Reactfeminism

28/04/2026

26/04/2026

re.act.feminism #4 – archival chain reactions: between and Beyond Archivo Pinto mi Raya, re.act.feminism, City of Women

Exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova (+MSUM), Ljubljana
23. April – 13. September 2026, Opening: Thursday, April 23, 2026, at 7 pm.
Curated by Bettina Knaup, Iva Kovač, and Mónica Mayer.

featuring works by: Milijana Babić, selma banich, Laura Anderson Barbata, CADA, Graciela Carnevale, Ana Čigon, Diamela Eltit, Exterra XX, Else Gabriel, Regina José Galindo, Anna Bella Geiger, Lydia Hamann & Kaj Osteroth, María Teresa Hincapié, Ana Victoria Jiménez, Magali Lara, María Evelia Marmolejo, Mónica Mayer, Lorena Orozco, Giulia Palladini & Rodolfo Suárez Molnar, Polvo de Gallina Negra (Maris Bustamante & Mónica Mayer), Producciones y Milagros Agrupación Feminista (Rotmi Enciso & Ina Riaskov), Jesusa Rodríguez and Liliana Felipe, Maja Smrekar, Gabriele Stötzer, Cecilia Vicuña, Lorena Wolffer.

26/04/2026

What a great opening we had! Thank you everyone for attending!

26/03/2026

there will be a new re.act.feminism project opening in Ljubljana on 23 April 2026. More news will follow shortly.

VABIMO: 𝐀𝐫𝐡𝐢𝐯𝐬𝐤𝐞 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐳̌𝐧𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐜𝐢𝐣𝐞: 𝐌𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐧𝐤𝐫𝐚𝐣 𝐀𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐯𝐨 𝐏𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐢 𝐑𝐚𝐲𝐚, 𝐫𝐞.𝐚𝐜𝐭.𝐟𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐦, 𝐌𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨 𝐳̌𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐤
📍 +MSUM, Ljubljana
📅 23. april (otvoritev 19:00) – 13. september 2026

»𝒁𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒋𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒍𝒐 𝒛 𝒂𝒓𝒉𝒊𝒗𝒐𝒎 𝒂𝒌𝒕 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒐𝒐𝒃𝒓𝒂𝒎𝒃𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒊 𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒏𝒐𝒔𝒕𝒊, 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒅𝒏𝒐𝒔𝒕𝒊 𝒊𝒏 𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒛𝒖𝒓𝒊, 𝒌𝒊 𝒋𝒐 𝒑𝒐𝒗𝒛𝒓𝒐𝒄̌𝒂𝒕𝒂 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒅𝒏𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒊 𝒎𝒐𝒄̌.« – Mónica Mayer

Razstava povezuje tri feministične arhive – Archivo Pinto mi Raya (Mehika), Reactfeminism (Berlin) in Mesto žensk – ter raziskuje, kako ohranjati in aktivirati pogosto spregledane in krhke arhive umetnosti.
Namesto statičnih zbirk jih predstavi kot žive, povezane sisteme, ki nastajajo skozi sodelovanje, izmenjavo in kroženje idej. Razstava ponuja vpogled v feministično umetnost kot skupno prakso in poudarja pomen arhivov za prihodnost umetnosti in družbe.
Kustosinje: Bettina Knaup, Iva Kovač in Mónica Mayer

več>>> https://mestozensk.org/sl/dogodek/arhivske-verizne-reakcije-med-onkraj-archivo-pinto-mi-raya-reactfeminism-mesto-zensk

🟡𝐕𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐣𝐞𝐧𝐞_!

slika: Lydia Hamann & Kaj Osteroth, Admiring Polvo de la Gallina negra, mistresses of feminist art, Oil on canvas, 115 x 160 cm, 2016

Produkcija: cross links e.V. Berlin in Društvo Mesto žensk
Finančna podpora: Visual Arts Project Fund of the Goethe-Institut cross links e.V. Berlin; Društvo Mesto žensk (Mestna občina Ljubljana, Ministrstvo za kulturo RS) in projekt Culture Moves Europe, ki ga financira Evropska unija.
Nastalo v sodelovanju z Moderna galerija in Goethe-Institut Ljubljana.
Projekt je bil izveden s finančno pomočjo Evropske unije. Izražena stališča v nobenem primeru ne odražajo uradnega stališča Evropske unije.

27/10/2022

re.act.feminism at MANIFESTA 14 – EVENT
Tomorrow, 29.10.2022 at 6.30-7.45 pm

Bettina Knaup will be in conversation with Hana Halilaj
at the National Gallery of Kosovo

Curator and researcher Bettina Knaup is, alongside Beatrice Ellen Stammer, one of the founders of the re.act.feminism project, which began in 2008 with a first exhibition at Academy der Künste, Berlin. Bettina is currently researcher in residence at Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen (Austria).

