Naked Babes, Macho Feminists, and Queer Eyes. Curating Gender in Contemporary Czech and Slovak Exhibition Practice
Abstract
The following text analyzes gender aspects of curating on three distinctive yet overlapping levels. The first and most direct approach to gender, focusing on gender of the artist, materializes itself in the all-women and all-men group-shows.
Unlike this first category where gender of the creative subject is the key to the curatorial selection, the second strategy concentrates overtly on gendering of the depicted object, media, or methods used. While this curatorial approach also takes into consideration gender of the artist, it either tries to establish links between the gender of the artist and the theme he/she works with, identifies topics typical for art made by women and men, and/or seeks to analyze regimes of presentation and reception of gendered objects.
The third approach takes into consideration the previously mentioned levels, yet additionally to this, it is self-reflexive of the curatorial practice. It either stresses the problematic aspects of gender-related curating or alternatively focuses on the figure of the curator herself/himself in an analytical or critical fashion.