Content supplied by the European Parliament
The free art exhibition “Art HERstory - Female Perspectives in the European Parliament’s Contemporary Art Collection” was launched back in October this year during European Gender Equality Week and is now on display in the Parlamentarium until International Women’s Day on March 8th 2023.
The event was officially opened on October 24th in the presence of Vice-President Evelyn Regner and the Chair of the artistic committee, MEP Marcel Kolaja.
The exhibition is both a tribute to creative women and an institutional statement about the urgent need to give them the space and the visibility they truly deserve in public collections and exhibition spaces. The selected artworks embody important contemporary themes such as climate urgency, habitat destruction, the female condition, the sense of belonging, homesickness, migration, and other relevant subjects at the core of the EU’s considerations. Original techniques (Spinola’s use of vegetable fibre), materials (Rapin’s nostalgic yarn) and approaches (Binstock’s use of algorithms) as well as present-day concerns (Gross questioning humanity’s place or Montoya’s aesthetic destruction) all shine in the selection presented at the Parlamentarium.
Founded in 1980 by the first democratically elected President of the European Parliament, Simone Veil, this collection embodies the values and aspirations of the European Union. She was very conscious of the cultural and communicative power that art wields and wanted the collection to reflect the very best of contemporary young artistic production - a snapshot of the here and now of European visual heritage.
Forty years since its creation, the collection, which now boasts more than 500 works of art, is among the most culturally diverse of its kind, featuring contributions from every single Member State.
Sanja IVEKOVIĆ: Women’s House (Sunglasses), Josiane (2012)
The European Parliament will feature a gender-balanced collection of contemporary art in the future and this collection is one of the few that will explicitly pledge towards parity. It will ensure that the artists perspectives, histories and voices are respectively recorded, written and heard.
Art produced by women is not a genre, a niche or a style. It’s simply art. These women, simply artists.
Featured Artists
The artists featured in the exhibition illustrate the importance and relevance of female perspectives. Unique and subjective in their inception, each perception grows, through its artistic medium of choice, into a universally appreciable and appropriable story, moment, vision or emotion.
- Irma ÁLVAREZ-LAVIADA (1978)
- Alicja BIELAWSKA (1980)
- Viktoria BINSCHTOK (1972) Podcast
- Jasmina CIBIC (1979)
- Marta DELL’ANGELO (1970)
- Aneta GRZESZYKOWSKA (1974)
- Sabine GROSS (1961)
- Anna HULAČOVÁ (1984)
- Sanja IVEKOVIĆ (1949)
- Åsa JUNGNELIUS (1975)
- Diana LELONEK (1988)
- Martina MERLINI (1986)
- Gizela MICKIEWICZ (1984)
- Clara MONTOYA (1974)
- Emmanuelle RAPIN (1974)
- Julia SPÍNOLA (1979)
- Ritty TACSUM (1990)
The exhibition takes place in the Parlamentarium in Brussels.
You can register for free to see the exhibition here.
You can find essential information about the exhibition here.
And download the catalogue here.
About the Parlamentarium
The Parliamentarium is Europe’s largest parliamentary visitor’s centre.
Mulitimedia guides lead visitors to the heart of the European Parliament, explaining the path towards European cooperation, how the European Parliament works and what its Members are doing to meet the challenges of today.
The visitors centre is open seven days a week and entrance is free of charge and is fully accessible for visitors with disabilities.
The Parlamentarium has plenty to offer for all ages. Visits are self-directed, with the average visit taking around 90 minutes.
Please book your visit online or by phone (+32 2 283 2222). If you do not have a booking, you will only be admitted if there is sufficient space inside.
