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MATRIX - Geschlechter-Verhältnisse-Revisionen

The inevitable starting point lies in the structuring of art by gender differences, as "the concepts and connotations of core categories of artistic production, such as 'genius', 'artist' and 'creativity', are gender-specific" (Anja Zimmermann). This fact has been analysed and examined repeatedly by female artists in particular, and since the 1970s it has become an important subject in their art production. Therefore the exhibition encompasses both works that examine the hierarchisation of genres and art techniques and pieces of art that question the concepts of authorship and gaze.

A central focus of the exhibition is on works in which artists stage themselves as the subject so as to demonstrate the current gender-based power structure and the inscription of social norms. A number of artists also explore the human body (often their own) and its visual representation. Works on sex that elude unequivocal interpretation and defy dichotomisation into "female" and "male" expand the possibilities for reflecting on gender relations.

The exhibition deliberately abstains from presenting a genealogy of "feminist art" as a timeline of development but instead chooses to place its emphasis on the motif of repetition. The works selected from the collection of the City of Vienna form a dense network of references in which motifs, questions and topics from different directions meet and form links and unexpected connections, only to drift apart again and sometimes also to contradict each other.