Book launch:
"The Right to Truth. Conversations on Art and Feminism"

  • Book launch:

The Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw invites you to the presentation of the book "The Right to Truth. Conversations on Art and Feminism" edited by Oksana Briukhovetska and Lesia Kulchynska, published by Visual Culture Research Center (Kyiv) in collaboration with European Alternatives (Paris).

The idea of conducting a study through personal conversations arose during the Tandem Ukraine program from a collaboration of Oksana Briukhovetska and Lesia Kulchynska from Kyiv and Ségolène Pruvot from Paris. They wanted to hear from the women directly involved in the feminist movement and art of the 1970s about their personal experience and their views on the present. At the same time, they were interested in new modern forms of feminist art in East and West Europe today. That's how the collection of 20 interviews with female artists, curators, activists and thinkers of different generations from 7 countries (Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Czech Republic, France, US) appeared. This collection is a history of meetings and conversations in search of answers to question about role of art in transforming the world to achieve emancipation and freedom for all discriminated groups. It presents the first hand knowledge on the current feminist art practices and activism.

The book divided into three parts: “Art Practices”, “Philosophy” and “Art Institutions and Activism”. Art is presented together with activism and the activities of institutions and curators who work in them to recreate the atmosphere of mutual influence that exists in real life. Philosophical thought presented by the interview with French philosopher Geneviève Fraisse is what connects all these processes and puts them in historical perspective. The book is in two languages – Ukrainian and English and intended for international distribution.

From the preface to the book (Oksana Briukhovetska and Lesia Kulchynska):

“The truth is very closely connected to power. Anyone who allows themselves to speak on its behalf automatically rises above others, those who are wrong. At the same time, those who wield power have the right to judge what is true and what is false. Is it possible to break this vicious cycle of domination and subjugation without abandoning the category of truth?

The right to truth postulated in this collection is the right to question “correct” answers, and thereby the authorities that proclaim them, and to listen to oneself, to one’s own feelings, needs, desires and doubts. To listen to one’s body, which has an age, sex, complexion, skin color, social experience. The next step is the courage to talk about this, to put your “personal” in the public sphere. The truth of personal experience is always specific, and this particularity gives it the right to be taken into account. The realization of this right is the only way to equality and freedom as a practice of human relations.”

The presentation will be held by Oksana Briukhovetska, artist, coeditor and designer of the book. Zuzanna Janin and Aleka Polis, interviewed in the book, will take part in the presentation.

Oksana Briukhovetska

an artist and curator based in Kyiv. She has been working at the Visual Culture Research Center (Kyiv) since 2009. Her curatorial projects include, among others, the feminist exhibitions Motherhood (2015), What in Me is Feminine? (2015) and TEXTUS. Embroidery, Textile, Feminism (2017). In 2018 she was co-curator and participant of the Neighbors Warsaw under Construction X Festival . She writes artistic texts and articles about art. She works with themes such as physicality, social exclusion, and the status and role of women. She has participated in exhibitions in Ukraine and abroad.

Zuzanna Janin

an artist who lives and works in Warsaw and London. She works in sculpture, installation, video, photography and performance. The key themes of her work are space, memory, time and borderline situations. She contemplates social roles, their limits, and the place of individual human freedom in society. She has participated in many exhibitions, including the Sydney Biennale, Istanbul Biennale, Liverpool Biennale, Lodz Biennale, and 54th Ve-nice Biennale. Her work has been shown in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, among other places, and is in many collections and museums across the world.

Aleka Polis

a feminist artist, activist and experimenter, based in Warsaw. In her works, she uses video, digital photography, performance, urban guerilla tactics. She creates animations, documentaries, objects and manifestos. She also works in collaborative practices. She focuses on transforming life into art and art into life. She takes up issues related to identity, subjectivity, power, exclusion and social inequality. Between 2004–2014 she collaborated with OBIEG magazine, where she founded OBIEG.TV, the first Polish online TV platform showing exhibitions and other art-related events across Poland. She has participated in numerous exhibitions in Poland and abroad.