The current issue "re.act.feminism #3 - polyphonies. interferences. drifts" was launched at Manifesta 14 in June, and includes commissioned works by artists Oreet Ashery, Ève Gabriel Chabanon, Eden Tinto Collins, Giulia Essyad and Anni Puolakka and Verena Melgarejo Weinandt, who were invited by curators Sofia Dati EVBG (Marie Sophie Beckmann & Julie Gaspard) and Suza Husse.

04/10/2022

We are proud to announce Ève Gabriel Chabanon's exhibition "Somatic Communism" at ISELP , which is opening on 6 October and will be running from 7 October until 10 December 2022. Her installation was instigated by "re.act.feminism #3 - polyphonies. Interferences. drifts" and curator Sofia Dati.

find out more about the event here:
https://iselp.be/evenement/somatic-communism/
and here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/797532115026074/797532125026073?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22surface%22%3A%22page%22%7D]%7D

Une surface de mycélium est cultivée dans une vitrine. Nourrie de matières en décomposition, elle fait naître des champignons qui se déploient graduellement en une infinité de réseaux.

05/08/2022

María Teresa Díaz Nerio! For their chapter "revenge ~ avatars and manyness*", artists Oreet Ashery, Verena Melgarejo Weinandt and curator Suza Husse collectively chose Díaz Nerio's anti-colonialist performnance "Hommage à Sara Bartman" from re.act.feminism #2 - a performing archive
https://www.reactfeminism.org/work.php?id=238

Their communal decision is argued in the downloadable zine {https://www.reactfeminism.org/revenge.php): Oreet writes: "In the works of [...] Díaz Nerio there is a sense of fabulation. Combining realism with magic, fantasy and horror. I see it too in Verena’s and my contributions. Perhaps because the extraction of land and bodies is a continuous horror story that is also very real. In all the works we have in this context the (political) imaginary isn’t only referencing the ills of the world we live in, but also to the world we want to live in by the power of myth."

and Verena: "Where I also see a connection specifically to the work of Díaz Nerio is in this creating of a relation to these people or figures or representations that is possible and impossible at the same time, a relation also to the way they were represented and how that shaped a cultural imagination throughout time."

“The performance and video work Hommage à Sara Bartman elucidates the life, death and afterlife of the South African Khoisan woman Sara Bartman. Under the iconic name “Hottentot Venus”, Bartman was exhibited in England and Paris at the beginning of the nineteenth century as part of a popular entertainment industry. The fascination that the Khoisan women’s genitalia and large buttocks (steatopygia) held for biologists was indeed one of the reasons why Sara Bartman was kept as an object at the Musée de l’Homme in Paris after her death. Her skeleton, a cast of her body, her brain and genitalia were on display until the 1970s, when feminists’ protests against this exposure succeeded. In 1995, Nelson Mandela requested the repatriation of her remains, which received a final resting place in 2003. Hommage à Sara Bartman touches on the fact that Blackness has a history of being performed in a denigratory way. The artist performs as a living sculpture, wearing a full body costume and remaining motionless, suggesting a helpless state of objectification of the Black female body – r***d, exhibited and voyeuristically illustrated throughout the centuries as another trophy for “Man”. In the piece, Sara Bartman does not depend on the audience to recognise her humanity. She is acknowledging herself in that historical context, only this time she doesn’t bow, doesn’t look, doesn’t dance, doesn’t play a stringed instrument, she just doesn’t." Quote: Teresa María Díaz Nerio

Teresa María Díaz Nerio (*1982, Dominican Republic, The Netherlands) studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and the Dutch Art Institute in Enschede and works with language, text, perform- ance and video. She often collaborates with Stefanie Seibold, creating installations and performances. Their combined interest aims at building spaces that question strategies of visibility and defer fixed areas of meaning in order to develop and provide new narrative structures.

re.act.feminism - a growing archive and exhibition project on feminism and performance art travelling through Europe from 2011 to 2013. With Archive, Exhibitions, Workshops, Performances, Talks, Research

04/08/2022

Eden Tinto Collins chose American artist Senga Nengudi from re.act.feminism #2 - a performing archive.
https://www.reactfeminism.org/work.php?id=259

Born in Chicago, Senga Nengudi (*1943, USA) grew up in California, where she studied art and dance. In 1971, she moved to Harlem and became involved with Just Above Midtown, the first Afro-American gallery in New York City, exhibiting with Houston Conwill, David Hammons and Lorraine O’Grady. From the mid-1970s onwards, she became known for performance based sculptures made from nylon mesh – tights, a woman’s underwear. At the same time she met Maren Hassinger with whom she started to frequently collaborate. “Hardly supported by our white contemporaries, including the women’s movement, we set out on our own” (Nengudi). In addition to her sculptural performance practice, she has invented a variety of personae such as the photographer Propecia Leigh, painter Harriet Chin, and the writer Lily Bea Moor to explore, ‘what’s in a name’, to subvert stereotypical expectations raised by an ‘ethnic’ artist name and generally to reflect the great significance of naming in black culture. Nengudi was included in "Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power" at the Tate (2017); her retrospective "Topologies" travelled from Lenbachbachhaus, Munich, to Philadelphia Museum of Art, Denver Art Museum and Museu de Arte de São Paulo 2019-2021.

