Research and exhibition project (2018-19)

Like the universe, the realm of cultural production consists mostly of dark energy and matter. (1) These invisible masses and movements form from spontaneous, amateurish, autonomous, activist, self-organized, collective practices that play an important part for feminist cultural work. This is also a matter of the unpaid or underpaid labor of those who deliberately shun visibility or have no choice but to remain invisible. It is the invisible dark matter that keeps the cultural sector going!

DARK ENERGY. Feminist Organizing, Working Collectively explores feminist forms of organization and knowledge production in the cultural sector. It gives center stage to the visual, material and performative characteristics of feminist collaborative practices. It asks how these forms of organization and production are influenced by their general economic setup and what begins to sway politically in this context. Which forms of creative dark matter and knowledge can be practiced, produced, and disseminated when, where, and how?

The exhibition brings together a diverse range of efforts that tackle these questions in different contexts and times. Through the work of the participating artists, archivists, designers, and activists the exhibition provides insights from feminist, queer, decolonizing perspectives into the forces that collide with(in) art institutions and organizations.

Curators: Véronique Boilard, Andrea Haas, Nina Höchtl, Julia Wieger

Participants: Felicity Allen; Anti*Colonial Fantasies – Imayna Caceres, Sunanda Mesquita, Sophie Utikal; Chantal DuPont; ff. Feministisches Fundbüro; Martha Fleming und Lyne Lapointe; Vera Frenkel; Anne Golden; Althea Greenan; Minna Henriksson; Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński; Annette Krauss and the shifting team at the Casco Art Institute; lamathilde; Tanya Mars; Diane Poitras; Anne-Marie Proulx; Martha Rosler; Ego Ahaiwe Sowinski; Sekretariat für Geister, Archivpolitiken und Lücken; Vidéographe; Joyce Wieland; Aida Wilde

(1) Gregory Sholette, Dark Matter. Art and Politics in the Age of Enterprise Culture, London: Pluto Press 2011.

EXHIBITION BOOKLET (German and English)

BACK: Ego Ahaiwe Sowinski, Aida Wilde; FRONT RIGHT: ff. Feministisches Fundbüro, PHOTO: Lisa Rastl

BACK LEFT: Ego Ahaiwe Sowinski, Aida Wilde; MIDDLE FRONT: Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński; MIDDLE BACK: Felicity Allen; FRONT RIGHT: Anti*Colonial Fantasies – Imayna Caceres, Sunanda Mesquita, Sophie Utikal; PHOTO: Claudia Rohrauer

LEFT: Martha Fleming und Lyne Lapointe; MIDDLE RIGHT: Ego Ahaiwe Sowinski, Aida Wilde; PHOTO: Claudia Rohrauer

FRONT LEFT: Ego Ahaiwe Sowinski, Aida Wilde; BACK RIGHT: Felicity Allen; PHOTO: Claudia Rohrauer

LEFT: Annette Krauss and the shifting team at the Casco Art Institute; MIDDLE BACK: LA CENTRALE; FRONT RIGHT: Minna Henriksson; PHOTO: Claudia Rohrauer

FRONT AND BACK LEFT: Annette Krauss and the shifting team at the Casco Art Institute; MIDDLE LEFT: Sekretariat für Geister, Archivpolitiken und Lücken; BACK RIGHT: Anne-Marie Proulx;  FRONT RIGHT: Minna Henriksson; PHOTO: Claudia Rohrauer

MIDDLE BACK: video program by Anne Golden; LEFT: Felicity Allen and Althea Greenan; PHOTO: Lisa Rastl