Exhibitions

"Well-behaved women seldom make history," contended historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich in 1976, and feminist discourse enthusiastically adopted this statement. From its beginnings feminism sought to liberate itself from binding social mechanisms, by means of groundbreaking practices meant to subvert a reality of silence and compliance and replace it with one of speech and protest.

Much has been written on the subject of feminist solidarity, as a formative value that provides the political subject with a secure base from which to promote social struggles in various arenas. The concept of "solidarity," in its various meanings, has served in recent years as a framework for discussions in the feminist community. The call for solidarity is based upon the demand to dismantle supposedly competition in relations between women.

This exhibition seeks to examine the symbolic representations of women in the context of oppressive power mechanisms in the contemporary global age. These representations are often considered in contemporary feminist thought, which seeks to change fundamental structures in the relations between the sexes. This contemporary feminist approach is based on a radical critique arguing that the man/woman dichotomy legitimizes the socio-political disempowerment of women.

The trans-feminist movement addresses feminist issues from a transgender perspective. Similarly to other third-generation feminist movements, trans-feminism often examines the effect of body image and the oppressive and destructive power of the binary gender conception.

When we try to imagine a world that is not based on Western gender conceptions we are in fact treading in the realm of science fiction; since we must imagine a society and a history entirely different from those we have known for centuries.

In this exhibition, a common thread connects between miniscule, prehistoric clay figurines dating from 8,000 years ago, found at the Sha'ar HaGolan archeological site; medieval images of women inspired by Tarot cards; and the works of four contemporary Israeli women artists.

This exhibition explores the world of the hybrids as an alternative existence reflecting the fluid, unstable, and complex identity of woman in the contemporary cultural discourse, as described by prominent feminist thinkers such as Rosi Braidotti and Donna Haraway. In this context, the idea of the "nomad," used by Braidotti, is another name for the feminine.

Izabella Volovnik's exhibition addresses the concepts of taming and restraining, and the term "bitch" in a cultural context. The artist attempts to challenge the well-mannered atmosphere with images of sweet girls transformed into menacing predators. She asks: do women who reach key positions tend

Bulgarian artist Boryana Rossa responds in her works to processes of globalization and the transition of post-Communist countries to a capitalist economy. She succeeds in reclaiming control of her body and positions herself as a woman along the shifting axes of gender, nationality, politics, and economy. Rossa defines herself as a heterosexual woman with a queer identity.

This exhibition is based on Yael Meiry's artist's book, Doing Right by You, published in 2018. The book is based on an archive containing about 150 photographs, in which the artist photographed themself, the people close to them, and the spaces around them. As in other projects, Meiry uses low-tech technologies alongside digital media.