Eden Tinto Collins was commissioned by Sofia Dati for her chapter no/thingness https://www.reactfeminism.org/no-thingness.php and she writes about the two artists: "With the energy of the cosmic void as a driving force, [Eden Tint Collins' work] "The Casimir Effect" prefigures an ungraspable seascape reminiscent of Ana Mendieta’s feathered body adrift in the waves (Untitled (Ocean Bird Washup), 1974), and hints at gestures from the performing archive of re.act feminism such as Senga Nengudi’s Ceremony for Freeway Fets (1978)."

We invite you to draw the connections yourself and visit the website following the above links.

re.act.feminism - a growing archive and exhibition project on feminism and performance art travelling through Europe from 2011 to 2013. With Archive, Exhibitions, Workshops, Performances, Talks, Research

03/08/2022

Let's focus on Yeni & Nan, the Venezuelan Duo active in the 1980s. They featured with two performance videos in the re.act.feminism #2 - a performing archive project, "Transfiguration Element Earth" and "Integrations in Water". We are proud to be able displaying "Integrations in Water" as a video within the framework of re.act.feminism #3 here: https://www.reactfeminism.org/work.php?id=254

The piece was selected by Ève Gabriel Chabanon who was commissioned by Sofia Dati for her chaper no/thingness. Ève's performance involves a process of cultivating fungi over the next few months Sofia writes that "the work embraces the transformative nature of bodies and identities and echoes the performance".

Yeni & Nan were Jennifer Hackshaw (Venezuela, 1948) and María Luisa González (Venezuela, 1956), who worked as a team from 1978 to 1986 under the name of Yeni & Nan. Polaroid photographs, installations, performances and photographs make up their artistic universe under the motto “the body as nature”. With a background in psychology and theatre, both artists were practitioners of martial arts and yoga, which guaranteed great physical consistency to their performances. Essential to their artistic proposals is a return to nature and a fusion with the cosmos. The processes of metamorphosis and the cycles of life make up their artistic imagination, which can be summarised as “one’s body as a body of the world”.

re.act.feminism - a growing archive and exhibition project on feminism and performance art travelling through Europe from 2011 to 2013. With Archive, Exhibitions, Workshops, Performances, Talks, Research

02/08/2022

For re.act.feminism #3 we asked the 6 commissioned artists to select a work from the re.act.feminism #2 - a performing archive website / archive.

Anni Puolakka who was commissioned by EVBG to develop her contribution Maitopuisto (Milk Park) https://www.reactfeminism.org/work.php?id=335 chose Jumana Manna's "Familiar", a performance to video from 2007: https://www.reactfeminism.org/work.php?id=221

Manna (*1987, USA) was born in the US, but grew up in Jerusalem and studied at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design and the National Academy of the Arts in Oslo. Her works, such as “Familiar”, reflect on human identity in relation to gender and personality as well as collective identity, for example concerning the conflict ridden situation of the Palestinian population. “Blessed Blessed Oblivion” (2010), for example, comments on the lives of young men in occupied East Jerusalem as a lost generation paralysed by frustration.She exhibits extensively: with solo shows at the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, and Berkley Art Museum, San Francisco, both in 2021.

Anni Puolakka writes: "I chose Jumana Manna's work 'Familiar' from the archive because, to me, it manifests so powerfully how individual lives are ephemeral – and what time does and means to us, to our relationships [relations = family]. The work is emancipatory, resisting the taboo of adult breastfeeding, which is a subject in my own practice as well. I wonder whether Manna's mother is an artist, as I assume it would be easier to ask a colleague for such a scene rather than a retired school teacher like my own mother. I also wonder how the public act of performing for audiences via the camera and the private act of having this particular parent-child interaction affected one another. I'm fascinated about how experiencing and making art can sometimes enable us, or at least me, to do things I wouldn't otherwise dare to do."

re.act.feminism - a growing archive and exhibition project on feminism and performance art travelling through Europe from 2011 to 2013. With Archive, Exhibitions, Workshops, Performances, Talks, Research