Feminist Duration Reading Group

Abstract

Since March 2015 the Feminist Duration Reading Group has met to consider under-appreciated texts, theories and tactics from outside the Anglo-American feminist canon and to consider the contemporary resonance of earlier moments of feminist thinking, art and activism. The series started in March 2015 with a focus on Italian feminisms. Focusing on texts from the late 1960s, the 1970s and the 1980s, the group initially highlighted interlocking strands from Italian feminisms, including: the practice of consciousness-raising, or autocoscienza within Italian feminism; tactics of emotional and professional withdrawal; and the politics of non-assimilation. These meetings informed a two-day research symposium, Feminist Duration in Art and Curating, at Goldsmiths, University of London, later in March 2015. Following Feminist Duration in Art and Curating, the group moved from the academic context of Goldsmiths to the public art studio complex SPACE in Hackney, where it started to meet in August 2015 on a monthly basis. In December 2015, the public events programme ‘Now You Can Go’ took place across four London art spaces, building and reflecting on the explorations that had taken place in the reading group. Events included ‘A Feminist Chorus for Feminist Revolt,’ a spoken distillation of the monthly discussions and readings made by the Feminist Duration Reading Group, and gathered into a score by Lucy Reynolds, which was performed at the “Now You Can Go Seminar’ at The Showroom. http://nowyoucango.tumblr.com/post/133658780340/now-you-can-go-seminar At a public meeting of the group in February 2016, it was decided that sessions would continue at SPACE, and that the group would widen its remit to encompass other under-known feminisms, in addition to those from the Italian tradition. The group also changed the way in which texts were explored in the group, leading to the practice of reading together, out loud, on the night. A sister group in Toronto, developed by art historian and curator Gabrielle Moser following her participation in ‘Now You Can Go,’ was set up in June 2016. An exploratory working group, Emilia-Amalia employs practices of citation, annotation, and autobiography as modes of activating feminist art, writing and research. The two groups collaborate on resources, developing sessions in dialogue response to one another’s work. https://gallery44.org/events/emilia-amalia-working-group Moser and Reckitt discuss their exchange in the published conversation ‘Feminist Tactics of Citation, Annotation, and Translation: Curatorial Reflections on the Now You Can Go Programme,’ (OnCurating, 2016). http://www.on-curating.org/author/tag/Gabrielle%20Moser.html#.WFpCbenn35