Gossips, Defiant Muses and Camp SisterhoodGossips, Defiant Muses and Camp Sisterhood

The series Gossips aims to bring women together, to re-generate and re-perform the original concept of 'the gossip' as a support structure for women's ideas, thinking processes and exchanges. The second edition invites art critic Elisabeth Lebovici and curator Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez, and is moderated by curator iLiana Fokianaki. The event consists of two parts: 1) two pre-recorded lectures (available now on this web page) followed by 2) a live conversation on June 25, 19:30.

For this edition, Elisabeth Lebovici and Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez recorded their lectures online. You are invited to listen--and take notes--in preparation for the live discussion on Thursday. If you'd like to ask speakers a question or contribute with a comment, feel welcome to contact us at: thursdaynightlive@hetnieuweinsituut.nl.

Writer and art critic Elisabeth Lebovici discusses the collective struggles in relationship to art and activism during the AIDS era, addressed in her book 'Ce que le sida m'a fait. Art et Activisme à la fin du XXe siècle' [What AIDS has done to me. Art and Activism at the end of the 20th C.]. Curator Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez speaks about her research into collective activist and artistic practices in the second wave of French feminism, that culminated in the exhibition 'Defiant Muses: Delphine Seyrig and the Feminist Video Collectives in France (1970s-1980s)' at Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid.

A live discussion between speakers and moderator iLiana Fokianaki will depart from recorded lectures, understood and analysed through the lens of current events. The event will be livestreamed at live.hetnieuweinstituut.nl and on Facebook.

Elisabeth Lebovici is a French art historian, critic, journalist, and lecturer at Sciences-Po in Paris. After obtaining a PhD in aesthetics in 1983, she began publishing art criticism pieces, later becoming chief editor of Beaux Arts magazine (1987-90), and Arts and Culture Editor for the daily newspaper Libération, from 1991 to 2006. Lebovici's work grapples with gender and sexuality, as well as the relationships between feminism, AIDS activism, queer politics, and contemporary art.

Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez is an independent curator, editor, and writer based in Paris whose research interest spans situated curatorial practices, empathy, transnational feminism, slow institutions, degrowth, and performative practices in the former Eastern Europe. She is the curator of the Contour Biennale 9 (Mechelen, Belgium, 2019) and, together with Giovanna Zapperi, of the first comprehensive exhibition of the videos of French actor and feminist activist Delphine Seyrig (1932-1990) which will take place at the Museum of Modern Art, Lille, and Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid (both 2019).

The aim of this lecture series is to bring women together and to revive and reanimate the idea of 'the gossip' and 'gossiping' - originally a free space where women could develop and share ideas and thoughts. The series also sets out to collectivise the feminist discourse and to offer a platform where new expressions can be conceived and developed, expressing opposition to the terms used to define and demote women.

The conversation is stimulated by citing examples from daily life and sharing non-linear forms of knowledge, with the aim of breaking through sexist rhetoric and patriarchal responses. This series applies a feminist perspective to topics such as work, reproduction, intersectionality and activism. The series is curated by iLiana Fokianaki.