sculpture,
ceramics, animation, performance, and sound, the duo stir up the
boundaries between human and animal, life and death, and silence
and noise.

Where: KW Institute for Contemporary
Art, Berlin, Germany

When: February 29–May 3

The post 9 Powerful Shows to See in Europe on International
Women’s Day, Including a Celebration of ‘Defiant Muses’
appeared first on artnet News.