Feminist Duration: A Reading Group on Feminisms, Consciousness-Raising and Leave-Taking

Tue 06 Oct,  7pm 
at SPACE, Mare Street

Next dates are: 03 Nov & 01 Dec

This monthly reading group considers the resonance of earlier moments of feminist thinking, art and activism in contemporary life. Juxtaposing texts from the 1970s and 1980s with current positions, the group highlights feminist concepts of intimacy, communication and collectivity. The relevance of the practice of consciousness-raising, or autocoscienza within Italian feminism, is explored. Might a return to such tactics help us to combat the exhaustion, fragmentation and anxiety that we experience under networked capitalism today? What are the potentials, and pitfalls, of such collective processes of talking, listening, and analysing? 

We will continue our exploration of generative texts from the 1970s, this time focusing on aesthetic theory. We will look at Suzanne Santoro’s 1974 artist book, Towards New Expression, and an article by Rozsika Parker in Spare Rib about its removal by the Arts Council from a show they themselves had organized.

The third reading will be from Speculum of the Other Woman by Luce Irigaray. Irigaray’s ideas were taken up with great intensity by Italian feminists, including Rivolta Femminile, of which she Santoro was a member.

Please email for details and readings to: h.reckitt@gold.ac.uk and for directions: persilia@spacestudios.org.uk

The Feminist Duration Reading Group builds on the research symposium Feminist Duration in Art and Curating that took part in Art Department at Goldsmiths, University of London, in March 2015.  

The Reading Group is part of a series of events – some public, others more intimate and unprofessionalised – that will culminate in a weekend of public activities in London in December 2015.