On 20 May 2018, “EXISTENCE – International Feminist Art Exhibition” was opened at the Art Space of Meixi Hall, Changsha. During the exhibition, curator Zhen Guo visited some of the participating artists.
This time, Zhen Guo interviewed the artist Franziska Greber (Zhen Guo referred to as “G”, Franziska Greber referred to as “F”)
INTERVIEW ABOUT FEMINIST ART
G: What make you want to do Feminist Art?
F: The exploration of contextual and gender-specific approaches to the issues and the collaboration in transdisciplinary networks allow powerful forms of artistic presentations of women’s rights issues. Feminism permeates all areas of my personal and professional life – including me being an artist.
G: Description of how art has educated you on Feminism?
F: As a young woman, feminist artists of the 1970s opened new perspectives to me in an exciting way – especially body images and at the same time showed the vulnerability of female integrity.
G: What symbol does your Feminist art utilize and why?
F: My installations are metaphors. They are understood as a visual expression of transmitted content. Metaphors are culturally connoted, which requires a review in and openness to possible change in each context. Metaphors capture different senses and allow the viewer to link them with own experiences, thoughts and feelings.
G: How has your art changed as your view of Feminism has evolved.
F: In the past, dealing with one’s own biography was at the center of diary-like forms of expression. The knowledge of world-wide discrimination and violence against women challenged me in my thinking and my various – also artistic – activities to take a stand and to contribute to new and effective ways of providing and giving a voice and rights to women.
G: Are there formal or technical elements which draw from Feminist analysis in your work?
F: My understanding of feminism as a “culture of a lively and critical discourse” has laid the substantive and structural basis for my international art project. Cooperation and participation are the anchor and installations with the texts of women a means of an artistic intervention.