“Mommies” – online events programme at Gallery “101”
“Mommies” – a movie screening, reading, and discussion program is an invitation to talk about motherhood, intimacy and care.
In a conversation with a writer Kate Zambreno, artist Moyra Davey shares a memory of her work “Dr. Y, Dr. Y. ”(2014). As Davey recalls, when she showed this artwork to her gallerist at the time, the artist received a shaming comment that the artwork could be matched to “the worst pieces of work of feminist art”. At the center of the photo collage composition, originally called “Ante-Partum Document”, is an image of pregnant Davey lying curled up in her bed, and a series of photos of the author’s defecating dog are arranged around this photo. “Why else keep a journal, if not to examine your own filth” – a laconic note proclaims.
The last decade has had an increase in texts and works dedicated to motherhood and femininity in the field of contemporary art. In 2015-2017, interested to examine why this topic started upsurging, we gathered a reading group in Santariškės, named SANTA FE. We wanted to talk about pregnant bodies, plump bodies, Turkish baths and women’s breasts, postpartum depression, as well as mothers watching their babies grow and their infantile nature fade. Today, it seems that there is still a lack of real and virtual spaces to share these experiences.
With this program, we want to start conversations about stereotypical representations that are often echoed in public spaces, although in reality, such divergent practices of pregnancy, motherhood, nursing, and caring for each other take place. Let it be a prelude to further conversations, discussions, new creative processes, the strengthening of communities, and the search for mutual political solutions.
Images, texts, and conversations: Beatrice Gibson, Vaida Tamoševičiūtė, Aurelija Maknytė, Rosalind Nashashibi, Vita Evangelista, Suzanne Lacy, Moyra Davey, Iman Mersal, “Heresies: A Feminist Publication On Art and Politics”, etc.
PROGRAMME
**Thursday, 8 October at 7pm *conversation*
Artists and mothers Vaida Tamoševičiūtė and Aurelija Maknytė in conversation. Screening of ‘Transition’ by Vaida Tamoševičiūtė (performed in June 2019 at the Contemporary Art Centre; video by Aurelija Maknytė)
**Saturday, 10 October at 6 pm *screening* Rosalind Nashashibi, Vivian’s Garden, United Kingdom, 2017, 30’’
**Tuesday, 20 October at 7 pm. *screening and a reading group session* Vita Evangelista, fluid, 2019, 30’’ + a Reading Group Session #1 (TBA)
**Saturday, 25 October at 6 pm. *screening and a reading group session* Suzanne Lacy, Making the Crystal Quilt, 1998, 39’’ + a Reading Group Session #2
**To participate write to galerija101@gmail.com. You will receive further info.**
Curated by Justina Zubaitė
Hosted by VMU gallery ‘101’
The programme is a part of gallery’s research dedicated to the practices of love and care.
It is partly funded by Lithuanian Council for Culture and sponsored by Video Data Bank.
